Database Info

Anyone know of some good diary software?

I hate to sound like a 13 year old girl, but I want to start writing a diary. Here are some features I am looking for in diary software:
Access from both PC and PPC
Text entry and voice recording
Data saved on the memory card
It would be nice if it integrated with Outlook Calendar
Any of you power-users out there know of any software that can be used to accomplished this? I have tried TodayNotez and though it seems to have what I need, it is slow and buggy.

Good Mobile Diary??
larsuck said:
I hate to sound like a 13 year old girl, but I want to start writing a diary. Here are some features I am looking for in diary software:
Access from both PC and PPC
Text entry and voice recording
Data saved on the memory card
It would be nice if it integrated with Outlook Calendar
Any of you power-users out there know of any software that can be used to accomplished this? I have tried TodayNotez and though it seems to have what I need, it is slow and buggy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I have been looking for this same thing, haven't found anything I like - same experience with TodayNotez.
On my PC I use iDailyDiary Professional (there is a free basic version) which is awesome. AFAIK they don't have a Windows Mobile version.
For voice notes on my Tilt, I use Vito AudioNotes - like it a lot. Basically now I use it to make notes to myself, then play them back while I'm at my PC and put personal thoughts into iDailyDiary.
Noticed your signature line "Is it just me, or do we all spend so much time flashing and tweaking the perfect phone that, once we finish, we have no one left willing to call us." - yeah, seems like many of us spend a lot of time tweaking and flashing - would like to see more interest and attention devoted to actually using the phone - good basic useful apps - how to use them to their max potential, ways to use the pocket pc to improve our daily lives, etc.

Check this
http://www.pocketkai.net/asp/
Multimedia Tagebuch
The only thing is I don´t know if it will support english. I am german and it does everything you´ve been looking for.

Good Mobile Diary??
mannheimguitar said:
http://www.pocketkai.net/asp/
Multimedia Tagebuch
The only thing is I don´t know if it will support english. I am german and it does everything you´ve been looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lot of cool stuff at that site. I don't see any program that is actually a diary, however. Maybe I overlooked it. Seems like a very friendly site - takes requests/suggestions so I put one in.

Did you consdier maybe some sort of Online Program like Twitter?

What about Microsoft Onenote. PC and PPC side, have a button in Outlook on pc and also on IE, can take recordings, pictures, etc...

Thanks for the great suggestions everybody! But keep 'em coming'!
BTW, that Kai fellow really makes a lot of software, doesn't he? He must have a hundred programs for sale on that site of his. His diary software looks good, but it doesn't seem to be able to record directly from the program itself. A picky thing I know.
Twitter and blogs of all sorts are unfortunately blocked by my school's proxy.
One Note sounds promising, but US$99 is a bit more than I was willing to part with. Perhaps my school has a copy somewhere...
Has anyone out there tried Alpha Journal and Alpha Pocket Journal? Seems a bit old, but sometimes that isn't such a bad thing.

Confidential Notes and Private Notes
I just found 2 programs, Confidential Notes and Private Notes, here
They both have password protection, and both allow combo notes with audio and pictures. Haven't purchased either yet; trial available for Confidential Notes but not for Private Notes.
Found these by searching for "password protected notes for windows mobile" which took me to this review of Confidential Notes at clintonfitch.com. Following that I found that the developer says it has been discontinued, but as you can see above, it is still for sale at PocketGear.
I think it might work well as kind of a free-form diary. I can insert time and date with Resco keyboard for any new entry.

Check out evernote. They have a tech preview of the winmobile version that just rocks!
I use my sd card in my pda and then use the same database from my pda for my desktop installer version. It is by far the best journaling program I have ever found.
www.evernote.com

