Migrate your Palm Pre profile contacts to Google Contacts for Free

[DrewPre]

Script to migrate your Palm Pre's contacts from your Palm Profile to Google gMail contacts. FOR FREE!

MvPre2Gmail



The script does everything mentioned at PalmDatabase.db3 File - WebOS Internals and is performed on a backup copy of the Palm Database, PalmDatabase.db3.

What this script does not do:
It will not remove the contacts from your Palm Pre Profile.
It will not remove the Gmail account from your Pre's Contacts App.
It will not migrate more than 3 emails or 3 phone numbers per contact.
It will not separate facebook, gmail, or palm pre contacts. It migrates ALL contacts.

UPDATE: Run delete_contacts.sql on your live PalmDatabase.db3 to delete all your contacts from your Palm Pre Profile prior to adding and syncing your Gmail account with your Palm Pre.

There are some error handling and checking to see if certain things are installed or not [root access, filesystem rw, sqlite3, and perl].

Some assumptions are made... You've rooted your Pre, Installed Optware-bootstrap and Quilt per webos-internals.org 'Next Steps'....[needed for ipkg-opt]


Would love for ppl to try it out and give me feed back. I have some ideas on how to improve the script further. I'll wait to hear what ppl think so far tho.

Installation/Usage:
1. download zip file and extract.
2. copy the file to root on the Palm Pre [WebOS QI or sFTP or via USB drive]
3. Log into Pre as root and make file executable chmod 755 MvPre2Gmail
4. Run MvPre2Gmail


I've also attached my googlecsv. This shell script automagically generates a copy of this Perl script. Had to give it a TXT extension to upload it. Remove that if you chose to modify and use it.

My contacts are all in the Google Cloud now!!

Credit for this script goes to Hopspitfire, DCPedit, and wsobel over at webos-internals.... PalmDatabase.db3 File - WebOS Internals

UPDATE: Added the line

print SQLDEL ".load /usr/lib/sqlite3_palm_extension.so\n";

to the MvPre2Gmail script in the section where the googlecsv script is created. Both files have been updated to reflect this change.

If you run, delete_contacts.sql [automagically generated] on your live PalmDatabase.db3 file, it will successfully remove all your contacts from your Palm Pre Profile!! You will NOT have to manually delete ALL of the Pre contacts one by one. PLEASE BE CAREFUL WITH THIS. Make sure your contacts are accurate and have been successfully uploaded to Gmail and run delete_contacts.sql prior to adding your Gmail account to your Pre's contact app.

[jbg7474]

So if someone could write a script to do this whole thing, that would be a great service. By the way, duplicates are not a big deal. Synergy will link them. So deleting Palm profile contacts is not necessary.

[myblackz28]

Thats just what im looking for. Now if there was some simple app that which a click of a button will accomplish all that, I would be one happy guy!

[Carioca_FL]

Originally Posted by jbg7474

By the way, duplicates are not a big deal. Synergy will link them. So deleting Palm profile contacts is not necessary.

Does it? I no longer have them since I manually linked those, but when I got my Pre at launch and ran the desktop migration tool, I had tons of duplicates that just sat there, unlinked.

Is there a criteria that Synergy follows when determining which contacts to link?

[varoomba]

I don't mind rooting my pre - but the above seems pretty complicated to me - and I don't know that I understand it all. I agree totally that this would be a great patch or application for someone to write - maybe one that simply exports a csv file of the databels and saves it on the device - or better yet ques it as an attachment in an email draft.

[JRH]

yikes....I'll wait for the app/patch

[Gaurav]

Since the output file is a cvs file, you could easily use that to sync with outlook, ymail or whatever! I would love if as other users have stated someone could create a script for this so users could export their contacts out of the Pre whenever they wanted. If this could be integrated into WOQI that would be awesome!!

[myblackz28]

Originally Posted by Gaurav

Since the output file is a cvs file, you could easily use that to sync with outlook, ymail or whatever! I would love if as other users have stated someone could create a script for this so users could export their contacts out of the Pre whenever they wanted. If this could be integrated into WOQI that would be awesome!!

agreed.

[DrewPre]

You know I love learnng new things, but I am clueless about scripts. Are there any coders out there that can show me a few pointers? Links? How does one get started writing scripts??

[DrewPre]

And I should add that the hardest parts of the above was deleting all the old contacts manually from the Palm Pre account [cuz the script for that, doesn't work] and also validating the csv file was accurate.

Those 2 processes took about 90 minutes. The rest took, 15.

[Gaurav]

<moved>

[edlex]

To move the pre contacts to google contact don't you just have to enter your google address into the contacts accounts and it will sync automatically. You can also choose which you want as the default palm or google contacts.

[bpdamas]

Hmmm ... I wish there was a way to move my google contacts to my Palm profile. Would a few minor changes accomplish this?

[cas_esq]

Originally Posted by edlex

To move the pre contacts to google contact don't you just have to enter your google address into the contacts accounts and it will sync automatically. You can also choose which you want as the default palm or google contacts.

If it was that easy, this thread wouldn't exist. Give us some credit! What you propose will only work for new contacts. Any preexisting contacts will remain tied to the Palm Profile.

As nervous as I am about this situation (especially since the Sidekick debacle), I think I'll give some webOS genius a chance to develop a patch to fix the problem. I don't trust myself not to screw up my phone.

[gizmo21]

Originally Posted by bpdamas

Hmmm ... I wish there was a way to move my google contacts to my Palm profile. Would a few minor changes accomplish this?

Well you could export your google contacts at google.com into a Outlook CSV, import this into an new outlook/entourage account on your PC and then use the Palm DTA to import it back on your Pre: Palm.com : Data Transfer Assistant (Windows)
BUT be sure not to link it google in the last step of the tutorial cause this would be rather ridiculious - hehe, use Palm Profile

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by Carioca_FL

Is there a criteria that Synergy follows when determining which contacts to link?

Same (exact) name, same phone number, same IM account, or same email address and they'll link automatically.

[thebenjamin1]

If anyone knows what the heck sqlite and perl is help! I can find them and junk but I sure as heck dont know how to use um

[amiroo]

exact what i was looking for. but i guess it would be much easier and safer to add the contacts manually to my google account.
Waiting and hoping for ann app for this.

[irateb]

Yeah, this is a great start, and like OP said, not difficult to do, but there is still too much manual effort even past these instructions. I assume exporting all the info out of the Palm Profile (like addresses) would be a formatting nightmare, and so I'll be manually putting those into Google. But at least I have most phone numbers and emails in more than 2 places now...

[liv2surf]

In Contacts, Google (with 1200+ contacts) is my default account and my Palm profile only has 2 contacts. New contacts default into the Google account. (so I guess my Contacts are safe -- I guess I could try to export to csv from Google.com and evaluate the output file). I agree with one suggestion above that it would be cool if programs such as PreWare or WebOS Quick Install or another app (in counjunction with USB disk mode export to desktop machine) would help us back up our data. I guess there are several apps for this including HotSync to Palm Desktop 6.2 using Classic.