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BitPim: Transfer Contacts, Calendar, Pictures, Ringtones
OK, now that you have set up Bluetooth to connect your PC with your cell phone, or if you have a USB transfer cable for your phone, how do you transfer data between the two? BitPim is a great free application that allows your computer and your phone to share such data as: contacts, calendar, ringtones, music, pictures, text messages, call history, and more. It is also great for backing up this data, in case you lose your cell phone, or upgrade to a newer model. Here's how to get started with BitPim...
Periodically use BitPim's download function to backup your phone's contacts and calendar data. Now that you know the basics of BitPim, use it to add free MP3 and MIDI ringtones to your VX8300.
- Download BitPim and install it.
- Start the program and click Edit > Settings. Select your phone type from the list. (LG VX-8300 is supported natively.) Under "Com Port" type in the port your phone is connected to, the one that was listed when you set up Bluetooth. This will be something like "COM4" or "COM5". Click OK. (This should work with a USB cable instead of Bluetooth as long as you select the right COM Port.)
- Click the (i) icon or select Edit > Phone Info. If the setup worked, a window should pop up saying some information about your phone. If it didn't work, try changing the Com Port setting to a different number. You can troubleshoot by clicking "Log" in the left column as you continue to try to connect.
- Once everything is set up properly, click the cell phone icon with the green arrow pointing away from it. This downloads data from your phone. Select the check boxes for the data you would like to sync to your PC, click OK, and sit back watch the Log to see your files being transfered. Now you can browse your transferred infomation using the tree in the left hand column.
- If you modify or add data to BitPim (such as contacts or calendar events), click the cell phone icon with the green arrow pointing towards it, select the appropriate check boxes, and click OK to send it to your phone. If you modify or add data to your phone, repeat step 4.
Periodically use BitPim's download function to backup your phone's contacts and calendar data. Now that you know the basics of BitPim, use it to add free MP3 and MIDI ringtones to your VX8300.
posted by Andy Moskowitz at 5:10 PM
48 Comments:
I am not able to transfer photos from my VX8300..Is there any different procedure to do so?
Hi. Great website. Thanks for the help.
Some questions:
(1) If I want to put jpg's on the phone, what is the best resolution for them to be in before syncing them to the phone. For example, will an 800x600 look better than a 640x480 or will they be the same given the screen size?
(2) Do you know of any freeware program that would take a bunch of 5-megapixel jpgs and automatically convert them to whatever size (say 640x480 or whatever) that you suggest in response to my first question?
I have a lot of pix of the grandkids, etc. that I'd like to move over to my 1GB MicroSD card but wanted to "optimize" the pix for this phone first.
Thanks in advance.
Another question.
My wife and I both have VX8300s. If she take a pic on her phone, is there a way to get it on my phone via Bluetooth (thereby saving $.25 since we don't have a message plan). I know she could back it up to the PC (using BitPim) and then I could transfer it from the PC to my phone (using BitPim), but I was wondering if we could do a phone-2-phone transfer via Bluetooth without going through Verizon's servers. Ideas?
Thanks again for the VERY helpful website.
Thanks for the inquiries everyone!
lalitbohra: Expect an article on all the ways to transfer pictures in a day or two.
Anonymous #1: I'm going to address both of these questions in upcoming articles as well. Should also be in the next day or two.
Anonymous #2: Sorry, Verizon disabled the Bluetooth functionality that would enable this unfortunately. If you have microSD cards, though, you probably should be able to save your pictures to the cards when you take them, then trade cards and transfer whatever pictures you want from your wife's phone into your phone's internal memory. Try this out and lemme know if it works.
Syncing phone with computer i can suggest a better way to do,instead of getting bound to your own pc why dont you guys store and manage your phone data wirlessly with www.zyb.com , its free. I am not sure but i guess they also have a solution to sync outlook.
Phil
Everytime I try to copy a midi file in the ringers/sounds/mp3 section of BitPim I always get unexpected error and it doesnt copy. Any idea why it would be happening?
Try a midi file from a different source to see if the midi file itself is problematic. If it's a transfer problem, check the BitPim log for more info.
I keep getting an error message when trying to sync my calendar from my computer to the vx8300. It works from phone to computer.
what gives?
Well what's the message?
Great, informative blog. one question, can you do an article on tethering? (that is, using your vx8300 as a modem) thanks.
Yes, that article is planned, and it'll be coming soon, assuming I can get it working myself. (I haven't tried it yet.) :)
Excellent information here on the 8300. Maybe the Verizon reps should read it so they know what they're selling!
Question regarding the Verizon Mobile Office Kit. I bought it 2 years ago to keep my Samsung a670 in synch with my Outlook contacts.
Seems that Verizon does not offer the MO kit for the 8300. But you can download the software from SmithMicro and buy a cable w/drivers from anywhere.