As the OP, I felt a responsibility to follow up with my thoughts about all the different great suggestions everyone made.
TodayNotez: As mentioned before, this has everything I was looking for, but was sloooow to open even when the database was in the main memory. I have a feeling .NET is to blame here, and if the makers could program this in another language to improve speed then they would have a real winner on their hands.
Kai's multimedia diary: Interesting software. Instead of allowing one to take pictures or record memos as part of a diary, this software allows pre-recorded media to be attached to diary entries.
Online programs like Twitter (or any blog/social software): Would work great if my situation allowed access to social websites. Also, for the most part these sites require a active connection to the internet to add and edit posts, which could get expensive if using a mobile data connection.
OneNote: This would probably work great if I could get my hands on a copy of the PC software for a reasonable price. Ahem.
Confiential Notes and Private Notes (et.al.): These kinds of software were good for what they were, but their strengths were in encryption and password protection. Confidential Notes didn't even have an option to turn off password protection. It had two settings: Secure and Paranoid. Neither of these had desktop sync as far as I could tell.
What I finally settled on was a Outlook Journal editing/syncronizing software called Retroactive. It is a little slow, is kind of touchy, isn't free, but has a lot going for it. If you are familiary with the Journal aspect of Outlook then you know that it is like the blank sheet of paper in a DayPlanner. You can write about how the events of that day went.
Journal entries created in Outlook or Retroactive can be linked to other Outlook items such as appointments, tasks, contacts or notes. Also, it is possible to record and add voice notes and pictures directly from the app. Lastly, the best part is the sync capabilities. Everything is synced with the PCs version of Outlook, including linked Outlook items, voice memos and pictures. Attached files that exceed a user-defined size can be automatically removed from the PPC after syncronization to keep memory space free. Lastly, there is an option to have all content uploaded to your Blogger account using your PC's internet connection. This is what I settled on.
I hope this thread helps someone else out someday.

Thanks for good info. but i need help
larsuck said:
As the OP, I felt a responsibility to follow up with my thoughts about all the different great suggestions everyone made.
TodayNotez: As mentioned before, this has everything I was looking for, but was sloooow to open even when the database was in the main memory. I have a feeling .NET is to blame here, and if the makers could program this in another language to improve speed then they would have a real winner on their hands.
Kai's multimedia diary: Interesting software. Instead of allowing one to take pictures or record memos as part of a diary, this software allows pre-recorded media to be attached to diary entries.
Online programs like Twitter (or any blog/social software): Would work great if my situation allowed access to social websites. Also, for the most part these sites require a active connection to the internet to add and edit posts, which could get expensive if using a mobile data connection.
OneNote: This would probably work great if I could get my hands on a copy of the PC software for a reasonable price. Ahem.
Confiential Notes and Private Notes (et.al.): These kinds of software were good for what they were, but their strengths were in encryption and password protection. Confidential Notes didn't even have an option to turn off password protection. It had two settings: Secure and Paranoid. Neither of these had desktop sync as far as I could tell.
What I finally settled on was a Outlook Journal editing/syncronizing software called Retroactive. It is a little slow, is kind of touchy, isn't free, but has a lot going for it. If you are familiary with the Journal aspect of Outlook then you know that it is like the blank sheet of paper in a DayPlanner. You can write about how the events of that day went.
Journal entries created in Outlook or Retroactive can be linked to other Outlook items such as appointments, tasks, contacts or notes. Also, it is possible to record and add voice notes and pictures directly from the app. Lastly, the best part is the sync capabilities. Everything is synced with the PCs version of Outlook, including linked Outlook items, voice memos and pictures. Attached files that exceed a user-defined size can be automatically removed from the PPC after syncronization to keep memory space free. Lastly, there is an option to have all content uploaded to your Blogger account using your PC's internet connection. This is what I settled on.
I hope this thread helps someone else out someday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is not retroactive free?

HOEROFOREVERINTHESUN said:
Why is not retroactive free?
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Probably because that software is the only one that can do what it does. It is good software, and probably wasn't too easy to make.

Thanks Kururu that was a great find, I've been looking for a decent journal software program, I just needed something that could take entries and sort them properly by date without having a ton of text files lying around my docs folder. I.e. -- something like Outlook's journal function.
I tried everything and screwed up a lot but Retroactive fit the bill almost perfectly. The only drawback is it takes forever to loadup.

Guys, guys... Unless you want to be seen as a 12 year old girl, it's a memoire, not a diary.

Deleted ALL Activesync data! Please help asap!!

