Hello again readers! Dear Berry is here once again with a mailbag full of BlackBerry questions and woes. Today's question comes from Naj who asks:

I am using a BlackBerry Q10 phone and a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. My entire phone book is saved in my blackberry phone. Some contacts are saved under local contacts and some are linked with Google contacts. The numbers that are linked with Google are synchronized with my Samsung phone however the numbers named as local contacts on my blackberry do not synchronize with my Samsung phone. How do I change all the local saved contacts to Google synchronized contacts so that I can see these contacts on my Samsung phone as well?

If you are running OS 10.2.1 there is a new feature that was added regarding contacts. When creating new contacts it now prompts if you wish to save to local contacts, your synced account or the SIM card.

For existing contacts that are local there is a way to to save them to your synced Gmail account so that it should appear on your Samsung phone.

  • Go into the contacts application
  • Navigate to a contact that is saved locally and tap on it
  • At the bottom, tap on the three dots (more) icon and select the Copy to option from the side action menu
  • From the next screen place a check mark next to each location you wish to save the contact to (i.e. Local, Gmail, or SIM)
  • Tap on Done to complete the action

As an alternative you can download ContactsImEx and use the free application to export your address book as a CSV file. Using this file you could either import the CSV to Gmail on their website or on your device itself. I offer this as an alternative because if you have hundreds of contacts you may not have the time to perform the above steps repeatedly.

Depending on your Samsung phone these instructions may differ slightly. If you were to send this CSV file to your Android device and download the file you can import directly.

  • Go into the contacts application
  • Tap on the menu button and select Import/Export
  • The next box will ask you where you want to import from. Choose the storage where you have downloaded the file (i.e. USB storage or SD Card)
  • The next screen will ask where you wish to save the contacts too (Device/local, Gmail, Samsung, etc.). Choose the location which in this case would be Gmail.
  • When it has searched and found the CSV/vCard file it will ask how you want to import (vCard file, import multiple files, import all vCard files). Choose the appropriate one and tap ok to import.

Please note that if you sync your Google account with your BlackBerry you might see duplicates on your list as well using this method. The easiest method would be to use the Copy To method described above.

Now there are other methods with which to accomplish this. Feel free to share your methods in the comments below!

See you next time!

Have a question about BlackBerry etiquette? Need advice on how to cope with your BlackBerry addiction? Dear Berry has you covered and there's no question too big or problem too small. Submit any of your BlackBerry woes by email to [email protected] or on Twitter @DearBerryCB.

Read more