copying non unicode vcard to the mi2s

[tanin]

Hi,
I'm trying to get my contact in vcard format from my pc to the mi2s.

The files are in Hebrew, and when I copy them over, they're gibberish.

Is there a workaround?

 

[MiKhan]

You do not provide many details and neither the Hebrew file as an example.

How about opening the vcard in some plain text editor and saving as UTF-8?

 

[tanin]

Just tried saving as UTF-8, not working.

I'm uploading an example.

 

[MiKhan]

Thanks for the test file.
First thing: do not use ZIP archiver for files, which use non-ASCII file names. ZIP does not store info about encoding of the _file system_ and therefore it unpacked on my file system as a giberish. 7-zip is a good alternative.

This is the screenshot of what the vcf file contents look like with text encoding ISO-8859-8-I:

I hope it is correct.

I attach that file contents saved as "02 Saved as UTF-8.zip" with UTF-8 encoding. Test it yourself in Android.

And here is what it looks like in ex-Dialer (probably the same as standard Contacts) after import through a file manager to Contacts (Google account) from sdcard in my phone:

To my untrained eye, it looks the same. I used text editor KWrite to do the conversion from ISO-8859-8-I to UTF-8.
Hope it helps!

 

[tanin]

Well MiKhan your file is indeed working, but I can't seem to get it right by converting myself.
I tried using Windows' Notepad and I also tired with Notepad++, but for me, saving as UTF-* still gives me gibberish on the phone.


edit: nm, tried pspad and it works! thanks a bunch

Is there a way to batch convert all my contacts?

 

[Frederik VDP]

Can't you import the vcard in your Gmail account? You can sync your phone afterwards.

 

[tanin]

Well, the gmail account also takes into consideration all the emails, right? I don't want 2000+ contacts which most of the are just email addresses.

 

[Frederik VDP]

Maybe it's a good thing to clean up your contacts then? Deleting contacts with your computer is very fast, if you try it with your phone, it will take a lot more time. This is just a suggestion offcours

 

[tanin]

That's exactly what I did. That's why I want to transfer the contacts to my phone.

 

[MiKhan]

but you could probably merge all the vcf files with ISO encoding into one big.vcf file, then convert the big.vcf to UTF-8 and then import it in Android.

Your previous reply re. "2000+" and "emails" does not make sense, simply just use those vcf files which you want to import. You can also edit them in a text editor and remove details which you do not want to import. As others said, it migh be easier to import everything and do the cleaning afterwards in gmail.com web interface.

Merging the vcf files could be done in command prompt in Windows:

copy /b john.vcf + charles.vcf + anita.vcf big.vcf

Or automate in a batch file (something like "for each *vcf; do copy /b each big.vcf; done" - use google to find out the Windows command shell syntax).

 

[tanin]

I'll try that. thx.

About Gmail. When I import from gmail, I get around 2000 entries which most of them are email addresses.

 

[MiKhan]

Then, simply create another Gmail account just for the phone book contact list. Or use any other cloud service compatible with Android. Or setup own CardDav server (Baikal, etc...) and use CardDav app for syncing. There are many choices.

 

[tanin]

Thanks again.

 

[MiKhan]

You're welcome. Use "like" button instead of saying thanks ;-)