Oh no... I don't know what I did but I did something wrong as I lost all my calendar entries, phone numbers and tasks etc.
I installed a new Windows XP version on my desktop and then Activesync, plugged my HTC TytnII to the USB-cable and pressed OK to everything (I know, I was too tired) and I think I accidentally DELETED the old partnership.
Now I'm searching for an old version of the Outlook.pst with RecoverMyFiles application, but is there a way to search the HTC TytnII for some remains of the data?
I simply depend on my contacts, calendar entries and tasks... lots of business related material in them Please help in any way you can.

I'm sorry men, My bother just did that, and had no backup..
"the most outrageous thing".. for the company to give with phone a Trial version of sync application(outlook), that stops wotking after 30, 60 days, and then you have USELESS device, that after any kind of malfunction DESTROYS LITERALLY Your Entire AGENDA, Contacts, calendar......
I'd like to Quote that sentence:
"That fact that it could be erased without any interaction from the user seems like programming incompetence that surpasses even Microsoft's ability to screw things up."
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/forum/topic/29672
I Agree, Phone is supposed to be an APPLIANCE, Not WINDOWS pc braking up untill SP3 comes out!, No Automatic backup in a device??!! of the most vital data>?.. i have no will power to write about it now..
I Know some companies ARE Making up for M$ Mistakes, like HTC giving their own version of backup tool... Yet it should be hardcoded in system to make backups REGARDLESS of User interaction, kind of like system restore""
I Have also lost some important data, and found me a PIM Backup. works very well.
free, does the job MICROSOFT already TOOK Money from us to do and FAILED...miserably.
Unfortunately for MANY of "newcomers" that happens.. tired, late night, and ALL Your "life" essential data GONE!!, thanks to Activesync.. microsoft, and Bill G.
PARALYSED!!
Ech..
Seems, that nothing can be done AT ALL to get those back, unless you have copied or backed up your PIM.vol file by accident..
"NO, no system restore for PocketPC this time".. that SUCKS BIG TIME< .. Just like VISTA..
It's like selling a security box with only ONE KEY, so, when you'll brake it there will be NO WAY to recover contents of it..
"we" Have basically NO choice whatsoever to purchase alternative "security box", since like 60% or more(?) of mobile devices are WM devices..
I'm still trying to digg deeper into database structure to find any sort of way to reverse removal of records in database, or to find a log in which each operation done on database is being stored..
SLimmm chance?..
Worth taking to help The Brother out.. ;-)
Take care, and back up your PC, Microwave, fridge, "Ipod" and a car computer contents.. before it will get lost in a cyberspace "owned by M$"..

johniemi said:
Oh no... I don't know what I did but I did something wrong as I lost all my calendar entries, phone numbers and tasks etc.
I installed a new Windows XP version on my desktop and then Activesync, plugged my HTC TytnII to the USB-cable and pressed OK to everything (I know, I was too tired) and I think I accidentally DELETED the old partnership.
Now I'm searching for an old version of the Outlook.pst with RecoverMyFiles application, but is there a way to search the HTC TytnII for some remains of the data?
I simply depend on my contacts, calendar entries and tasks... lots of business related material in them Please help in any way you can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what you wrote it sounds like all you did was delete the partnership, right? What is on your phone currently?

Yes, I deleted the partnership and my phone is currently blank. No contacts, no calendar entries... nothing

Are you using Exchange Server to connect to, or just your Windows XP box that downloads something like POP3 mail ?
If you use exchange server, your data is not lost, all you gotta do is re-establish a partnership with your Exchange Server.
If you reinstalled XP without making a *.PST export of all your Outlook files, and your PDA is now empty, you are pretty much screwed, sorry.
What you might be able to do (if your mail is hosted somewhere and you download via POP/IMAP, is get your XP box to connect to the POP3 service, get your mail, and then sync it to the device. Still , your contacts, agenda, everything will be lost.

lucid said:
If you reinstalled XP without making a *.PST export of all your Outlook files, and your PDA is now empty, you are pretty much screwed, sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so live and learn... that's all I gotta say. Damn I hate Microsoft for not including a semiautomatic system restore/backup utility, but most of all I hate myself for not being more careful. I should've been more alert and backed up my data monthly or even weekly.
I'm off to buy a backup application asap :/

any way to prtevent activesync from eating contacts?

