Relocating from a Nokia to the HTC HD2

I recent bought myself a HTC HD2 smart phone. I immediately set about moving my stuff over. I ran into problems from the word go because my none of my online accounts are with Microsoft. And to add to those problems, I don’t use MS Outlook though I am a staunch use of Microsoft Office! In any case, the Windows Mobile platform was starting to make me feel out of place! A quick Google search realized that I wasn’t alone in my misery :-(

To begin with, I was faced with a few typical challenges:

1. Moving my contacts across
2. Moving any messages across
3. Moving any media files (ring tones, a few pictures, etc)

Both my present and former phones had MicroSD slots (A MicroSD card is pictured) which made moving media files pretty effortless. It was tasks #1 and #2 that was were really challenging.
Moving contacts
Moving contacts and messages between Nokia phones had always been easy. Initially I used the Nokia PC Suite application to export contacts and messages to a file on my hard disk. And then the same application to import them into the new model. Recent models made this easier. They came with a built-in “Phone switch” application that did this over Bluetooth! This made away with the need for a PC completely.
I expected the smart phone to be “smart” from the beginning and provide me with an easy way to make this happen. But apparently that was too much to ask.
Fortunately, Google, who has an impeccable record in such matters, came to the rescue with it’s Google Sync product – which is as usual free. You will need the following stuff:

1. Microsoft ActiveSync
2. Google Sync
3. A Google account

Before I began,

1. I backed up all the data on my old phone using Nokia’s PC Suite.
2. Configured my new phone to connect to and access internet over my home wireless network. This is an important step – otherwise this is going to prove to be a very expensive exercise because all the data charges you will pay!
3. Took some time to visit HTC’s support portal and update my new phone’s software. It turns out a ROM upgrade was also available. It’s just as well that I chose to do this beforehand because ROM upgrades end up wiping your phone clean. A list of all HD2-specific downloads and ROM upgrades is here.

Now the real exercise begins:

1. I began by exporting all the contacts on my old phone to a CSV file using the PC Suite application. This part was very easy. Select all the contacts in the Contact manager and export to a CSV as shown below (Click the screenshot to enlarge)
   
   
   
2. In a new browser windows, Login to your Google (or Gmail) account and navigate to http://www.google.com/contacts . Find and click the Import link
   
   
   
3. Point it to the CSV file shown above. Select the Checkbox for adding a new Group and click Import. (Click the screenshot above to enlarge). The tool should prompt for a new group name. I chose “Nokia_OLD” and hit OK.
   
4. Within a few seconds, I found my phone contacts listed on the screen. I took a few minutes to improve a few spellings and correct a few names. The tool didn’t make any mistakes, it was just that typing on a larger keyboard is a lot easier! I even used Google’s built-in feature to find and merge duplicate contacts – how handy!
   
5. The rest was easy. Installing Google Sync took a few seconds. I created a new profile in ActiveSync using my Google login/ password! In unchecked stuff I did not need – yet and hit Sync. In a couple of seconds all my contacts were sitting comfortably in my “People” list (HTC speak for Contacts).
   
6. I am sure you are thinking, what if I don’t want the complete Google Contacts list – but only those with phone numbers? Apparently you can set that up within the HTC settings. I didn’t bother because I was happy with what I got ;-)

I still haven’t managed to move my messages across, but I wasn’t too worried about those.  That’s it – for now.
I hope you found the above useful and accurate. Do let me know if this helped and also if you find any mistakes.