Expert: DebiN - 1/25/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have a Nokia 6102, purchased in January 2006. I've resurrected it several times after tumbles. Last week, however, it seems to have "gone to bed". I can get it to power up and, briefly, get into the contents of the phone. Online, I purchased an unlocked Nokia 6102, received today, and I inserted the sim. Some of my information comes up, but the contacts list, photos that I took, etc. do not. Puzzled, I scoured my User's Manual and have discovered that unless I specifically selected, in contacts section, that there are three ways to save the info. I never knew that, prior to now, so whenever I saved contact info, etc. it must have saved to phone memory only. My contacts list was invaluable to me, but I'm afraid that it's only in the phone memory of the old, damaged Nokia 6102.

My questions:

If I can get that phone to come up, again, is there a quick way, or any way, to copy the contacts from the old phone onto the sim card?

If I can't get the phone to come up, again, is there any way to retrieve the contacts info?

Would contacting my wireless carrier be wise, as a last resort to try to retrieve the contacts info, or would I likely be told that the carrier won't support my unlocked, though identical, Nokia 6102?

Any info, and/or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Elaine

ANSWER: If you can't get the old phone to turn on then neither you nor your carrier will be able to retrieve the contacts. I would recommend that you take the old and new phones to your carrier and see if they can get the old phone to turn on. If they can, they can copy the contacts to the new phone with equipment that they have in the stores. That is the fastest and best way to do this. If the phone won't turn on, however, there isn't any way for you or the carrier to get the contacts. As an FYI, with all phones, the contacts are automatically saved to the phone memory. Only if you specifically indicate that you want to save to the SIM are they saved there. It's better to save to phone memory, however, because then you can have multiple numbers for a single contact (which you can't do when saved to the SIM), you can also have custom ringtones (which you can't when saved to the SIM) and pictures, etc. It's not a bad idea to have a backup either to your computer or through your carrier (most have a backup plan for backing up to the network for a monthly or one-time fee). I hope this helps and best of luck. Thanks. DebiN

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Debi N,

Thanks for your answer to my first question about my Nokia 6102. I would like to save my contacts list to both the Phone memory, b/c of your advice that I can store multiple phone numbers, etc. when using phone memory for contacts, and the SIM card memory.

By carefully reading the Nokoia 6102 user's manual, I have found the section, on the phone, where I can select which memory to use. I selected Phone Memory and SChip.  When saving a contact, however, the only place it seems to be saved, according to info on phone display, is the phone memory. So, I navigated around the menus and found a place to copy the contact. When I select this option, it gives me the choice to "keep the original" or "move the original." Not knowing exactly what that means, I've tried selecting each option, as I've experiemented and tried to save to phone memory AND to SIM. Today, I found a place, by navigating the phone, where I'm supposed to be able to view the numbers I've saved to the SIM, but the only number that comes up is my own cell phone number. The  user's manual doesn't spell out, in clear detail, exactly how to save to both phone memory and SIM. Even though I can only save one phone number, per contact, to the SIM, it would be good to know that at I can, at least, retrieve that info should the phone become disfunctional, as my old Nokia 6102 did. Can you tell me how to save contact numbers to phone memory and to SIM, and how to double check that I have actually saved contact info to each memory? Thanks. Elaine  

Answer
If they are saved to both the phone and SIM, there should be an icon beside the contact (or within the contact) to show where they are saved. You would see multiple entries because I don't believe there is a way to have it on both without that. If there is with this device, that's great, but I'm not aware of that. It could be that the keep original means that it is saving to the other location and not moving it. That would be the best way to put it on both. I don't think you have to check other than taking out the SIM and putting it in another phone and seeing if your contacts are there. So, keep original, means make a copy to the other location. That's the right choice. Good detective work in figuring this out!!! THanks.