My cell phone was destroyed today

[Richard]

Run over by a car. Verizon tells me there is no way to retreive contact information unless the phone will "turn on". By turn on, they mean the phone illuminates like normally when activating the phone.

It was a Motorola V-325.

 

[mikea]

Run over by a car. Verizon tells me there is no way to retreive contact information unless the phone will "turn on". By turn on, they mean the phone illuminates like normally when activating the phone.

It was a Motorola V-325.

If the phone has a SIM card, your contacts may be on it, but then *maybe* Verizon would have known that.

 

[wsuffa]

If the phone has a SIM card, your contacts may be on it, but then *maybe* Verizon would have known that.

No sim cards in a Verizon CDMA phone

possible exception for their global phones, but I don't think so

 

[ScottM]

Verizon opted to not use SIM or as I named it for CDMA, Removable user Identity Module (R-UIM). No one in the US is CDMA R-UIM that I am aware of. It is quit popular in Asia though.

Even if the phone does not illuminate it might be able to turn on. Do you use something like MotoPhone Tools or Datapilot to manage your information on the phone? If you do just down load to your new phone or if you have not try plugging the phone into the computer and download the info.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Run over by a car. Verizon tells me there is no way to retreive contact information unless the phone will "turn on".

And I presume it doesn't?

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Try asking your question here... it's probably your best bet (along with the suggestion of trying a data cable):

http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I have often wondered if there is an easy way to bluetooth the sim card content to a computer for backup. As a computer-incompetant, by the term 'easy' I mean no more than 3 keystrokes and one 'plugging-in'.

 

[Teller1900]

Data pilot is pretty easy. It's a quick install and very user friendly. It saved me, actually, week before last when my phone decided to play hockey puck on the ramp in BOS. It still powered up, but the screen and the keypad were no longer one, so were it not for Datapilot I would have lost EVERYTHING.

 

[silver-eagle]

It depends on the phone and the carrier. Verizon disables MOST bluetooth ops except for headset functions. However, with the right software and data cable, you can back up your stuff. The previously mentioned Datapro works well as does BITPIM. BITPIM is a freeware package which also allows you to tweak certain stuff on the phone and do other things carriers only allow you to do IF YOU PAY for it.
I liked it when I used it on my Verizon LG.

 

[SkyHog]

Try a new battery to see if it will power on, Richard. And for god's sake, move to a GSM company so this isn't such a big deal in the future

 

[Richard]

So which of you acronym-speaking geeks wants a side job? Phone must be mailed out, data retrieved, and mailed back in my hands in no more than 14 calendar days from Oct 10th.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I have often wondered if there is an easy way to bluetooth the sim card content to a computer for backup. As a computer-incompetant, by the term 'easy' I mean no more than 3 keystrokes and one 'plugging-in'.

Dave,

Not on Verizon. They don't want you to be able to send your pictures via Bluetooth to your computer, they want to charge you to send them over their network instead. To accomplish this, they disable the Bluetooth Object Exchange profile on all of their phones, which has the nasty little side effect that you can't sync your contacts via Bluetooth either. This is the major reason I switched to Cingular - I couldn't stand how they were disabling functionality like that.

I did get my first Cingular phone (a Sony Ericsson W600i) to sync via Bluetooth. Very nice, but it wasn't automatic and I only did it about every 3-4 months.

Now, with the iPhone, I can't sync via Bluetooth but that's 'cuz with all of the sound files being sync'd it'd take forever. So, once a week I plug in (USB 2.0) for a fresh batch of podcasts and my contacts, calendars, etc. get synced both ways automatically. It took a lot less (read: no) setup than the Bluetooth/W600i thing did too.

 

[gprellwitz]

It's too late to help you now, Richard, but Verizon does offer Backup Assistant, a free app for the phone (if you sign up for the free MyAccount) that backs up all contacts on your phone automatically and even allows you to edit them on their website. Yes, there are potential privacy issues and the like with this, but at least it is a solution. For more info, see http://products.vzw.com/index.aspx?id=news_going_details&appId=4233

 

[ScottM]

Try a new battery to see if it will power on, Richard. And for god's sake, move to a GSM company so this isn't such a big deal in the future

It would then only be a big deal if he were to store his phone book on the SIM. Not all people do that as they like having personal ringers and more info. Teh SIM is memory limited and does not store that info. That is why in the newer architecture phones, GSM, UMTS, as well as CDMA you are seeing the addition of a micro-SD memory card.