After my earlier post about Syncing the a900 with OSX I have received hundreds of hits from people searching for information about syncing their new a900 with their Mac. It has bluetooth and looks like a Razr, so why not assume it will work like users want it to? Unfortunately, Sprint does not seem to make Mac users a priority. Luckily someone mentioned that there were some hoops that you could jump through to get an a900 to sync with the Mac AddressBook. I asked what hoops had to be jumped through and tonight I got the answer via email.
Sam Noble sent me the following email that includes instructions for how to sync AddressBook with an a900. It is more of an export than a sync, but we can take baby steps if it means we can get these phone working.
Jackson,
Since your web page comes up fairly quickly in certain searches for sync
compatibility between the a900 and a mac (whether you own this phone or
not), I thought you might be interested in the following technique for
transfering contacts to the phone via bluetooth:1) Export vCard from address book in vcard 2.1 format (can be changed in
preferences)2) Split the vCard that AddressBook creates into one-vcard-per-contact
with some tool like vCard Splitter (google for it)3) Make sure that you have paired your phone and your computer. I think
the key is to initiate this from within the phone.3) Using Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth File Exchange — this program
opens up a file selection dialog by default. Select all the
(individual) vCards that you want to send to the phone, and click
“send”Using this technique I’ve been able to (so far) transfer at least two
contacts at a time from addressbook into my phone via bluetooth and I have
read that others have transfered far more.I don’t know how to read the phonebook or clear the phonebook via
bluetooth yet.In the event that none of this is news to you — do you, by chance, know
anything about reading the current phonebook or clearing the current
phonebook on this phone?I’m also a software developer and if I can get ahold of enough technical
information to make it happen, I’m not above writing a Sync Services
conduit for the phone so that this is just a little easier.
I shot Sam an email letting him know that I don’t have any answers for him yet since I have not yet decided on a phone to buy (and my contract runs out in Feb). I got the following additional tidbits from Sam:
If you get any tips about remotely
reading entries from the phonebook (either via bluetooth or the usb
cable) I am very interested in hearing about them. Frankly, I hope that I
can leverage the traffic that your blog gets into enough info to write a
rudimentary sync app for this phone.A couple of caveats: it may be necessary to use the phone to set the
bluetooth file exchange directory before this works. If so, I don’t think
it makes any difference what directory is set as the target. Also, the
bluetooth file exchange app can “browse” your phone and allow you to
upload data in the browsing mode — while it’s okay to use this to put
music on the phone, you can’t get it to import a vcard into the contact
list this way — you have to use the “select files and upload them” mode
which doesn’t seem to be explicit in the OS X app. I just drag the
multiple vcards onto the icon in the dock and the “right thing” seems to
happen.Incidentally, somebody on one of the sprint users forums originally
figured out that you need to use vcard format 2.1 and that the vcards need
to be physically separate files for the phone to recognize them as
separate contacts.The phone also can’t be closed and it can’t be in any menu screen for this
to work properly.And I suspect (but have no data to prove) that this same strategy works
for the A920 as well.
If you have any additional tips here leave a comment and maybe we can get this phone to sync. I imagine some of what Sam talks about could be scripted using AppleScript to make it a little easier. I don’t know that it will ever work completely with iSync, but it is worth a shot. I still think Sprint should do the right thing and provide SyncML support for the Samsung a900 (and future phones), but that doesn’t seem likely at this point.
50 Comments
I have successfully transferred 256 contacts with complete contact information from my Powerbook to my new Samsun A900. I was also able to do it all at once.
Here’s how:
1) You must first have all of your contacts in Apple’s address book or a mail client that can export contacts in a vcard format.
2) Next export the contacts into your drop box folder in public area for your user
3) Setup your Mac and A900 for Bluetooth pairing. And make sure Bluetooth is turned on for both devices.
