[febb]

First: I know what SIND is and that the device is supposed to create the "voice tags" (synthetic voice) for each of my contacts and that there is NO way on the E71 to record the voice tags with my own voice.

Now, once this is clarified:

I imported some contacts into the E71 contacts application but it turns out that some of them DO have the voice tag (have the option "play voice tag" and actually says the name -sort of-) but some other DO NOT have that voice tag.

i have not found a pattern (yet) on why some do have it and some don't. I have entered manually a new contact, which I am sure is not a duplicate of other already in, and it gets no voice tag.

For what is worth: after importing my contacts, I ended up with around 700 entries in the contacts app of the E71, I don't know if there are some limitations in this regard in the contacts app.

So, the questions would be:

1) Why is this happening ?

2) How to force the E71 to revisit all contacts and re-generate the voice tags for all ?

3) What is the standard behavior for duplicate contacts?  For two or more contacts with the same phone number? (a PBX number, for example)

Your comments are well appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[febb · Accepted solution]

Well, after no single replies to my post, here I am replying to myself for the benefit of the Nokia users population:

It seems (at least on Nokia E71, RM-357, product code 0553094 and fw version 200.21.118)  that the Contact software has a LIMITED capacity on the number of voice tags it can generate and manage.

I resetted my phone by means of 3+*+power button and restored a backup of my contacts that I had previously made to the 4 GB memory card. I had around 750 contacts.

After restoring the contacts it turns out that about the first 150 did have a Voice Tag generated (and hence the little "pacman" icon on each contact record, hence voice dialing works perfectly with any one of these 150 contacts (the firsts on the list).  Starting on contact number 151 up to the last one (744) did NOT have a voice tag and not one could not be voice dialed

Side NOTE:   The 150 number may vary a bit by +/- 10 or so, as  had some contacts with no phone entry (but an email and street address which are not used on voice tags, so, take this into account).  

I edited the contacts list, getting rid of old records (from many different parts of the list, not in any specific order) and ended up with around 180 contacts.  It tursn now that only the ones that previously had a voice tag generated kept it. The ones that never had a voice tag, well, just stayed without a voice tag.

I made a second backup of these new 180 contacts to the memory card, did a 3+*+power reset to my phone, restored the contacts from memory card and, voila,  now again, the first 150 do have a voice tag, the rest do not.

So, my conslusion so far is that the Nokia SIND software only supports the creating and management of up to 150 contacts with a voice tag AND,  once that 150 voice tag slots (lets call it that way)  have been used, they can't be recycled (i.e. for a new contact) unless the phone is reset and ALL contacts are restored from backup.

I have seen many posts on this discussion board describing exactly the same problem I outlined on my first post; even with other Nokia Models (and possibly other symbian phones), so, this workaround may solve the problem as well for all of you. Please post your results on this thread  -and if it works, some kudos would be great!    -

Can anyone from NOKIA confirm this ?

I'd appreciate any comments, opinions or, experiment results such as the one I did and explained before.

Kind regards from Mexico City.

[gregHere]

Thanks so much for that answer! I have the same problem and while its disheartening to know that such a lame limitation exists, at least I'm no longer wasting my time trying to fix something that I know won't ever work :-)

[febb]

gregHere:

Well, thanks for your comment.  I am really glad that the so many hours I spent trying to figure out why the E71 contacts & voice tags behave the way they do is of use to someone.

I agree with you completely. It is such a lame and **bleep** behavior that a "Business" phone like the E71 should never had !... how come this happens? is there no QA?

And, sad to say, this is not the only big bug I have found, in both the E71 and some other previous Nokia "business" phones I have had in the past, those bugs were never fixed and even were carried over to newer phones !

Actually, today I am wondering if I'll update to an E72....don't know yet.

Thanks again and best regards.

[popie]

Hey, Febb. My thanks also. I have had the same issue on my N78. Had no problem with the voice recognition of the 100-odd contacts until I stuffed up synchronisation and had to re-add all my contacts. Since then, voice recognition has been - most not working.

However, I didn't completely wipe and restore my contact list, so suspect now I've doubled up all my contacts and filled beyond the 150-mark. I'll try your solution and see how I go.

[febb]

Popie:

Thanks for your comment. I am glad my "research" (so to say), about the contacts and Voice Tags issue is of any help.

Please let us know here how it goes. 

Best regards from Mexico City.

[popie]

Hay, Febb. Can I just confirm what you mean by "3+*+power reset" - do you just mean re-boot 3 times, or remove the battery three times, or what?

[febb]

Popie:

What I meant with "3+*+power reset" is a HARD RESET of the phone. You do it as follows:

Press and hold the following buttons  * (star key), 3 (number button) and talk/green key.

turn on the phone and do not release those buttons until you see the Nokia boot up screen. once you feel the phone power up you can let go off the power button while still holding all three buttons. This will do a hard reset of the phone. Eraseing ALL data you had in your memory and resetting all your settings to factory ones.

Hope this helps.  Kind regards.

[popie]

Back again. Thanks Febb. The restore did the trick - my N78 seems to recognise my voice again for contacts. Didn't need the full re-set. Just blew away the contacts and restored them from backup. All good, thanks.

[febb]

Popie:

I am glad my "technique" for resetting the SIND voice tags for your contacts has rworked.

Nevertheless I still consider it all a  "limitation" on the software. Nokia should fix it, I hope....

Kind regards from Mexico City.

febb