hope this is in the right place here...
so, this weekend i finally managed to sync my contacts list into oblivion. thank you very much, activesync.
what i did is, i reinstalled my desktop system, which i do more or less regularly to keep it lean. some time ago i bought outlook 2007, specifically to have a backup in case i lost my phone (touch hd) or something. now after i had setup the new installation of win7 rc and wanted to sync, it wouldn't. apparently, the last activesync partnership was in the way. so, what else to do, but end the former partnership (and please do tell me, if i'm wrong here!). i was greeted with a warning telling me "if i continue, all data synced FROM that partner source" (don't know the exact text, i interpreted this from the German text) will be deleted. i didn't see any alternative (like telling stupid activesync to keep them, just end the partnership, again please tell me when there is such an option somewhere), thought "OK, the original source for the contacts was the phone, not outlook" and continued. afterwards, my contact list was empty except for 10 contacts that wouldn't sync in the first place.
question 1 is: why the heck do they have to make these sync solutions so reliant on automatisms and eager to simply delete stuff? and then not include, or hide really good, options to prevent this? mobile center only allows to set who has priority to overwrite in case of conflict, activesync on WinMo has even less options. why can't they make them ask what exactly to do when they find discrepancies or conflicts, preferrably for each single case? frankly, i find this whole automatism business (in general, not only activesync) patronizing and dangerous if you don't pay close attention. i was wary, and still managed to delete my contacts. great!
i know, this is a rhetorical question, but i had to let off some steam...
now for more immidiate things:
is there a way to prevent this from happening via obscure options? i know i should have used something like pimbackup or at least made a copy of the pim.vol (which has its own difficulties), but you're always wiser afterwards.
speaking of the pim.vol file, is there a way to read that out by now? apparently the deleted contacts are still in there between a gazillion lines of symbols and i already rescued some, but this will take ages skimming through with a text-editor. i know someone wrote a perl script to parse the file, but that's beyond my competence.
and lastly, about those 10 contacts that were spared. those simply refused to sync towards desktop outlook. after each sync, i just got a message telling me he couldn't sync those. any ideas why, or what might be going on there? all of them have pictures, one or two phone numbers, and some have birthdays, nothing else. i think all or most of them had the pictures attributed from the album while zooming in, but i think so had others. some of the original photos are still there, some have been deleted by now, so i guess that's not the reason either.
any help would be much appreciated!
cheers,
mo

a good practice is to backup outlook on the pc
export to pst file include everything