4) Under your applications>utilities folder open the Bluetooth File Exhange application
5) Under your/Public/Dropbox folder on your mac highlight all of the vcard contacts and drag them into your Bluetooth File Exchange application.
5) Your A900 should recognize that your mac is transfering files over. That should do it. It worked great for me.
John
Last week I talked about my likely move to Cingular because I am fed up with Sprint not providing phones that can sync with my PowerBook via Bluetooth. Then someone left a comment saying that you could sync an a900 with the Mac AddressBook if you jump th
Quick tip…
To export individual contacts from address book, without using additional software, just simply hold the Option key down and drag the contacts where you want them.
(The option key can be pretty powerful!)
I successfully transferred over 100 contacts at once. The only problem I had was with the numbers that were listed in Address Book as Companies.
–
Brian
That’s interesting, but has any one been able to do a vcal sync with the A900?
Sid
It should work the same, but I will let you know after I try it.
The vCard thing works well enough; but what happens if one accidentally installs a file OTHER than a vCard into the vcard folder on the a900? For exammple, I tried to bring over a .gif and a .jpg file to see how the a900 would handle the exchange by way of bluetooth file exchange. The a900 treats them like vcards and puts them in the vcard folder. And once they are there, there is no getting them out. If I mount the phone on my drive via USB, I can’t delete the files because I don’t have permissions set to do so. And there’s no way to locate the files on the phone and delete them from there that I am aware of. Anyone have an answer?
I’m having the exact problem Sid couldn’t transfer jpgs or mp3s, there isn’t a vcard folder under bluetooth in the phone. Also, I connected my phone to a windows via USB, the vcard folder, that was showing up in my mac, didn’t even show up there. Now I’m stuck with about 3 mb of wasted space on my phone. Sprint better have a update soon for this mess.
Is there a way to transfer songs from itunes/OS X in general to the a900?
cheers
Is there a way to transfer songs from itunes/OS X in general to the a900?
cheers
Any info on the tranfer to/from A900 to/from Mac ?
want to do this with pics, clips, files amd music.
Thanks
Martin
I tried this and the phone would place the vCards in the ftp file storage folder but not in the contacts list. Is there a step missing. How was FTP set on the phone?
Only the “/” folder shows on the phone. I never saw a vcard folder as refered to by Daniel Leighton.
One of the big reasons i got this phone was to play mp3s as i was working out and what not…. i was dingin around with the phone and accidently bought an MP3 and noticed that the quality of it was great!!! but, do i have to buy the songs everytime or is there a way to tranfer them from itunes to my a900???? because i already have the music on my mac, i dont want to buy the songs twice.
Just got my A900 this morning. Best phone I’ve ever had! Sadly, using USB, I can transfer pics, mp3’s etc using Windows XP with the phone in Mass Storage Mode. But on my 12″ Powerbook under Tiger, I can copy FROM the phone (the videos I capture with the phone play great in QuickTime)… but I don’t have permission to write anywhere on the phone!
By the way, I just left Verizon for Sprint after 7 years of flawless service, few dropped calls, no billing screwups, etc. I was with several companies for a number of years before that, (360 Communications, Centel Cellular, Alltel, etdc.) in a chain of buyouts before ending up with Verizon. I never switched, my carrier just kept getting bought out.
I changed to get the A900, the unlimited phone-as-modem on EVDO for $40 a month (Verizon wants $60 but if you stream music, video, play a game, etc. and they catch you, your account is terminated, plus their “unlimited” broadband is defined in the contract as “normal consumer usage”) and uncrippled phones. (I got tired of having to do firmware hacks to re-enable phone features that Verizon had disabled.)
My bill is now going to be about $25 a month higher than with Verizon, but I have a better and uncrippled phone and unlimited broadband which I really only need and will use for access to maintain our servers while on the road.
I tried sending some mp3s via bluetooth from Tiger to my a900. They do not show up anywhere on my phone!!, but they definitely take up space on my memory, went from 2 megs to 11…frustrating! any tips?
