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Backup assistant in a loop

hallstevenson

Android Expert
Jan 5, 2010
791
26
I've used VZW's backup assistant for a number of years and now that I have a Droid, I want to follow the steps of exporting (a CVS file) my contacts from the website and importing them into my Google contacts. Problem is, when I sign in at the backup assistant site, I get stuck in a loop of pages telling me how to download BA to my phone (not applicable to BB, WinMo, or Android devices anyway), what BA is, etc, etc. If I sign in at VZW's main site and click the "My contacts" links, I end up at the same place, in the same loop.

Has this happened to anyone else ? How did you resolve it ?
 
Do this:


  • 1. Log into My Verizon at verizonwireless.com
  • 2. Click the “My Services” tab.
  • 3. Click “My Contacts” under “My Cell Phone”
  • 4. Click “Export to CSV”
  • 5. Save it to your harddrive. It will say something like “contacts_10109923595402.csv”
  • 6. Open Gmail
  • 7. Click “contacts”
  • 8. Click “import”
  • 9. Browse to the csv file you downloaded from Verizon in step 5
  • You are done. You should now see all of your Verizon contacts
 
Upvote 0
Sounds like backup assistant somehow got removed from your account.
Yes, in fact, that's exactly what happened ... and it seems that Verizon did it (automatically). I previously had an LG VX8300, a typical "Verizon" phone, running VZW's "OS" or software. I got a WinMo phone on April 27th. The rep I spoke to in the past week or so said Backup Assistant was cancelled on ... April 27th. VZW may have done this -- wrongly -- knowing that my current phone couldn't use the functionality. I, of course, could manually have used it.

Oh well, I was using Microsoft's "MyPhone" application but they don't support exporting contacts (wonder why). So, I manually created (1) cellphone contact entry in Gmail and exported it so that I had the basic CVS format. Then I had to copy and paste the contact info from the "MyPhone" website. In the end, it really didn't take much more than 30 min, imported them back to Gmail, and sync'd my phone.
 
Upvote 0
I'm glad you got your contacts moved over, though I don't believe this would have been something intentionally done by VZW. I have switched between a regular phone and smart phone a couple of times, and my contacts remain in my account. That's ridiculous about that Microsoft application. What's the purpose of using it if you can't easily use the stored info? The good news is Google will always have them for you from now on to do with as need be! :)
 
Upvote 0
I vaguely recall calling VZW support about using BA with my Windows Mobile phone and the rep confirmed that it didn't work. Maybe he shut off... Admittedly, I NEVER went back into it to check and/or update contacts manually and since I didn't, the info was woefully out-of-date when the time came for me to want to use it.
 
Upvote 0

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