vCard Transfer:
Interestingly, right now there is a free service which allows contact and calendar synchronization, www.mobical.net. You will need GRPS/WAP on your phone, and contacts/calendar can be imported via vCard 1.2 and vCal 1.0 respectively. This may be a good option if you're using a Mac and hence cannot use PC Suite. Note that we have not tried it. (Add a comment if you have.)
Alternatively, SmartvCard (USD 6.95) provides on-phone import and export of large numbers of vCards: Simply export in the vCard format from the OS X address book.
PC Suite Outlook Synchronization:
Most Nokia mobile phones have the ability to synchronize contacts / notes / to-do lists / calendar with outlook, using the Nokia PC Suite. The Nokia 7610 is no exception, and in general you will find synchronization to be totally painless, provided that you have infrared, bluetooth, or the appropriate data cable. However, the there are some issues you should be aware of.
Remember to use the latest version, which is 6.4 as of 14/11/2004. All comments below refer to this version. PC Suite only exists for the PC, there seems to be no Mac synchronization possible, but interestingly, in the latest OS X 10.3.6 update adds Adds WMC connectivity capability for Nokia 7610 phones.
Sync Issues:
It is not possible to map custom fields to the phone, and the phone is not able to transfer over a full outlook 2003 contact.
The following fields WILL be transferred:
Company
Job Title
Other
Home
Home 2
Business
Business 2
Mobile
Other Fax
Home Fax
Business Fax
Pager
E-mail
E-mail 2
E-mail 3
Web Address
All postal addresses
Birthday
Note
This is not too big a deal, just make sure you use one of those fields.
Similarly, you probably want to use one of those fields on the phone, so that you will synchronize. While not being able to map all Outlook fields is not too much of a problem, having extra fields on the mobile phone which will not be transferred back to outlook was a stupid move.
Sync Problems:
Generally, if you are not using an updated version of the PC Suite, update it and try again. You do not have to format the phone.
These are three possible errors you might encounter when synchronizing with outlook. (non-exhaustive list)
Error 1:"The SyncML Client has not responded."
Solution: Go into the settings menu of the phone, then exit out by pressing the red "hang up" key.
Error 2:"SyncML - Profile doesn't match" or "Not able to open Outlook"
Update Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Error 3: "The SyncML Server has encountered a problem and has aborted the Synchronisation."
Check to see at which portion of the synchronization the update is stalling. Do this by initiating the sync and watching the progress. It is likely to be the contacts.
If this is the problem, simply create a new contacts folder, and move all contacts to that folder. Move 5-10 contacts at a time back to the original folder and synchronize. If you encouter the same error, one of the contacts has a problem, try figuring out what is different about it.