[Review] Microsoft's MyPhone service

Rundown: great service to store your contacts and SMS messages when ROM Switching/Upgrading, or when switching phones.
Full Review: Don't know where else to put this.. I'm reviewing the MyPhone service from Microsoft because I used it to synchronize my Contacts and my SMS messages prior to upgrading my Touch Pro 2 from Windows Mobile 6.1 to WM 6.5.
Here are the results:
Before upgrading my phone, I synchronized my contacts to Outlook 2007 on Vista over ActiveSync, and synchronized my SMS messages to Outlook 2007 on Vistsa using Jeyo's Outlook Extender... I thought I was ready to rock and roll until I realized Jeyo's program wasn't sending SMS messages back to my phone as it was supposed to.
Rather than fiddle with it longer than the 30 minutes I already had, I searched for an alternative method. Enter Microsoft's MyPhone service. I logged into the service using my existing hotmail e-mail address, sent a link to my phone, downloaded the software directly to my phone, and began synchronizing. The time to upload 511 contacts and about 3200 SMS messages took about 25-30 minutes over Sprint's 3G network.
After I verified everything I needed to back up was on Microsoft's MyPhone site, I began the upgrade of my phone.
Upgrade complete, took about 10 minutes... and during that time, I was reading about adding a new phone to the MyPhone service...
So I just installed WM 6.5... Right after the upgrade completed, I sent the MyPhone service's "Add new device" link to my same phone, which is now running WM 6.5 instead of WM 6.1
Link received on phone, downloaded, installed, it asked for a restart, so i did... and... here goes...
Phone's on again... Let's see...
*taps start*
*open "My Phone"*
*taps next*
*taps accept*
*enters hotmail info*
*taps next*
*uncheck photos, videos, music, documents* (because I don't want those synchronized)
*taps next*
automatic synchronization? sounds good.. I have unlimited data..
*taps finish*
and now it says "Synchronizing"... already at 80 of 510 contacts (I found one duplicate earlier while the upgrade was completing, thanks to the built in "Find Duplicates" button on the MyPhone site you access through your PC) ... by the time I finished that sentence, it's already downloaded 325 of my contacts... We shall soon see if it kept my contact pictures and such, which would be great, although not a complete necessity... I'm most concerned about my thousands of texts... and it just completed the contacts... now texts... already at 90 of 2832 (i cleaned those up quite a bit also) now at 175... it seems to be downloading about 133 messages per minute over Sprint's 3G connection...
I'll leave it...
It's done... total time to synchronize 510 contacts and 2832 text messages took approximately 25-30 minutes over Sprint's 3G connection. This is honestly pretty bad in comparison to USB synchronization, but considering it's over 3G and can occur whenever/wherever, and was easier and more convenient than installing outlook, configuring the synchronization settings (because this is only one of dozens of PC's with ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center I've plugged this phone into), trying to figure out if I wanted to keep it synched with another PC or not, yada yada... AND it will synchronize everyday automatically, I must say I've definitely got to recommend Microsoft's MyPhone ... now, did it keep my messages in order, are my contacts still with pictures? The answer is...
Yes!! Perfect air synchronization... it took a bit longer than I thought, but MyPhone essentially synchronized all my stuff with no hassle and I can access the data from anywhere! whoo-hoo!! not only that, but my messages are all in order, and the ones that were read are still marked as read, and the ones that were unread are still marked as unread!!! I LIKE IT!! A LOT!! I can't attest to MMS messages since I didn't have any at the time I did my sync, but I'm sure I'll get one later
So, Microsoft's MyPhone gets a double-thumbs-up from me for keeping my contacts and sweet SMS messages intact PERFECTLY during a phone update, making it nearly hassle-free and fool-proof, and not costing a single red cent.
Thanks, Microsoft. Did I just say that? I need coffee... it's 6:45 in the morning. Good luck, fellow gadget lovers!

yeah, dont forget to register on msn first to let this thing working.
and dont forget to share you private data by using MyPhone with MS

I think the thing about the MyPhone service that made me happiest is the hassle-free restoration of my text messages. PIMBackup, Jeyo, and the other ones I've used are a bit of a hassle to set up, and I didn't completely feel that they were 100% what I needed. Once I logged into the MyPhone service and saw my messages being backed up on my PC in a readable format, I felt assured. That's why I prefer the MyPhone service.

I find the Myphone serve great, plus i know if i ever lose my phone, i do not lose my contacts and sms's, i can just restore everythgin to a new phone.
I set mine to sync every day at 3am.
Btw you can also set it to sync your location, pictures, storage card etc, so you have everythign backed up online.
Another big plus, is if you log into the myphone service via a PC, you can search all your sms's and view any file you uploaded via any PC.

just to warn, there's an issue of duplicates that myphone creates. For example, it does not recognise a task as the same one if you change the title, or due date etc. It recreates a duplicate. Same for calendar etc. PIM backup is still king

heineken78 said:
yeah, dont forget to register on msn first to let this thing working.
and dont forget to share you private data by using MyPhone with MS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL...good point...unfortunately tho, lets be realistic, if someone wants that info bad enough they can still get it...especially if you back it up anywhere...

