IMPORTING CONTACT INFO ETC. FROM PALM OS TO IPHONE

Are you using the Palm Desktop application or outlook now?
If you're using outlook, the iphone will sync with outlook & transfer your info. If you're using the desktop application, you will need to import the data into outlook. Create a new outlook profile and enable it the palm hotsync manager, then import that data into outlook.

Try this first:

Click on Start > Programs/All Programs > Palmone> Pim conduit sync> Sync with outlook.

As noted, Contacts, Calendar, etc., will be copied OK, but If you've used the Palm 'Notes' tool, and have set up categories, there will be a problem.

The iPhone Notes tool is very basic, and does not understand categories, so all of your category information will be lost. All of the notes will be dumped into a single category.

coop

Hi I only have the palm desktop...is there any way of syncing the Palm Desktop program with the iphone. i.e. exporting contacts and importing them into the iphone. I haven't bought the iphone yet, but would like to.

John Thiessen

No.
The iphone will only sync with the following supported windows programs:

Contacts:

Outlook 2003 & 2007, Windows Address Book (Outlook Express), Vista Windows Contacts, Yahoo! Address Book, Google Contacts.

Calendars:

Outlook 2003 & Outlook 2007

You will have to transfer your info into one of the supported applications.


Welcome to the forums!

Also, how about exporting to do lists and memos from Palm? Any ideas about how to transfer those to my iPhone.

This Palm problem is really putting a damper on my joy about my new iPhone!

The way I moved from PalmOS to the iPhone was to get the info into Google Calendar and GMail Contacts, as the iPhone can sync with these directly. For contacts, this basically involves using Palm desktop to export the contacts to a file in a format that can be read by another mail program that can sync with GMail contacts. I used Thunderbird (mozilla.org) and a plug-in called Zindus (www.zindus.com) to do this. (I use Linux but these are also available for Windows.)

I had to do Memos manually (the iPhone Notes program is very limited and doesn't sync with anything - I originally created contact entries for memos and used the Note field, but now I use something called YouNote Lite, which you can find in the App store).

Don't know about ToDos as I don't use them.

The apps store has an app called Memos v1.2.4 that will allow you to download your memos from your Palm device into the program. Its a bit complicated, but I was amazed and delighted to find my memos downloaded in the exact format I had in my Palm Tungsten E2.

The apps store also has an app called Todo List 1.0.39 by Concrete Software that makes it easy to recreate the todo categories you are used to using in you Palm device, but you have to enter the todos manually.

For Palm Memos, you might also take a look at "Notebooks for iPhone", which imports your memos and keeps the categories and "Private" state intact.

Here is the website: http://www.alfonsschmid.com/Notebooks/NotebooksforiPhone.html

has anyone been successful in exporting the contacts file from Palm Desktop into anthing (outlook, google contacts, etc.) that can then be read (or synced) by the iphone. I have read the posts here but the custom fields in palm contacts to do not transfer in the methods suggested.... Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I had the same problem. Custom fields just don't transfer. I was very grateful to get everything else. I will do the custom fields manually.

I have been struggling with the same issue; I have spent the last 2 days speaking to experts both at Apple and Palm and in the end figured out how do do it myself. I managed to transfer my contacts to my address book by "exporting" files from my palm onto my desktop and importing the file into the Mac Address book which was really a "eureka" moment for me but it did not transfer my calendar or my notes.

I used MissingSync, which was far from ideal (e.g., data loss for your custom fields), but still probably the best option; details at http://pobox.com/~flash/postings/PalmOSto_iPhoneOS_migrationnotes.html