John Zito:
“Setup your Mac and A900 for Bluetooth pairing.”
That’s easy enough for the a900 = Menu>Settings>Bluetooth(0)>Enable “Yes”.
But how about for the Mac? (Specifically gooseneck iMac G4 OS X 10.4.4) Under the System Profile>Bluetooth says “No information found.” I know I used to have it… I’m wondering what the heck happened to it.
Mods:
Can you please remove the “” tags from my previous post?
I mean &#lt; b &#gt; tags.
The file transfer works great! How the hell do I use the .vcf once it is transfered?
I have only been able to transfer files into the folder that I specified on my a900. (/Bluetooth/ftp or /fileshare) In which case I can do nothing with the file once it is in that folder. Trying to open it just gives me an error message that says something to the tune of “Not compatable with viewer”
I love this phone, but I love my phone numbers more! HELP!!!
Had a couple of things to toss in RE: OS X/A900 sync issues.
1) After I paired my phone/computer with Bluetooth, I discovered you can send vcards directly from your address book (no export/ftp) to the phone. In Address Book (when Bluetooth is happening) a option “Send This Card…” appears in the “Card” menu. Can only do it one at a time, but is worth noting.
2) RE: getting music files to the phone - short answer is, before transferring files to your phone, set the Media folder on the phone as your FTP folder. That’s where you want the music files to end up (says the following link).
This link:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=814612&postcount=4
is pretty enlightening about a variety Bluetooth/A900 (Mac or PC) issues. I’ve found it helpful when dealing with this. It notes many little nits that need to be picked in this process.
Dale (post #19) - .vcf files need to be transferred to the phone via the “push” protocol and not file transfer. I’m not totally sure about the distinction, but during “push” transfer the .vcf file seems to be interpreted by the phone during the transfer process. If you just move the file to the phone and then try to “open” it, the phone cant make sense of it. Why, I do not know.
I hope all this gets worked out soon (either by Sprint or by an online software developer), but for the moment, Bluetooth is workable enough.
Cheers all.
[...] Here’s how you can sync your contacts and mp3s with your Mac (it’s tricky!). If you’re interested to know more, just drop me a comment. Readership (2) | [...]
Here’s how to pair the Samsung A920 Sprint Phone with a Mac to use with OS X as an EVDO modem:
http://www.nodrm.com/?p=185
Looking for the clue to sync Mac OS 10.4.5 with the new wonderfull slim SGH-P300. Any ideas???
Re: #20 — If you select multiple cards, the “Send These Cards” command in the “Card” menu of Address Book appears to work very nicely. There seems to be some unspecified maximum limit to this, as I could send 100 cards at a time, but not all the cards in my Address Book (300 ).
lovely. i sent my whole address book at once. i have a samsung sph-a920 with bell mobility.
some notes
-i used 3.0 vcards
-i had to remove the .dmg from the vcard splitter applescript (not the actual dmg file) by going into “get info”. after that it worked.
-i made a smart list of my contacts with phone numbers in address book. (phone –> is set).
-copied the single exported vcard (w/ all the phone number contatcts) into a folder and dragged that over the vcard splitter.
-paired my phone (previously). this is easy, thru trial error. it’s in system prefs –> bluetooth.
-used “send file” option in bluetooth menu (i chose to have this in the menu bar up top).
-selected all vcards. sent. accepted on phone (i was not in any application or anything, just “top” level screen).
VOILA!
$40 and 5 hours of research later i transfered 50 or so numbers to my phone all at once
Well, after reading through the address book sync stuff, I was able to transfer over 100 contacts to my a900. I also got into making ringtones and sending them to my phone. Here is how I did it.
You will need software that can capture the audio of your mac. I use Snapz Pro X
Also.. in the Snapz Pro demo… you get Video capture with a video watermark.. but I don’t think with an audio watermark.. not that I am suggesting something… http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/ BTW:: I LEGALY own the software… be illegal at your own risk
First I would find my desired song in the itunes store.
