Transfer contacts, LG flip to Samsung, should be easy, is not

October 26, 2013 12:45 PM

I need to transfer contacts between an LG flip phone and a Samsung Android phone.

The old phone is an LG GS-170, and the carrier was T-Mobile. The new phone is a Samsung Rugby Smart, running Android Gingerbread, carrier is Consumer Cellular. I've requested an unlock code from T-Mobile, but I don't have it yet, in case that plays into this.

I like the new phone a lot but I can't figure out how to transfer the contacts from the old phone. I've tried swapping the SIM cards (no SIM Management options available once the old SIM is in the new phone), I've tried Bluetooth between the phones (the devices will pair but not connect), I've tried Bluetooth between the old phone and a laptop (same, failure to connect). Either I need to try again with one or more the above, or I need to try something different. Please help! I need these phone numbers. Thanks!

posted by sleevener to Technology (2 answers total)

This is the advantage of buying a phone from a reasonable brick and mortar store. Most of them have a gadget and about 48,000 different cables that plug into it that allow them to pull a phonebook off basically any phone in existence without a computer. You can buy such boxes yourself, but they're very expensive. You might try calling an independent shop and see if they will transfer the contacts for you for a modest fee.

Otherwise, this is possible but will almost certainly be complicated. If the LG Mobile Support Tool lets you download contacts to vcf in addition to upgrading firmware, you can use it to pull the contacts off over USB, transfer the VCF database to your new phone and then use vcardio to import the contact(s).
posted by wierdo at 3:04 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

It is not a great solution, but when I upgraded to my first smartphone I just manually copied all of my contacts. The nice thing about an android phone is that you can actually just enter them in google contacts on the web, and they'll sync down. This means you can use a real keyboard.
posted by contrarian at 7:00 PM on October 26, 2013