Can you confirm and explain why they stopped providing the MO kit with this phone?
I don't know anything about the Mobile Office kit, but you should be able to import your Outlook contacts (and calendar) into BitPim and sync it with your phone from there. It might add an extra step or two to the procees, but I think it'll work pretty well. Thanks for the kind words.
Oh, looks like I didn't read that very carefully. If you still can get the software from the company, that's great. If not, BitPim should work in a pinch.
Andy - good recommendation; BitPim is good enough for what I need. It has some quirks when it exports 'contacts' from OUTLOOK but you can work around them and the price is right!
Thanks for the mp3 help, saved me lots of money!!! :) Grade A website!
You may already know this...but the link to "add free MP3 and MIDI.." as quoted below, is broken
Thanks again for a wonderful site.
RR
Periodically use BitPim's download function to backup your phone's contacts and calendar data. Now that you know the basics of BitPim, use it to add free MP3 and MIDI ringtones to your VX8300.
I strted BITPIM last night and it worked perfect. Today when I want to make some changes it wasn't able to comunicate with my phone.
This is the message I allways get "An unexpected exception has occurred."
I cannot use the program anymore. Please HELP me.
Thank you
Try reinstalling it?
Ok, I'm trying to get the "Free WAP Internet on the VX8300" thing to work.
When I use the Bitpim program to try to find "paramtable1.fil" it's not there but "wdptable.fil" is!! what am i doing wrong? I'm looking under the OWS directory too. HELP
Love the site, thanks a ton! Okay, BlueSoleil is working with my phone and it connects on COMM16... now, when I go into BitPim settings, I set it at VX8300 on COMM16... Then when trying to get any info from the phone, I get the error "Open of comm port failed...Error: Failed to open communications - 16...16: could not open port: (2, 'CreateFile', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')".
I have tried all other COMM numbers up to 20 and on auto. I also tried to "Find Phone". The only help I found in BitPim support was "If you are connected via Bluetooth bitpim will only detect the phone on Windows XP SP2 if you are using the native windows drivers." I think BlueSoleil replaced the windows drivers. I have SP2, a new USB dongle, and I don't remember seeing bluetooth drivers or settings on my system before installing BlueSoleil.
Help! (Thanks!)
-Mark
Mark,
I'm using XP SP2 and Bluesoleil as well, and as far as I know, no Windows drivers are involved. I don't really know what else to say to help you... other than I wouldn't expect "Find Phone" to be helpful. Maybe you should make sure your serial connection is staying connected? Right click on your phone in Bluesoleil, and then click Status. Mine says "Status: Connected, Paired: Yes, Role: Master, and Port: COM5(SPP)". I would say that you should try connecting with Bluetooth through a different port, but I don't know of a way to manually select this in Bluesoleil. Anyway, I'm really just thinking out loud, sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck. Let us know if you work it out.
I recently bought the Music Essentials kit and I was wondering: can I use the USB cable that it comes with to use BitPim to connect my phone with my Windows 98SE computer? I keep trying to use BitPim with my phone, but every time I try to expand one of the left menus after I connect my phone, I get a USER.EXE error and it crashes. I also installed the drivers that came on the disc in the Music Essentials Kit.
So what do I need to do to get BitPim to work: a different USB cable or different 98SE drivers?
How can I use BitPim when Verizon Wireless has it blocked?
i loaded all my contacts from my 8300 onto BitPim.
I edited the Groups my contacts were in using BitPim, then sent the data to my phone. However, the Group/Category entries are NOT updating at all. What's the problem?
Hey... is there any other link to Bitpim? The one that is linked seems to not be working. I've tried searching around the net but all the sites I went to linked back to the same one that didn't work.
Thanks in advance
If anyone has a data cable or car charger built for the 6100/8100 it can easily be made to work on the 8300. VERY carefully shave or file the CENTER raised tab on the plug. The plastic is very very thin here so be patient and do not shave off any more than needed. Works like a charm.
I've tried BitPim to simply make updates and corrections to my V8300's contacts... it does not work well, it updates some entries, but not others... no matter how many times I try. I don't get any errors... it simply does not update my phone like it should. Anyone else having these issues?
I'm having the same trouble with Bitpim as others. I can transfer contact info back and forth between bitpim and the vx8300 phone, but it unreliable as to which changes get transfered. In particular, I've changed names and associated groups in bitpim, but after a transfer from bitpim to phone, the changes are not reflected in the phone.
OK...after some playing around i was able to get pics onto the phone. However, when i extract the vids/pics that i have on the SD card onto BitPim, it reads as 0.0 kb. Also, when i try to transfer mp3s onto my phone...i get this error:
BitPim version: 0.9.08-official
An unexpected exception has occurred.