POKEYTSI said:
LOL...good point...unfortunately tho, lets be realistic, if someone wants that info bad enough they can still get it...especially if you back it up anywhere...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No actually they can't get that info nowhere if you only save it on your secure PC. What they are doing with this service is effectively creating a huge worldwide database with phone numbers+names+email addresses+home/work addresses whatever and I bet they'd sell access to it to the highest bidder. Also I'm sure that the US government agencies will have access to it anyhow. This database can and will be used in order to track anyone on the planet...considering your smartphone has also a gps included and myphone includes a "gps location" premium feature "in case it gets stolen". The feature is there although you can't use it unless you play for premium...they can activate it at will though.
Don't want to sound paranoid here but think about it for a moment. The only way I would even remotely consider using such a service would be if the client utilized strong encryption (eg high bit (elliptic curve or not) DSA) so that the only thing transmitted to M$ would be the encrypted package. And I say remotely consider because all encryption schemes can be cracked with adequate "cpu time". The people utilizing such a database though would have no issue to employ supercomputer cluster farms for their "forensic" needs...
Sorry but..NO...with capital letters.

Email addresses other than MS
So... It has the option to use your existing Windows Live ID, using a hotmail, msn, live, or other. So when you select other, and type in your email thinking you will get at domain prompt at some next step, you can't go to the next step. The sign in button won't activate. If you type in your full email address in the bar, it wil allow you to use the sign in button but still won't work. I'm currently on Windows Live right now, logged in to Windows live from Opera on my phone, all using my non-MS email address. Anyone have any idea why can't I use it to log in to this one service when they clearly give you the option to do so?
Using Energy ROM (9/29), Rhodium.

Importing Contacts?

Be kind, as I am a geezer and our brains ain't as sharp as they used to be
Went from a windows HTC tilt to the iPhone and importing contacts was easy using oulook. Now I'm going from the iPhone to the Captivate. How do I import them onto the Captivate?

oldfossil said:
Be kind, as I am a geezer and our brains ain't as sharp as they used to be
Went from a windows HTC tilt to the iPhone and importing contacts was easy using oulook. Now I'm going from the iPhone to the Captivate. How do I import them onto the Captivate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can export the numbers out of Outlook into a .csv file...you can import that file into your gmail account. I have a mac and had a similar problem. Exported my numbers out of address book and then uploaded to gmail contacts. Once you do that...you can select in the settings on the phone to allow show contacts with phone numbers. Hope that helps.

so, are the contacts floating in the clouds somewhere or do they get downloaded to the phone?

oldfossil said:
so, are the contacts floating in the clouds somewhere or do they get downloaded to the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, if you import your .csv file into your phone from your Outlook, the contacts are limited to your phone. If you, however, import your .csv into your Google Account, that puts your contacts into the cloud, which will sync with your phone.
If that sounds confusing I'm sure I could throw you a guide together if you like.

thanks, all is clear now

vCards Worked Better For Me
I had problems getting gmail to recognize my CSV even after I tried to organize it like some site said it wanted, so I dumped all of my contacts as vCards using a VBA script I found by searching and then loaded each one into gmail.

Samsung Kies
Did anyone use Samsung Kies for importing contacts?

I wanted to but I couldn't get my computer to work with kies (w7, 64bit)

joedoe said:
Did anyone use Samsung Kies for importing contacts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I had done it originally, but I was able to sync my contacts back to Outlook using Kies. I would say that that is the way to do it.

I also had problems connecting with Kies on my W7, 64 machine until I downloaded the most recent version (1.5.1.10071_32), downloaded Microsoft .NET Framework 4, and removed my SD card. Now everything connects fine.

Old dude here too. Was going to post (may still if this get info) a new thread but found this thread. I currently rock an old HTC Hermes WM6.1 device. It Sync's all my Work Outlook Contacts & Meetings, and at home all my Outlook Contacts. The Meetings are important, as are the Contacts. I may wait until the WM7 devices start appearing, but the Captivate looks pretty nice and I can get a good premier price.
Will it/Can it sync that info using the Samsung Programs? I don't want to mess with CSV's and gmail, I work for a huge aerospace company and deal with meetings and new contacts daily, need my phone to handle that info on a daily basis. WinXP at work, Win 7 at home....
Thanks!

