HOWTO Sync a Samsung A920 with Mac OSX
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Send to friendI've had my Sprint Power Vision Samsung A920 now for going on 40 days or so and for the most part have been very pleased with the functionality of the phone and the quality of service that Sprint has provided. I was able to get it to function as a EVDO device and surf the web on my Windows laptop but have yet to try to do so on my MacBook Pro (primarily because it just arrived).
One of my biggest gripes to date has been the fact that while it's a Bluetooth enabled phone I've not been able to get my Address Book synced over.
That is...until now.
A little background first though. iSync syncs with Bluetooth enabled phones using a standard called SyncML. Now it's up to the phone manufacturer to support that protocol and if they don't then you're pretty much out of luck. Samsung supports the SyncML standard on the p777 and p207 phone (I believe these are Cingular phones) but that's pretty much it. In other words this isn't Apple's fault. It's Samsungs.
So without anymore ramblings here is what worked for me.
- Configure Address Book to use the vCard 3.0 format.
- Download vCard Splitter.
- Install vCard Splitter to a location on your hard drive (NOTE: * Read the bottom of this post for more instructions).
- Open up Address Book and highlight ALL the cards you want to transfer to your phone.
- From the File menu choose "Export vCard...". This will export all the highlighted entries into a single vCard entry.
- Drag that single exported vCard onto the vCard Splitter application. This will split that single vCard into vCards for every entry.
- Pair your Samsung A920 with your computer from System Preferences-->Bluetooth-->Devices.
- Also make sure that System Preferences-->Bluetooth-->Settings has the "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar" option checked.
- From the Bluetooth Status Menu Bar select "Send File".
- Select all vCards that you wish to send to your phone and hit "Send".
- Accept the push from your phone (you should be prompted on the phone).
And that's it. You should now have imported the content of your Address Book into your Samsung A920 phone. Now this isn't by any means perfect (it wont actually import street addresses just phone numbers and email addresses), but if you have a fair number of contacts in your Address Book (as I do) it sure beats manually entering them one by one. The other downside is that it can be difficult to maintain later on down the road as after the initial import you're going to have to do "selective exports/imports" to keep them in sync. Also to note is this is a "One Way Sync" going from Phone-->Address Book.
Anyways, I hope that this helps someone.
(*) When you download the file you might get a "double .DMG file". In other words the Applescript file located in the .DMG you downloaded will also have a .DMG extension. You can change this by highlighting the file, press CMD-I to bring up the "Get Info" window. From there go to the "Name & Extension:" option and remove the .DMG extension and confirm.
Comments
Do you know how to transfer
Do you know how to transfer files between your mac and this phone? Send me an email if you respond (johnnyb@eskimo.com). Thanks!
utilities->bluetooth file
utilities->bluetooth file transfer. presto! transfer away. also available from the bluetooth icon in the menu bar (if you ahve it enabled).
Good tip, also works with
Good tip, also works with the PPC-6700 until there's a real syncing solution.
This works with the E900
This works with the E900 too! Cheers, you've saved me a lot of time!
Great hack. W9rks with the
Great hack. W9rks with the D800 also.
Thankx!!!
-P@
This worked like a dream.
This worked like a dream. Thanks!
Hi there - I found your
Hi there - I found your HowTo through google - i just got a Samsung d807 and I love it, but it does not work with iSynch.
So I have tried to follow your guide and I've arrived at the point where I am sending the file but my phone has a bunch of directories (My Video, My Music, etc) so I'm not sure where to put it so it works with the address book? I uploaded one as a test and let it go with the default but it just stuck in "other files"
Any ideas?
Tx!
Great information. I found
Great information. I found that transfering Vcards to my Samsung A640 required changing to version 2.1, just in case anyone is trying with that phone. Thanks.
Matthew, Sorry mate but I
Matthew,
Sorry mate but I have no idea. If Sprint would send me a d807 I could probably get it to work for you though.
Is anyone from Sprint listening?
Just picked up a Bell
Just picked up a Bell Mobility a920 so I'm hoping that, contrary to reports on the web, that Bluetooth is able to be used for file transfer!
Thanks for the tip but I am
Thanks for the tip but I am still having trouble can you help?
Thanks
Mickey
Hey guys, thanks for this
Hey guys, thanks for this great work-a-round.
Any thoughts on unicode, meaning an "umlaute" solution.
