Help me protect my wallet from my razr

April 17, 2006 9:03 PM

I recently traded in my ancient cell phone for a Motorola Razr (*cringe*) phone. How would I transfer pictures to my computer?

I like using the little camera to remember wines I like when I go tasting and books I want to buy when browsing the store. How do I copy them out to my computer?

My phone is from Verizon and I bought a mini-usb cable and Motorola Phone Tools. I am able to sync my address book but not my calendar, pictures or ringtones (don’t really care about this). Has Verizon disabled this capability? How would I re-enable it?

posted by special-k to technology (9 comments total)

Verizon bluetooth phones are crippled. That being said, you can email the photos to yourself, but of course they charge for the service. Fuck Verizon.

Hopefully someone can help hack your phone.
posted by vaportrail at 9:13 PM on April 17, 2006

Look into Motorola Phonetools at their site. Worked for me with another Moto phone.
posted by mrleec at 11:05 PM on April 17, 2006

You'll need to hack the phone. Motorola Phone Tools is great, and I have it, but the changes Verizon made only allow calendar and contacts to be synched. Motorola has disabled the Bluetooth and USB cable file transfers, so no pictures or ringtones/MP3s unless you hack the phone.

Howardforums had the info I needed. I had already purchased a USB cable and Motorola Phone Tools on Ebay. I also needed the software that the Verizon stores use to program the phones (it's out there) and a hex editor. It involved downloading a 'seem file' from the phone, saving it to the PC, changing a setting, and uploading it back to the phone. Now I can transfer pictures from the phone to my PC.

Read the (incomplete) instructions through before you start, make sure you have all the files you need before you start, and take your time. It's not incredibly difficult, but it did take me a long time.

This will void your warranty, so proceed with caution.
posted by fixedgear at 2:13 AM on April 18, 2006

"Fuck Verizon." Agreed.
"You'll need to hack the phone." Agreed.

The second post down on this page contains a detailed explanation of what you need to do. It sounds like a real bitch and I haven't tried it yet, but I hear that it does work. However, as fixedgear says, it will void your warranty.
posted by purplemonkie at 5:52 AM on April 18, 2006

Why not just upload them to someplace like Flickr? Then you can just save them wherever.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:43 AM on April 18, 2006

Why not just upload them to someplace like Flickr? Then you can just save them wherever.

Because Verizon will charge you for the data transfer from your phone to the internet.
posted by rxrfrx at 7:29 AM on April 18, 2006

Guide to hacking the RAZR v3

further guide to hacking and branding removal

Those links have all the instructions you need and the apps to download. They helped me out a lot when I was looking to remove the idiotic branding from the phone when it was open and active. Goodbye, T-Mobile logo... hello, Space Invader!

They also cover your issue in pretty good detail. Check them out!
posted by kaseijin at 8:47 AM on April 18, 2006

Oh, the other thing: This is less Verizon and more about your specific phone, but the USB connection with a RAZR and MPT is notoriously spotty. Once you activate BlueTooth, invest in a dongle and do your transfers that way instead of by USB.
posted by kaseijin at 8:48 AM on April 18, 2006

Thanks, everyone. It took me about 15 minutes (including finding the necessary software) to hack and click one little box that has now freed my phone from Verizon's stupid restriction. I just copied out all my pictures!
posted by special-k at 12:40 PM on April 19, 2006