Kies imported my contacts just fine (it lost groups and photos though).
However it hangs on importing appointments

treylemkn said:
If you can export the numbers out of Outlook into a .csv file...you can import that file into your gmail account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I did. Worked like a champ

Kies does work on Win 7 - 64 bit with Captivate
I wanted to post a reply to this one because I was frustrated to the extent of giving up on kies, but was finally able to get Kies see my phone (samsung captivate).
So first thing is, it works, you can set Kies to see your phone on Win 7 - 64 bit.
of course, I tried a lot of things back and forth, install and uninstall various drivers etc. but below is what I think will work, please give it a shot if you are unable to get Kies to see your phone on Win 7 - 64 bit.
1. Uninstall any drivers if you have installed (either the USB_Drivers_5_02_0_2 or usb_drivers_GalaxyS_x64). [For the 5.02.02 there is a SSADUninstall.exe in the i386 folders, double check on the control panel and uinstall if you see a program listed as Android USB Modem]
2. Install Kies from the UK site samsungapps.com (cannot post URL yet) it does not matter where you download from, the same s/w is on various URLS. I am using Kies_1.5.1.10071_32
3. On the phone, under settings -> applications -> usb settings either select ask on connetion (this is how I have it), but I figure Kies would also work.
4. Plug the phone using the USB cable (I dont know if it really made any difference but I plugged the cable on to one of the back m/b ports as I read on a few forums that it wont work on the front port)
5. Now wait, your pc is going to play a trick, windows will try to install a driver for this and then say it could not find one. Ignore it ! In the meanwhile, you will also notice a warning saying if you want to run a program from Samsung electronics or something like tetrun, say yes and let it continue.
6. Have patience now and in due time, Kies will start (I have also set kies to run in win xp compatibility mode explicitly but it may not be required). You will not see your phone yet. but you continue to wait for another minute.
7. Eventually kies will say on the right side of the app that drivers need to be downloaded for the connected device and will start downloading them. Let is complete. It will then install them. windows will show you the bubble saying it is installing drivers (similar to one that failed earlier). You may click on it and you will see that it installs 3 drivers. I am thinking they are for the mass storage, modem and media player but not sure.
8. Once it is done, it should show a bar oscillating and say 'connecting device'
9. And voila, after some more wait, you should see your phone on the right side in Kies.
Please be patient, it takes quite a while for all these things to go through and you may be start thinking it has gotten stuck.
Now, for the bummer if you want to sync with outlook, it missed out quite a few of my contacts and I am still unable to get the calendar on to my phone. Kies reads it and shows it well but my phone does not show the appointments yet.
But kies will allow you to get photos off or manage contacts etc. so it does help.
If it works for you please post your experience. so others can be more confident.
Best of luck.

I tried everything possible including these instructions, cannot get it to work on windows 7 64-bit.

oldfossil said:
Be kind, as I am a geezer and our brains ain't as sharp as they used to be
Went from a windows HTC tilt to the iPhone and importing contacts was easy using oulook. Now I'm going from the iPhone to the Captivate. How do I import them onto the Captivate?
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It was easiest for me to get the contacts on the phone through google. You should be able to sync the iphone contacts with google, then they should sync with the Captivate.

Try the New "Beta" Sprite Migrate"
I am running Win 7 Ult. 64-bit with Office 2010 64-bit and have an HTC Touch Cruise (WM6.1) and just got the Captivate. First, let me say that nothing seems to work with Outlook 2010 64-bit, so no syncing. I did get & Load .Net 4.0 and the UK version of Kies. All that works and I can load stuff onto my SD card. So far update.zip and some ePub eBooks. But as for moving stuff off the WM 6.1 and to the Captivate, the best and easiest option so far has been "Sprite Migrate" a new program, still in Beta. The web site is http://www.spritesoftware.com/products/migrate/how-does-it-work- It is an easy 3 step process. I was able to move almost 800 contacts. It did show some errors after I ran step 3, but all the contact information is there. Now none of my calendar info came over and I am not sure yet what else came over, but all that contact info was the priority and that worked. The program is free. If I find a log file for the errors in step 3 , I will send it to them.

Did it transferred photos with contacts and if it did what was the quality of photos?

Yes, it transfered my photos just fine. No luck on appointments
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I just went from a Tilt to a Captivate and the AT&T rep put all my contacts on the phone. I have been trying to use the voice dial but I am told I need to sync my phone with gmail? I recently created a gmail account but I cannot figure out how to get my contacts set up so I can use this feature...any advice?