Since I am german and I happen to have a lot of people with german umlaute in my address book vCard Splitter ignores all cards including umlaute (in v2.1) and replacing the umlaute with nonsense in v3.0.
Greetings,
~Sascha
Just successfully
Just successfully transferred 87 contacts to a new Samsung A640 using this method. I followed Dan's advice to export the vCards as version 2.1.
One point to note: the OS X Bluetooth File Transfer progress meter does NOT show any progress during the transfer; don't cancel it, or you'll have a partial set and perhaps frustration!
Thanks! Mucho handy!
*Mars
Thanks! Also works great for
Thanks! Also works great for the samsung t519.
[...] Overall I thought the
[...] Overall I thought the Sprint Ambassador Program was a good deal although the Power Vision service quit working about halfway through the program and I never did give Sprint a call to determine what the deal was. I was glad to participate in the program and my post on HOWTO sync the Samsung A920 with OSX garnered approximately 14,000 page views. Technorati Tags: OSX, power vision, samsung A920, sprint, sprint ambassador program [...]
any idea on how to sync it
any idea on how to sync it so that i can send contacts from my phone to my powerbook?
THANK YOU for this tip! I
THANK YOU for this tip! I just purchased a Samsung T519 (Trace) and since it is not yet supported by iSync this vCard trick did me right. Much appreciated!
Hey, when syncing with a
Hey, when syncing with a D807, The only information that will be accepted by the phone is: Name (first and last), Mobile, Home, Work, Fax, and Email. All other information will be discarded by your phone. So if you attempt to sync and recieve "no number exists " double check your contacts and make sure they all have information under these categories.
Thanks for the HOWTO :-D
Also works with the E720!
Also works with the E720!
i cant seem to open the
i cant seem to open the exported vcard in the splitter app. it just will not open and says - would you like to close-report-reopen. anyone else having the same problem? or is there another app which does the same thing? iv looked on versiontracker but nothing! cheers for any help.
Thanks! It works for my new
Thanks! It works for my new Samsung D807 as well. vCard v3.0 works just fine on this phone. :)
Hi: Thank you so much for
Hi: Thank you so much for taking the effort to post this info. I wonder if you might have some advice. I followed your instructions and tested it with 3 addresses and it worked fine. But when I tried with the rest of my addresses it suddenly stopped working. I got a message on the phone (a Samsung d807) which had the file name (ie. the address book entry.vcf) and then said "Number Does Not Exist". It went through all the cards I'd sent, but didn't import any of them. I tried again using fewer addresses, in case that was the problem, but with the same result. Any ideas? and thanks in advance.
Simon
I'm with Simon in this
I'm with Simon in this one... any advice?
Hey Dan, Thanks a bunch.
Hey Dan, Thanks a bunch. like one of the posters, I'm wondering if there is a way to get all my contacts out of me cell phone and into my computer. That would be amazing. I tried fiddling around with it. but to no avail.
do you know how to sync the
do you know how to sync the e910 (Serene) with the mac address book... I tried every thing?? help please....
Can someone explain how to
Can someone explain how to get this to work with the t519? I'm able to get the vcard files to the phone, but I can't figure out how to get the phone to make those files into contacts.
That worked out perfect! I
That worked out perfect! I had been looking for something like this for a while and seeing how Sprint phones are likely never gonna be supported like GSM models, this is perfect for me...thanks man!
Thanks - worked perfectly on
Thanks - worked perfectly on a Samsung SGH-E370.
Great - Thanks! Worked
Great - Thanks!
Worked great with D830 as well.
The only thing is that you don't get a status indicator on the mobile that it is actually recieving data, and on the mac, the dialog says that it is still waiting, but it is receiving the data.
cheers
This was a great help.
This was a great help. Thank you for posting it. I was able to follow these directions and get all my contacts on my new Sprint Sanyo 8400 no problem this way. Let hope true syncing is on its way!
I too have a Samsung D900.
I too have a Samsung D900. I've followed your instructions to the letter but each time I try to send a .vcf file I get the following message: 'The file transfer failed: the recipient has stopped or refused the transfer'. I've paired the D900 successfully with my G5. I've activated Bluetooth on the D900, I've authorised the G5, I've made the phone visible and I've tried with secure mode both on and off. Any ideas what's going wrong?
