Well that was fun, kind of! I needed to backup a Blackberry 9900 and copy the contacts to a new Android device. Lots of research done online and the two methods are Sync with Outlook or using Google Sync for Blackberry.
Now the fun part: If you don’t have Outlook you opt for Google Sync. Google Sync installed, I go to sync contacts with my new shiny GMail account but alas, no new contacts even though it says it has done it. On deeper research I have 2 Contact lists on my phone. 1 is GMail and the other is UNKNOWN. All my contacts are stored under UNKNOWN. Great, this option is not valid.
Next, I get Outlook, I set up Blackberry Desktop Manager 7.0 and try and sync, same issue. None of the contacts from the UNKNOWN list export.
By now I’m running out of time and just need something that works. I spit out a backup and lo and behold we have a new format: .BBB. RIM just couldn’t stick to .IPD could they! ABC Amber converter didn’t work, Blackberry Extractor did but they want £15 for the privilege and even though I tried to register it wouldn’t work. Some people said to rename the .bbb to a zip and extract and there’s an IPD in there. This was the case pre-DM7 days but no more. Stumped for a bit I consulted the internet. Someone screamed about an App called Magicberry from http://www.menastep.com/MagicBerry.exe so I gave it a whirl. Yes, it opened the .BBB file and then hung. Interestingly though, it had done something funny to the file and the path was set to my temp folder. I went to %TEMP% and then in to the folder and tada, a new .IPD file. MagicBerry extracts the .bbb data and then makes a .ipd.
That was all I needed. I then copied to a safe location, opened in ABC Amber and tada! All data extracted. Thanks to those on crackberry.com forums for all the advice they gave me without knowing it 🙂
Thanks for this! I got the error message & wasn’t sure if there was anything left for me to try. Now I’m off to get ABC since MagicBerry couldn’t open its own .ipd file either (:
I hope it worked!
Hey there, trying to complete the same process but cant get a working version of ABC amber, seems maybe they’ve been bought and are now charging to download. Any ideas?
Did you manage to do this yet?
If not, you can grab it from Softpedia. They usually have links to older versions.
thanks so much!
this tip worked like a charm!
I just downloaded Magic Berry and I have tried reinstalling a few times and I continually get the error message “Component ‘mscomctl.ocx’ or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid” I am running Win 7 SP1 Pro 64 bit. Does anyone have any input that will help me gather my contacts so I can get them in to Outlook?
Thank You
@Michael
You can try this:
Copy mscomctl.ocx into your c:\windows\SysWOW64 folder
1.Start Menu
2.All Programs
3.Accessories
4.Command Prompt(Right Click Run as Admin)
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\xxxxxxx>cd c:\windows\syswow64
c:\Windows\SysWOW64>regsvr32 mscomctl.ocx
Hit enter
Thanks for your help and its working…..could you provide me the registration key of Elcomsoft Blackberry Extractor (the latset one)……..
You’ll have to register and pay for it, I’m not dealing in illegal software, sorry. I’m very much an opensource and freeware man.
Thank you so much!! It worked for me too. MagicBerry kept giving me errors that said it “could not parse files” while trying open a bbb. i kept trying to open it. finally it said “please wait” and a blue bar appeared. i let it run but nothing happened. finally i hit ok and a file popped up. i disregarded the random file until i saw this post. apparently, magicberry saved an ipd file somewhere on my computer. so with a quick search for .ipd files, i found the file and opened it with ABC Amber! Now i have ALL my data and its easy to read and export if necessary! Magicberry takes the bbb and makes it an ipd file. You just have to find it and voila!
FINALLY!
I got it to work!!
Yay!
I was just about to have a serious conniption… when
Aside from the fact that the trial version of ABC Amber is indeed a pain in the ass because it only does 10 lines of your contacts at a time, and this is only convenient to a person who has way too much time on there hands, case in point, me!
The trick to getting your contacts transferred into gmail with the correct name associated with the contact details without having the “unknown” coded name error occur (although it is not really an actual error, for lack of better words i will just call it that), is in the “field settings!!!”
I guess this is answer now that i think about it, that is a basic database function here, but basically… it goes something like this:
In the ABC Amber Window – Go to…
-> Tools
-> Options
-> General Tab
-> [Under the Contacts Options radio box – make sure the option chosen is First Name + Last Name] – if not selected, then chose this option next to the “Full Name” field.
-> in this same window… [ Under the Database Options – radio box – make sure the option chosen is FirstName + LastName] this will be next to the “Contact Field” box.
-> Select Ok (to save your changes and exit out of the window).
Then go to the “Fields to Export” button right next to the “Save As” function near the bottom of the spreadsheet with your contacts in the ABC Amder window.
-> De-select All
-> Only Select the relevant fields that have data in them that you require transferring [If there are any null fields in this process, it may lead to errors, so try to make sure you select carefully in this step.
-> Select ok.
Now go to…
-> “Save As” – and save your selected contacts as a cvs file.
-> Go to an internet window and Log into your google account.
-> Select “Contacts” from the drop down menu on the top left hand corner under the Google logo.
-> Select “More”
-> Select “Import”
-> Choose File – and select your saved “.cvs file” from its location.
-> Select “Ok”
And presto!
You should have the contacts deposited to your contacts folder with there names and contact details in toe.
I was so frustrated downloading this program, and that program to do this process, because i was a bit too hasty in giving my blackberry over to someone else, and so i embarked on this long arduous process 3 hrs later.
I really was not about to pay any company to give me my damn contacts off of my Blackberry, sorry!
But Geekphreek, got me this far in terms of decoding my contacts and getting them “import” ready.
So thanks for that my dude! Very very helpful you were!
Hope this helps some of you other frustrated users like me out there!
Wow,
I was going nuts with this issue of few contact categories for months now.
you are a genius!!! Thank you so much….. it was so easy I’m amazed.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you….
I converted the .bbb file to .ipd file and restored it back to my phone.
now i have only one category “Default” with all my contacts in one place.
The only thing I need to figure out now is why my google sync doesn’t work. I guess its time to say goodbye to my blackberry 🙁 .
Thanks again!!!
Hey!!! Sorry , first, for my english i’m french… I’ve made all that you write but i dont’t have any .ipd in my computer after extraction by magicberry… i don’t understand because i’ve message:
“Error Parsing the file, couldn’t read the DB tittle error “…
Is there somebody to help me pleaaaassse????
Thanks a lot
C.
Did you ever fix this?
Thank you so much for your information…
Amazed.. Its done.. So fast and simple.. Buddy really thanks a ton..i spent almost a week searching how to transfer contacts from blackberry to android.. You saved my time.. once again Thank you very Much..
geekphreek, Thank you!!! this really help me solve the problem… after surfing the web 3 hours, you gave me the solution…
Just used latest version of Magicberry and opened bbb backup . Quick and easy .
Great
Thanks for the link
Thanks geekphreek!
This is how I did, just an hour back:
1. Backup all contacts using Blackberry Desktop Software. The file that was generated was .bbb file.
2. Downloaded Magicberry software, and used it to import the bbb file. When I imported the file, in its process it generated the ipd file in %TEMP% folder. This ipd file is the main source.
3. This ipd file is imported into a software Blackberry Contacts Extractor (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bb-contact-extr/?source=typ_redirect), which generates a CSV.
4. Modify the CSV to meet the Google Import standards. Then import to Google Contacts.
5. Sync the android to that google account.
Boom! :smileyhappy:
Thanks!