Expert: DebiN - 4/25/2011

Question
My old flip phone just developed antenna problems (nil to low signal strength) so I bought a used, but like-new LG 8600 on eBay.  Verizon transferred my account over to the new phone and I am using it with no problems but said they could not transfer my contacts, and pictures over because I did not have a Verizon utility (I think it was "Backup Assistant") installed on the "new" phone, and furthermore Verizon has not supported the utility since late march so I would have to transfer all the contacts over manually.  This means reading my contact list entry by entry off the old phone and using the numeric keypad to put the info on the new phone line by line.  That's crazy.  Isn't there a better way?  Some workaround involving the card?  Bluetooth?  I just bought a bluetooth-enabled laptop but don't have any sync software for the phone.

I bought a micro SD card and expect to transfer the pictures with it, but don't see any option with this phone to transfer contact info to the card.  Right now I can't use the card I bought because it won't format, I guess because, according to one of our older posts it's too big at 4 gigs.  I have a 1 gig card coming.

Answer
Unfortunately, there is no easier way to do the transfer because you didn't have the backup assistant and because Verizon doesn't use GSM technology where they could have transfered your information to a SIM card (only AT&T and T-Mobile can do this). However, the store should have had a device to allow the transfer. Can't do any of this with bluetooth or anything else, unfortunately.

You can't transfer contact info to an SD card. It's not possible. You will need to manually do this, I'm afraid. Sorry that I didn't have better news. Also, be careful of the SD card size. Your new phone has to be able to support the card. Don't buy a card that is not compatible and by compatible, that means size wise (megabytes).