[mully]

Hello

We just changed alot of phones in our company and run into this weird problem. From old phones alot of numbers where stored as "telephone" in phone (which becomes "other" in outlook). However the other field is not being copied to new phones (mainly e66 and e71s) using mail for exchange sync method. Is there a simple workaround for this? Copying fields contact by contact is not a solution (over 10,000 contacts in total). Or is there some tool that that can copy fields in outlook (exchange?). Any help appreciated, thanks.

[darkhorsedre]

Hi, If I understand you correctly, the 'other' field in outlook does not copy to an equivalent or visible field in the new phones, and you want to copy the data within the 'other' field to say, the 'telephone' field (or whatever field that will copy to the new nokia phones)

If so, Im not sure of a speicific application, but I would do it in excel!

1) you could use the file-->import and export menu of outlook to export the contacts file as csv,

then use another program (or excel itself) to copy the data from one column to the target column (I'd test this with 1 phone first!)

2) use the export feature of outlook to remap the fields, on the last stage of the export, after you define the destination of the .csv file, you can click a 'map custom fields' button, although Im not sure if you can map the other to the home field (for example) but its worth a play as it only takes minutes!

Thats the simplest suggestion I have - obviously you can try using other programs to manipulate the text once you have it in an exported plaintext format.

Good luck!

DHD

[mully]

Thanks for the suggestion, but this will not work (I am just flat out too lazy to edit contacts for 18 people). Could someone tell me why the other field does not sync to phones? It did on the previous models so why not now?

[darkhorsedre]

LOL! ok, well I hear you on the laziness front, I thought you used one master contact list (re: 10,000 contacts).

Just remember that It wouldnt take long to copy and paste one column of text (other) in excel to another (phone), if the solution isnt forth coming in this thread (Ive reported a similar problem to Nokia support recently with custom fields not being synced with outlook and thats been an issue forever).

Good luck dude!

DHD

[mully]

Ok! After playing some with tools you pointed at, this will work and i guess i can get over laziness to do it. However i am too lazy to test enough which fields get synced with deviced e66 and e71 (latest symbian both i guess) with Mail for Exchange 2.07? Sure alot of fields do not get synced, as i tried some and none worked cept home/business/mobile. You also mentioned this is a reported issue to nokia? Guess they aren't doing a **bleep** about it then? It also completly puzzles me, how and why the numbers got synced from last devices "Telephone" field to outlooks "Other" field and now the other way around with new devices the sync does not work.

All in all, thanks for help, quite easy to change them in excel. Would still appreciate answers to above questions tho!

[darkhorsedre]

Well to be clear, I reported the issue of: When I save a number in my N73, and re-label it to some custom name (e.g. "mobile 2") that number does not get copied.  So its not the same, but similar - if Nokia looked at this issue in its entirity, they would solve all label related problems as they just need to define a way to handle all these different fields - its not complicated after all!

Hey I just saw more info in your last post - what version of outlook are you using?

Are you using the latest PC suite?

 re: fields, ultimately, what I saw was that there is a mapping between nokia fields and outlook fields.  On other programs I used for syncing to outlook, they got this right, so its upto nokia to decide which fields to map to, and I feel theyve made a mistake here, which is why I recommend you report it (!) but also work around it by mapping the fields yourself.

I would map them to the fields that you know work, It seems that Nokia map the simple fields (telephone, mobile) to the main fields in outlook.  Outlook has many number fields, but Nokia does not use most of them, as you have seen.

Im guessing that mapping all numbers back to 'telephone' would work for your old and new phones..

You can also search this forum/the web for a program called 'NOKI' - it allows you to read backup files and extract data... it essentially gives you export options, but also options to merge data into backups or outlook files etc... ultimately you still have to manipulate the data into the correct fields you need anyway...

But I agree, see what others say, I dont want you to take my advice as the only advice

[mully]

PC Suite? nooooo, Mail for Exchange for sync Exchange 2003, Outlook 2003.

Exactly, nokia needs a way to define in which field in outlook mobile 2 etc go.. Or there is one somewhere and i'm missing it?

[darkhorsedre]

Ha! Dude trust me, the custom fields go nowehere.  I found the problem as I was searching for numbers in outlook and not finding them, then looking in PCSuite or the phone and finding them under a customer label.

If you open outlook and use the column chooser to add all phone number fields, you will see that the numbers are not there, so they are not mapped.

So you dont use PCS?  just Mail for ex etc? damn, I have no clue about those

[marcoanttonnio]

I have exactly the same problem, normal (not custom) mobile fields like Telephone (Home) not being mapped to any field in Outlook. Maintenance became a pain! I'm currently dealing with a massive duplicated contacts problem and due to the lacking fields, the only places I have all the info about each contact is in the phone and (hopefully) OVI. Is there a way to edit the map settings to fix this problem? 

[mihaimatei]

Have the same problem, did nokia offered a solution ?

Just bought an iphone to test against my old E71..

I'm thinking of throwing away the E71 and not look at the E72 if issues like that are still not resolved

[darkhorsedre]

Wow! Look how long it has been and still no fix!!

This is why I turned my back on Nokia phones last year after ~14 years!

Incidentally my Blackberry does well with field mapping: RIM chose to map all fields in the phone to outlook fields to avoid confusion: this is the simple choice that most company's make when creating sync features.

Nokia should not allow custom/non-outlook fields without letting the user know that the fields will not be stored on outlook! 

You guys will have to stop using custom/non-outlook fields on your phone if you want them available for use in outlook or use outlook to sync contacts, until Nokia address this.

Good luck..

DHD

[darkhorsedre]

---

mihaimatei wrote:

Have the same problem, did nokia offered a solution ?

Just bought an iphone to test against my old E71..

I'm thinking of throwing away the E71 and not look at the E72 if issues like that are still not resolved

---

As you'll see from my last post, I personally chose to move on.. I've spent years waiting for issues to be fixed and most people believe that you should vote with your feet:  Why stick with a company that doesnt fix silly problems they create?

Let the loss of market share send them a message!  Many other phones just get these things right..