Help Sprint's Mobile Sync Service - Not avail. for Epic - anything else to use?

[Bmerz]

Ok, so I ending up having to do a Factory Reset (after only 3-days), and now I am having to input ALL my contacts again manually - ugh!

After much searching on Google, I found that Sprint does offer a FREE backup service, however, it's NOT available on the Epic yet - I mean really?!? *rolls eyes*

So, are there any other safe + free services out there to backup my contacts? I'd much rather use Sprint's Mobile Sync service, but that may be a ways off yet.

TIA!

 

[thekarens]

You shouldn't have had to do that if you sync'd your info to your gmail or facebook account. Either way your info lives in the cloud and when you sync it comes right on back. I've done that with my last 3 phones (all my contact info is my gmail account)

 

[Bmerz]

@ thekarens: So I need to put all my contacts (phone no., emails etc.) into Gmail, and then tell the phone to sync with Gmail? Sorry if this seems like a dumb (?), I am totally new to smartphones, and to Android. Thank you.

 

[Tommydaniel]

If you have setup your gmail on your phone your contacts will automatically back up onto your gmail. there isn't anything you seen to do, except make sure auto-sync is on

 

[Android XTC]

Yea but shouldn't there be some sort of dedicated desktop software for the Epic? Evo has one Blackberry has one and IPhone too. A dedicated desktop mgr program makes it so much easier in these cases.

 

[Bmerz]

Thank you all for your responses!

I ended up just manually entering all my contacts into my Gmail account, and then syncing afterwards. While this was time consuming to do, at least (unless Google goes out of business - yeah right) it's all there, and should I ever have to do another factory reset, I won't have to do this again.

I am with you Android XTC!

Also, it seems to me with charging us the extra $10 per-month, on top of the extra $50 for the Epic - that Sprint could have gotten their Mobile Sync service ready for both the Evo AND the Epic!

Oh well, it is what it is. Gmail will do for now, but I do hope Sprint Mobile Sync gets up and running soon - as I think that offers a lot more than Gmail can.

 

[Puddin422]

Bluetooth!!! Takes one minute or less, start to finish. I was in the same boat as I have always used MobileSync.

 

[dbpaddler]

coming over from a dumbphone and having sprint move your contacts doesn't really help. it puts them into the phone's database not gmail's which means no syncing with gmail

You're in a smartphone world now. You have to break the dumbphone mentality which means you break ties with Mobile Sync. I think Mobile Sync was designed for dumbphones, not for smartphones because if you're using a smartphone there is the assumption you're going to be syncing info from some account be it an email based one, outlook, exchange, social network and so on.

Having all your contacts in gmail allows you to move freely from phone to phone and restoring everything by just putting in your gmail account info. It also gives you the option to edit from any computer by just going to www.google.com/contacts. The same can be done with your calendar as well (google.com/calendar). You don't even have to use gmail in general. I just use it strictly for market transactions and emails relating to apps. Otherwise it's strictly for calendar and contacts.

Not sure how old you are, but assuming you're on the younger side, You'll have more use for a real contact manager most likely down the road. You'll get into the habit of having one entry per person with multiple numbers for that person in one entry. You'll be able to enter personal info, adr's, b-days and so on. I know many dumbphone owners that have individual entries for each number (ie. mom home, mom cell, mom work) when on a smartphone you lookup mom and get a drop down of all the different numbers.

If you don't like gmail you can always sync to outlook via Samsung's sync software. So that can be done locally from your PC without an internet connection.

There are also backup programs available in the market for a few dollars. Sprite will backup just about everything except for apps (which I'm hoping it will do soon, at least the free ones). So text msgs, calls logs, settings and so forth get written to your microSd card and can be restored once you enter your gmail account and put sprite back on your phone.