BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[odell]

How can I transfer my CONTACTS from my Microsoft OUTLOOK on my desktop PC. I have a few different contact lists that I regularly use when handling emails on my desktop PC and would like to be able to use them with my playbook.

[TroyTempest]

Assuming we have a simple scenario like Hotmail being managed by Outlook on a PC...

Export Outlook contacts as a file and import to the webmail using PC browser. Then sync Playbook by entering Contacts app.

Leave contacts on webmail, if you delete them they will resync and be deleted from playbook. 

Using two separate clients (Outlook and Playbook) to manage the same webmail base will inevitably cause some conflicts, but the combinations are too many to describe. 

[odell]

I appreciate the quick response but that solution leads me to another problem.  My two email accounts, one is pop mail and the other is an imap (sbcglobal.net ), neither of which is supported for syncing contacts to playbook. I already have my contacts there and they will not sync. I suppose that I can open a new (supported) email account but thought I might be able to avoid that multi step process. Any way I can do a direct sync (transfer) from PC to playbook?

[rossjackson01]

Hello Odell

I sync my outlook with gmail.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6757472_sync-outlook-gmail.html

The above tells how to do such a sync. When Outlook runs you are given a choice of two calendars. Choose the gmail to work with and it will always sync back to gmail and then to playbook if sync'd to gmail, and vice versa. If you use personal calendar then it stays personal and does not sync with any other calendar.

I do not sync the email contacts with gmail. The contacts I use are for telephone. So my outlook and playbook calendars and contacts match. 

Hope this helps

[odell]

Thanks so much.  Of course this involves setting up another email account, as I do not use gmail.  I am currently trying this with yahoo.com, as my other email accounts (pop and imap) are not supported by playbook.  I keep getting the message that Cardev and caldev servers are down.  If yahoo doesn't work, I will certainly try gmail.  I really want to be a ble to use my playbook as a portable address book and have all the data sitting in my Outlook program.  Thanks again.  I'll let you know how it works out.

[TroyTempest · Accepted solution]

Take care, that article mentions a product that needs a paidfor app in the background.

I dont understand your comment about imap and pop. Playbook supports both.  Like I say go for hotmail now known as Outlook mail.  ( yourname@outlook.com email addresses). Simple to set up, no advanced settings required.  the clue is in the name  - outlook mail. 

Yahoo is evil

Gmail has worrying trends

Hotmail aka outlook mail is motherhood and apple pie.

[odell]

According to Knowledgebase KB30038 pop email accounts are not supported for calender and contact syncinc. And imap accounts are only supported with CardDev and CalDav (whatever they are). My two email accounts were pop and imap andwould not sync contacts.  So I opened a Yahoo acct. Today, found it supports syncing contacts, but all day long theCardDev server has been down and unable to sync. I may open a hotmail acct to see if it works better,  thanks again for the suggestion. Will let you know. How it works. 

[odell]

Finally opened both a Yahoo and Hotmail account and exported my contacts.  However I was only able to transfer from hotmail to playbook.  I continued getting an error message that the Yahoo cardDev server was unavailable. No such problem with Hotmail. I had hoped that I could transfer an Outlook csv file directly. Oh well - a workaround, but solved.

[badyen]

This is not a solution but a patch that’s causes a lot of problems. Duplication of all info in contacts and the calendar is a problem especially when you have to delete 400 plus duplicated names and calendar entries. Why not make this as straight forward as syncing my Torch. This problem has been needed to be addressed for more than a year. I did do a ticket with BB and they said it was resolved by having to use a third party. I feel that my information is better protected on my home computer, as we all know Hotmail, gmail and yahoo seem to get hacked often.