Digital Voice Contacts

[davidjones2649]

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?

[VeteranISPUser]

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.

[imjolly]

@davidjones2649 

what device did you use to create your vcf file?

[davidjones2649]

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.

[davidjones2649]

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

[imjolly]

I think the phone have a limit of 500 contacts

[Stevek1311]

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-U... 

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

[earwakera]

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... 

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...

[Stevek1311]

Thanks earwakera - that helps

[earwakera]

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