Import Sony-Ericsson vcf into Nokia S60v5

I just stumbled over a problem importing the contacts-exports of my old Sony-Ericsson device into my shiny new Nokia 5800. Both sending the whole phonebook via bluetooth or copying the backup to the phone die only import the very first entry.
It seems this is a common problem not only limited to Nokia, but also Outlook has it. (perhaps the multi-entry vcf-files by the SE-devices are invalid)

As vcf is a really simple text-only-format it's easy to split them into multiple files if you know the right tools. csplit is such a tool (Windows-user can get csplit with cygwin).

csplit --elide-empty-files --prefix='' --suffix-format %03d.vcf Contacts.vcf /BEGIN:VCARD/ {*}

This splits the file on every new entry into a new file named like "000.vcf" which can be imported.

Of course importing a large phonebook even with these files is a real pain in the... you know. Luckily S60 offers a feature to do a bulk import: Put the device into the mass storage mode and copy your vcf-files to the folder "Others/Contacts". Then just open your phonebook, goto options and select copy from mass memory. E voilĂ !

Comments

  • I used this for importing my contacts from an old Sony Ericsson to my new Nokia C5 and it worked. I only seemed to have an old version of csplit so I had to use:
    csplit -ks -n 3 Whole\ Phonebook.vcf /BEGIN:VCARD/ {160}
    Thanks for this manual!