Buy it.
Seek to the general location of the audio segment that I wanted.
I would then capture a “video” with the mac audio track.
On the encoding panel that comes up, just de-select the video checkbox… so you just get the audio.
Once done, open in Quicktime (I have Pro) and trim the clip till it is just right.
Export it as a MPEG-4 (.m4a) audio file. the a900 can play them and they are more comressed than an mp3
.mp3 = about 3-1 compression
.m4a = about 9-1 compression ratio… give or take some…
I used the the Sprint User Forum “Focus” uploader: http://www.sprintusers.com/focus/
It sends a text message to your phone with a link to the file *** Must be below 512kb to be downloaded to phone*** (shouldn’t be a problem for most 30 sec song clips)
the a900 has about 11mb for ringers, apps, games, and screensavers… the 47mb cannot be used or accessed for ringtones…
BTW:
I was constantly having to re-pair my phone and mac bec. i was constantly turning bluetooth on and off… here’s an easy way around that…
just do whatever you want and if it asks you for a pairing code… just type a code on your phone.. EX: “123″… press enter
and then your computer will now ask you for a passcode.
type the same thing in… and BAM!! you have been paired!!! No bluetooth setup wizard!!!
well I guess that is all I have to say for now… oh.. and the same uploading thing applies to videos (put them in .mp4 or 3gp, just less than 512kb)
Let me know if there is anything I said wrong.. or if you have a better method for doing things…
~Nathan
First off, Ambrosia makes very cool software, and for screen-capturing, there is nothing better than SnapzProX. If you want to use that software, please pay ‘em for it. They deserve the support. BUT if you are only going to use the audio features to record Mac sound, use their WireTap Pro product (they used to offer a free WireTap utility while they were testing it, and I have that and like it too. BUT, you don’t even need that. Just rip your mp3’s to m4a’s directly from iTunes. Or if you must, convert to AIFF if you bought a song from the ITMS, then rip it to m4a. And if you want to do a little editing, definitely go for QuickTime Pro — cheap and easy.
Also, if you want to edit mp3 files, panic software has retired (and now offers for FREE) their absolutely perfect mp3 player: Audion 3, which was retired due to iTunes. There is a terrific mp3 waveform editor in there. Very easy to use.
I was able to transfer contacts and pictures to the A900 from my Powerbook G4 via bluetooth. it was extremley easy.
I wish i could get it! i have tried [and tried] to get the contacts from my Mac Address book on to my SPH-A920 Sprint phone. I can easily get one but not all of them at one time. I have tried file exchange and vcard splitter. I just can’t seem to make it work. is there anyone who can slowly walk me through it. I need help. Thanks, Tom
[...] Just before I bought my A900 I posted about syncing the A900 with Mac OS X using bluetooth. this has proven to be one of my most popular posts ever. At least one person reads that post every hour of every day. Your customers really want to be able to integrate their phones with their Apple computers. [...]
Has anyone had progress yet importing contacts via bluetooth….. what about transfering images via data cable…
I having gotten images over to my phone, but now I want to save them for my contacts (put the picture of the person who is calling in their contact). How do I do that?
I’ve also gotten mp3’s over, but how do I play them?
Thanks for the help!
Basicly, ho do I get my images into my albums?
I can get mp3s on my a900 no problem with file transfer. you have to set your ftp folder as music instead of the default and then use send file… and then to play you can either go to the player by going to music on the menu or holding down the play button with the phone flipped close.
