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Digital Voice Contacts

davidjones2649 — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 12:27:06 GMT

I can add a contact using my Essential handset and it saves successfully. However, this would be very tedious adding all my contacts manually.

I have created a .vcf file and tried importing it into my SH2. All appears to go normally, it says saving, but no contacts appear on the handset. Any suggestions?

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

VeteranISPUser — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 13:40:34 GMT

Hi @davidjones2649 How did you create your .vcf file? I have successfully imported 120 outlook contacts by exporting to .csv, importing to gmail contacts, exporting to .vcf and finally importing into the SH2.

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

imjolly — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 13:56:47 GMT

@davidjones2649

what device did you use to create your vcf file?

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

davidjones2649 — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 14:08:09 GMT

I exported them from iPhone SE 2020 as a vCard file. I tried to import them as 1 vcf file!, also as separate files for each contact. I understand vcf comes in version 1,2, and 3. But I don’t know which version applies to my export or which version is used by the SH2.

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

davidjones2649 — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 14:10:50 GMT

Thanks. It seems like a long way round but not as long as manually entering 6 - 700 contacts. I’ll give it a try and let you know

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

imjolly — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 14:48:40 GMT

I think the phone have a limit of 500 contacts

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

Stevek1311 — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:05:14 GMT

This all seems very hit and miss trying to guess how to use this feature.

Which version of Vcard format to use
Which columns to use
Can a contact have both landline and mobile numbers or do they have to be separate entries

Anyone hoping the official user guide will help will be very disappointed https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/digital-voice/advanced-phone/BT-Advanced-Digital-Home-Phone-User-Guide.pdf

And right now I can't get it to work so any help appreciated please

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

earwakera — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 14:56:56 GMT

I too have had fun and games with adding contacts to an Essentials phone and Smart Hub 2. Thanks to globe1nh for his useful advice re VCF files on this thread: https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/All-Digital-Voice-contacts-have-disappeared/td-p/2135569

I have found that the following format (this is one contact entry in a VCF file) works:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
FN:Fred Bloggs
N:Bloggs;Fred;;;
TEL;VALUE=uri;TYPE=home:tel:01234 567890
TEL;VALUE=uri;TYPE=cell:tel:07654 567890
TEL;VALUE=uri;TYPE=work:tel:04321 567890
MEDLODY:0
ACCOUNTID:0
DFTNUM:0
OWN:0
END:VCARD

To establish what format the SH2 requires, I added a new contact on one of the phones and populated the name and phone number fields. I then logged in to the SH2 and exported the file (login to the SH2; select Phone from the main menu; select the Contacts tab; select Export; you will then have to login with the Admin password (written on the back of the SH2); you may need to select Phone > Contacts again to get back to the correct page, then Export > Save File.

The resulting VCF file shows the format that the SH2 expects. And yes, MEDLODY is not a typo!

I ended up exporting a VCF file from my Google Contacts (with around 200 contacts) and then running it through a script (using awk for technical folks out there) to convert to the SH2 VCF format. You might be able to replicate the correct format by clever character substitution in a text editor, but it might be tedious.

Once you have your complete VCF file, you can then Import it to the SH2 via the same route as above.

I'm still battling with my Essentials phones; setting a Speed Dial causes the phone (or SH2 maybe?) to drop a digit - and this is pretty terminal when trying to make a phone call! Anyway, that's for another day...

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

Stevek1311 — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 16:28:43 GMT

Thanks earwakera - that helps

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

earwakera — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 09:40:07 GMT

An update on this.

While having a number like "01234 567890" in the address book allows you to dial that number directly from the phone's address book, it confuses Caller Display (the service that should match an incoming call to a number stored in the address book and usefully display a name, rather than a number).

Removing any blanks (white space) within a phone number fixes this problem; it's also the reason that it was dropping a digit on my Speed Dials. It beggars belief that, in a modern system, a space can't simply be ignored by the software (it's such a trivial thing to get right), but that's progress, I guess. H'mm.

So the revised VCF file should look like this:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
FN:Fred Bloggs
N:Bloggs;Fred;;;
TEL;VALUE=uri;TYPE=home:tel:01234567890
TEL;VALUE=uri;TYPE=cell:tel:07654567890
TEL;VALUE=uri;TYPE=work:tel:04321567890
MEDLODY:0
ACCOUNTID:0
DFTNUM:0
OWN:0
END:VCARD

Ashley

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

dephead2004 — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 14:40:21 GMT

Excellent. Many thanks for pointing out how to correct the transcription error on importing a vcf fine into the DV phones.

I also investigated the case of the missing space.

Gmail and outlook and my mobile can use a number with a space.

So to can the bt premium phone when importing the file via Bluetooth from the mobile contacts.

So here's the question. Is it the new top of the range dv phone cannot use an import routine that removes the space?

Or is it that the new top of the range dv phone cannot read a caller id with a space in it like my mobile

Or is it both

Re: Digital Voice Contacts

earwakera — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:48:24 GMT

Firstly, there seem to be 2 varieties of "Essential Digital Home" (EDH) phones: they look pretty much identical from the outside - although there is a slight physical difference at the bottom, charging, end.

One has firmware X42_BT_H30213 and Eeprom 01.00 (this is the better of the 2 varieties)

One has firmware V3.0_BT_015 and Eeprom V001

Menu > Settings > Product Info > Handset will get you to the firmware and Eeprom data.

The first type seems to work better than the other, being less picky about a space in the number and allowing me to dial directly from the Address Book with numbers either with or without a space; it was also a lot faster to scroll through the Address Book list than the second phone. Neither of these phones, however, would give correct Caller Display if there was a space in the stored number.

We also have an Alexa "Advanced Digital Home" (ADH) phone. This has firmware X65_BT_H31038 and Eeprom 01.00 (so closer to matching the "good" EDH phone). Same problems apply to that regarding Caller Display and spaces in the numbers as do to the good EDH phone.

I imagine the way Caller Display works is simply to match the number of the incoming call against the table of names and numbers stored in the hub and/or phone (it should, of course, ignore spaces). Whether it's the hub that's doing the lookup or the phone, I don't know. Whatever it is, it's very poor programming - and I'm being very generous here, coming from a programming background myself.