Please see the help for details on what to do.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "phone_root.pyo", line 242, in OnEditAddEntry
File "ringers.pyo", line 85, in OnAdd
File "fileview.pyo", line 968, in OnAdd
File "guihelper.pyo", line 158, in _busywrapper
File "ringers.pyo", line 196, in OnAddFiles
File "phones\com_lgvx8300.pyo", line 175, in QueryAudio
NameError: global name 'fileinfo' is not defined
Frame QueryAudio in phones\com_lgvx8300.pyo at line 175
origin = None
self = phones.com_lgvx8300.Profile instance at 0x04901D28>
afi = fileinfo.AudioFileInfo instance at 0x02E6EEE0>
currentextension = u'mp3'
If you want the whole error msg, let me know :\ (thats the beginning and end of it)
...i found out that pressing SHIFT while pressing the "ADD" button worked :|
however, i still didnt figure out the rest :S
Hey..i had the same problem...i was able to finally send the mp3 to my phone (so it said), but it's not actually on my phone. Any specific place i should send it to make sure i can play it? Supposedly it's on my phone, i just need to find it and i've looked everywhere.
I'm having a problem with BitPim on my desktop. When I click find phone, it never finds the phone and always seys its busy. If I try to do anything else, it freezes and seys not responding. I have the phone connected to the computer with a usb data cable and installed the driver. I've tryed to reinstall BitPim and restart the computer so many times, but it still quits responding when i try to find phone.
I have a laptop that I installed BitPim on and it works fine, but on the desktop it freezes. This computer rarely freezes and usally works good. Both computers have Windows XP.
I think I solved my own problem. While I typed my previous message, I had BitPim open but it wasnt doing anything. After about 10 minutes I clicked find phone, and it worked. I think what was happening is I clicked find phone too soon and it would freeze, but when I let it set for 10 minutes it worked, I think I was rushing it.
I tryed doing the free wap thing. Now my phone says no application when I try to play music can anyone help?
can you use the music on the sd card for ringtones
i tried many times to tranfer mp3 files to mp3 section. but it didn't work. it works on if i send those files into ringer or sound section. if anyone know, please post the solution. thanks
Thanks for all the blogs. They really helped a lot. My question is how can I send an mp3 or wma to the vx8300 through bluetooth? not with a microSD card. I downloaded the bitpim, but I can't find a way for my phone to play mp3s. If anyone knows how, please reply. Thanks
Hi! Thanks for all the advice--Very very helpful!
I have a couple of questions...hopefully this hasn't been covered before!
1) Is it possible to put in more than the default three alarms available on the LG 8300?
2) If I want to have my phone remind me of a date and time on the calendar and call me for that reminder, can that be done on the LG8300?
Hi! Thanks for all the advice--Very very helpful!
I have a couple of questions...hopefully this hasn't been covered before!
1) Is it possible to put in more than the default three alarms available on the LG 8300?
2) If I want to have my phone remind me of a date and time on the calendar and call me for that reminder, can that be done on the LG8300?
Sorry for the double Blogging, I was muddling around and since I am a novice at blogging I sent it twice! Here's to getting me into the new age of electronics!! LMAO!
Cadegennaro,
1) There are only space for three alarm clock alarms, but you might want to try experimenting with alarms on calendar events.
2) Actually, the first answer answers this as well. When you make a calendar event, there are "reminder alert" settings, where you can pick a ringtone to play before the event.
For all who are having trouble dragging and dropping or opening mp3 files for ringtones. If you are getting the "Unexpected Error" dialog box; You can hold down the "Shift" key when you make your transfer and the file will go into your ringer or mp3 folder. I was having the same problem then I found the answer in these comments.
Thanks for all the good information for the VX 8300. Thanks Andy!!
I am trying to transfer memos recorded on bitpim to my 8300 and they don't show up. My 6100 had both a notes and secret section, will the 8300 not accept this information? Thanks for all the great tips I've read so far :-) Bugs
The 8300 has a notes section, but I never had any luck using Bitpim to transfer text into it. You might have better luck.
Thanks for your help in allowing me to bypass this money trap that I almost fell into with verizon. I got one word for you, AWESOME. Then I got two words for Verizon EAT DIRT.
Ha, I appreciate the comment. :-)
Great Blog. I got X8300 for my daughter for Christmas and using Audcity created a ringtone from one of her favorite songs. I transferred it to the phone using phone#@vzwpix.com and everything worked great.
Today, she wanted another ringtone. Following the same procedures, I made another ringtone, but could not email it to her phone using @vzwpix.com. After a couple of useless calls to Verizon trying to see if there was a problem, I searched and found this site.
I followed your instructions and BAM!! Everything worked great. Thanks again for a great Blog.
I've enjoyed responding to your hundreds of comments, but I've finally decided to disable comment posting now that I've created a better alternative. Please use the VX8300 forums for any further questions, where they'll me answered by me, or any number of other helpful VX8300 users.
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