Does anyone know how i can
Does anyone know how i can put music and pictures from my compaq computer to my samsung a920 it says i need a program but no disk came with my phone please help janice_d_w@hotmail.com
hi, i've tried it with my
hi, i've tried it with my d830 and it worked fine, as i wanted to get my contacts onto my computer. but the other way around: my mobile says "wrong format: xxx.vcf" and then "xxx.vcf received". but it didn't receive anything. not in contacts, nor in files.
any idea? thanx in advance.
kicks
I have just bought the
I have just bought the samsung D900 but i can not seem to isync it with my applemac.... does anyone know if it is poss? any help would be welcome, i just want all my contactys and my calender transfered to my phone!!!!
Hi! Do you know if its
Hi!
Do you know if its possible to sync the Samsung phones with iCal?
Thanx for the tip on the adress book :)
Hey, works for my wifes new
Hey, works for my wifes new D900. Great way of getting her contacts of the old Motorola V80 - which does support Sync ML. Can't help tatami - we just did what it said.
Does anyone know how to do
Does anyone know how to do the reverse? I have a new MacBook Pro and I need to get my contacts from my Samsung phone to the Mac address book. Thanks.
If anyone wants to do the
If anyone wants to do the reverse, try a program called OnSync. It supports a lot of phones that iSync doesn't. No iCal support though. Otherwise, you can also use the bluetooth export option built into address book to export your vCards to any bluetooth device without using this splitter.
If I understand well, this
If I understand well, this vCardSplitter is used just to avoid drag and dropping every card one by one?
To drag and drop multiple contacts from Address Book: hold Option BEFORE you start dragging them, and they will be copied as standalone vCards, not just a single one containing all the info (Why is this NOT Address Book's default behavior is beyond me).
Hope it helps. :-)
Does anyone know how to set
Does anyone know how to set th A920 up to be used a Cell phone remote conrol for APPLE Front Row?
for my d807 (Canada -
for my d807 (Canada - Rogers), I got the 'no number' message with version 3.0, but it worked with version 2.3
Thankyou It works well with
Thankyou
It works well with the A412
Better solution:
Better solution: bidirectional sync with iSync. Trick is you need to spend EU10 ($15 at the time of this writing) for the additional phone plugins.
See support Samsung phones and buy the plugins at http://www.novamedia.de/e_pages/e_produkte_mac_pp_is_samsung.html
I just did the trick with
I just did the trick with Leopard on a mac book to a Samsung sph M-500, a few tips... When you export your single file from your mac book address book, make sure its in a directory, because when you drag your single file vmc card onto splitter it splits them right where the file is located .. I first did it and on my desk top was greeted with 400 vcard files.. ARRRRG - so made a directory for my single file then dragged that onto splitter and worked well ... NOT perfect some contacts did not import - strangely enough they have a number and a name and it missed a bunch. )plus the ones that just had an email)
I used 3.0 and wondering if i should have used 2.1
Ryan
Thanks
This worked on mine and my wife's phones SCH-R610 and SPH-M510 from Bell Canada.
Great post, thanks much
ringtones
Does anyone know how to transfer ringtones from a mac to the sch-r610? I can transfer the files via micro disc but, then I cannot use the file as a ringtone. Thanks for any help!
File formats accepted by the sch-r610
Also, does anyone know what file formats are accepted by the sch-r610?
Much thanks
I was searching all over for a way to sync my wife's Samsung Blast (SGH-t729) with my Mac and I was running down dead ends until I saw this post. This work around buys me enough time to figure out if Datapilot is worth $45 to keep them synced. At least my wife can make calls now.
Thanks a ton!
Thanks You! This worked
Thanks You! This worked perfectly!
Thought I'd add...
This works with Samsung Blast like a charm!
works with the A736
I already had the cards exported from Outlook on a PC, so sending them worked great. The phone did chime once for each one of the 375 contacts I imported, so that got kinda tiresome ...
Fantastic. Work like a dream
Fantastic.
Work like a dream for my E900.
Also worked on my Samsung
Also worked on my Samsung Highlight. I loathe this phone, only using it 'til my iPhone is fixed. It is a shadow of the ease and built-in functionality of the iPhone. Why Samsung can't make this work out of the box with Entourage for Mac, etc. is very shortsighted of them and does not engender any good feelings from this cat.
Thanks. It worked on my
Thanks. It worked on my Samsung Rogue. Don't know why iSync didn't work though...
Have you gotten calendar to
Have you gotten calendar to sync with your rogue yet?