I want to know how to transfer music to my A920, can anyone walk me through it VERRY slowly,
THX
-Will
I’ve not tried it yet but there is an extension to
GSM Remote - 1.4.7
which allows phonebook sysncing and sending of SMS’s from your Apple it’s shareware ($10) which to me seems really quite good value
Hope this helps,
Thanks
Chris
no one noticed this but i did. if you select all your contacts in the addressbook then hold athe option key and select the card menu and optin for send THESE card shows up. select it and then choose your phone and pow all done.
i need to know any software where can i get my activation code from my cell phone Samsung SPH-A900 any software, i tried Datapilot, QPTS, and nothing let me know something thanks, shortyzc@gmail.com
Does anyone knw how to transfer contacts from the A900 to a mac, other than exposrting each one separately via bluetooth (which takes soooo long). I’d like to back these up before the phone dies/gets lost/damaged.
Thanks
Thanks for the info I was able to successfully transfer all my contacts to my SGH-D807 cingular samsung phone with no problem via bluetooth from my iMac G5. I wonder if this works with mostly all samsung phones.
i am totaly piss of this phone
i bought the card reader and i tranfer music from my pc to my memory card but when i conect the mini memory card to my phone the phone seens no to find my music any where, It saids that is empty. please help me with this matter other wise i will like to return this phone. no body from sprint seens to know the system.
i will appreciated your help.
Claudia
i am totaly piss of this phone
i bought the card reader and i tranfer music from my pc to my memory card but when i conect the mini memory card to my phone the phone seens no to find my music any where, It saids that is empty. please help me with this matter other wise i will like to return this phone. no body from sprint seens to know the system.
i will appreciated your help.
Claudia
samsung a 920
If you are using the Samsung A900M with PC. You can push your contacts with Outlook 2003. Highlight the contacts that you want to transfer. Then goto the File pulldown and Select Send to Bluetooth (you had to pair your phone to the computer prior to starting this process). Select your bluetooth device, making sure that you have the phone open in order to specify that you allow the device to have files pushed.
I pushed a couple hundred contacts over in a couple of minutes. Too bad that the contacts can’t reconigize categories.
After playing around with the very good suggestions above, i realized that the phone is mostly just a bluetooth harddrive. Except I did find a way to enter a contact from the address book into my contacts in the phone. However, if you have lots of contacts to be added it will be very time consuming. Here’s how i did it, but i: 1. Open the address book on the mac. (2) Choose a contact and go to “Card” then “Make This My Card” (3) Pair the devices (I think its possible to do it through Address book (4) On the A900 go to the “Tools” then “Bluetooth” then highlight the mac and click on the Options button (5) Choose Get name card
I wish somebody could come up w/a way to make all of my contacts my name card so i can upload all of them at once.
good luck
How do I transfer MP3 from my desktop to my Samsung A-900?? I plugged the phone to the pc, a window opened up and I went to the music file, then I opened the file where my music is on the pc (they are mp3) and I passed the music from one window (in pc) to the other one (in phone). When I unplugged it I went to the music file on the phone and I can see the music that I transfered from my pc, but when I try opening it it reads “UNSUPPORTED DOCUMENT FORMAT BY FILEVIEWER”, So now what??? This always happens!!!! Somebody also
mentioned about downloading drivers from a website, well, which ones??? It
doesn’t specify what each one is and which is the one I need!!!!!!!!!!
At this point I would appreciate any advices!!
Thanks,
MLLR
WHERE CAN I FIND THE DRIVERS FOR MAY A900M ONLINE AND FREE?
Test comment.
Hi,
I’m also using the same phone. Wondering if you’ve received any answers to your question as I would also like to sync my phone with the Mac.
Thanks.
I can transfer mp3 to my new SGH-d87 with bluethooth but when I select it in the phone, it’s always say that it’s too big and the cellphone can’t read it. The capacity of the cellphone is 192 kbps and it’s empty. Do I need to compress my mp3 or what? If I do, how am I suppose to do that?
Thank you,
Using bluetooth my friend transfered music and pictures on to my cingular motorola razr. I have been trying to transfer some of those files to my husbands phone he has a Samsung A900 (BLADE) it says transfered VCARD on his phone but we cannot find the files once its done. How do I succesfully transfer data to his phone?
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Cell Phones Tracer…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…