Migrating Palm devices, Sony Clie -> T650

[Mr. Goodbar]

Has anyone here had any experience with moving from one Palm device to the 650?

I've got an old Sony Clie Palm device that I use pretty heavily. Now that Verizon has released the Treo 650, I'm thinking of picking one up soon. I'd like to get all my data from my Clie (running Palm OS 4.0S) onto the Treo with minimal hassle.

Is it safe to attempt to sync with my PC using just the software I use when syncing/backing up my Palm? This assume the software will just think it's a Palm that was erased and will upload all necessary data to the Treo. Am I being too optimistic here?

Any advise?

Help is appreciated. Thanks.

[millerhifi]

When you upgrade from a previous Palm device to a new Treo the installation software will usually quarantine any third party apps that are not compatible with the Treo and OS5. However it doesn't always do a good job. I recommend starting from scratch with a new back up folder and than installing you apps one at a time or at least make sure that they are OS5 compatible before installing them to your new Treo.

[Mr. Goodbar]

The installation software you're referring to is the Palm Desktop, right? Or something on the Palm itself? And what exactly do you mean by "backup folder"? Is this the place where I should install old applications on the new Treo? What damage can I do if I have apps that aren't compatible with the new Palm OS? My ill-informed assumption was that if I find my favorate apps no longer work with Palm OS 5, I can simply delete them. (As you can tell, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to handhelds.)

Thanks!

[kabeyun]

I did the exact same thing, migrating to the Treo 650 from a Clie. No problems whatsoever. You've got 2 issues:
1. getting your address ("contacts"), to do ("tasks"), memo, and datebook ("calendar") data into the Treo.
2. migrating your 3rd party apps and their data.

To solve #1, I was very superstitious. Rather than forcefeed the Treo a Clie data file (no matter how allegedly compatible), I chose to IR beam the data into the Treo. That way, the Treo could assimilate the new data the way it wanted to. Steps:
1. Set up the exact same categories in the Treo's ROM apps as in the Clie's.
2. For each app, make sure the first category is selected in the Clie & the Treo, tap the Clie's menu, and select "Beam Category."
3. Repeat for each category in each app. Tho whole thing won't take more than 10 minutes.

To solve #2, I recommend going to PalmGear or Handango, and checking if there are updated versions of your important 3rd party apps. Eg: I use eWallet and JFile a great deal, and both had updated version that are Treo 650-compatible (the older version of JFile did hang the Treo once, and the update fixed it). You're probably right that all you'd have to do is delete an offending app. But the way I see it, the fewer crashes and resets, the less chance for some obscure corruption to occur.

[Mr. Goodbar]

kabeyun,
I'm glad to hear someone else has been through this and survived. Thanks for the tips.

About beaming categories: Did you do it individually, or just beam the "All" category? I'd be worried that beaming the "All" category would result in individual contacts/notes/todos losing their associated special categories even if identical categories exist on the receiving end.

[kabeyun]

I'd be worried that beaming the "All" category would result in individual contacts/notes/todos losing their associated special categories even if identical categories exist on the receiving end.

Exactly. That's why I set up the same corresponding categories in the Treo first. Then you "Beam Category" for each Clie category. When the beam is completed, the Treo will ask you into which category you want to accept the beamed data. Since you've already set up same-named categories, just find the corresponding one on the pop-up menu and you're good to go.

[pjgeraghty]

Has anyone here had any experience with moving from one Palm device to the 650?

I've got an old Sony Clie Palm device that I use pretty heavily. Now that Verizon has released the Treo 650, I'm thinking of picking one up soon. I'd like to get all my data from my Clie (running Palm OS 4.0S) onto the Treo with minimal hassle.

Is it safe to attempt to sync with my PC using just the software I use when syncing/backing up my Palm? This assume the software will just think it's a Palm that was erased and will upload all necessary data to the Treo. Am I being too optimistic here?

Any advise?

Help is appreciated. Thanks.

I had a hassle with it because some of my sony apps would cause the treo to crash. ultimately, I had to create a new profile and do the sync, and then beam some of the items from the sony to the treo. Not a perfect solution, but it was quick and satisfactory. Be prepared for some challenges, though. and obviously, do lots of backups first.

[Mr. Goodbar]

I had a hassle with it because some of my sony apps would cause the treo to crash. ultimately, I had to create a new profile and do the sync, and then beam some of the items from the sony to the treo. Not a perfect solution, but it was quick and satisfactory. Be prepared for some challenges, though. and obviously, do lots of backups first.

Thanks for the warning.

Did your Treo stop crashing / resetting after you cleaned up the old Sony apps? I've been hearing a lot of stories about Treos resetting for no good reason..

[pjgeraghty]

Thanks for the warning.

Did your Treo stop crashing / resetting after you cleaned up the old Sony apps? I've been hearing a lot of stories about Treos resetting for no good reason..

Yes, after I did a hard reset (wiping it to factory defaults) it was fine. I have had a couple of resets since then, but not as many as I've heard of others having.

The quarantine ideas suggested by others are good. As mentioned, the "automatic" quarantine by the install software is not reliable. Kaeyun's suggestion is a good one, but virtually all of my data was from outlook so I just did a laptop-overwrites-handheld and I was all set. If you use Palm desktop you might have better luck with Kabeyun's beaming method and then create a new profile to sync with.

Good luck.

[DigitalJEM]

kabeyun,
I'm glad to hear someone else has been through this and survived. Thanks for the tips.

About beaming categories: Did you do it individually, or just beam the "All" category? I'd be worried that beaming the "All" category would result in individual contacts/notes/todos losing their associated special categories even if identical categories exist on the receiving end.

I also converted from a Sony Clie NX-60 to a Treo 650. Had a few issues with it crashing due to non-compatible apps, but once I filtered those out I havn't had a single problem.

One thing I have noticed since migrating to the Treo 650 is (I do alot of testing so).... you can't install too many programs at the same time. I've had time were i've installed one app and it causes my device to crash.. I hard reset, and resync with the computer.... the device resets after the sync and sometimes will go into an endless loop. If I hard reset again, and take all extra apps out of my backup folder and add them 1 to 3 at a time.. I will get them all back on there without having any issues. Something to keep in mind if you run into the endless loop problem after hot-syncing after a hard-reset.