Best of both

Posted on 14 Aug 2008 at 12:39

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Backing up

Synchronisation ensures important day-to-day information is copied from your phone to your PC, which is reassuring if you lose your handset. However, it doesn't automatically back up things like text messages, ringtones, music or photos.Of the models we looked at, the Nokia came with an extra facility to back up this information, but the others didn't. That left us to manually back up our media by copying it from the phone's storage to the PC after connecting the phone in file transfer mode. Unlike syncing, file transfer leaves you to do all the work.

File transfer

Most phones now use flash memory cards for storage. When you connect the phone to a PC via USB and select the file transfer mode on the handset, you get direct access to this memory.

Ordinarily, once connected, your phone's memory card will take the next available drive letter in Windows. Open this 'drive' in Windows Explorer and you can browse it like any other storage device. You can drag and drop files onto the drive for use on the handset, or drag files off it onto your PC, for example to download photos or videos you've taken on your phone.

However, there are two important caveats when transferring media files from your computer to your phone: they must be placed in the correct directory within the phone's storage, and they must be in a format your phone can read. A particular handset may only be able to deal with audio in MP3 format, for example - as opposed to MP4, WAV or other options - so you may need to use conversion software on your PC to reformat your tracks before transferring them.

Assuming your files are in the right format, you need to copy them into the relevant folder within your phone's memory (whether internal or memory card). The names of the folders may be self-explanatory, but if not, check inside them for files similar to those you want to download. For example, copy music into the folder that already contains music tracks. On our Sony Ericsson and Samsung SGH-D600 phones, this was titled 'Music'; on the Nokia N95 8GB it was 'Sounds'.

If the transferred files aren't listed on the handset after transfer, the most likely reason is that you've saved them in the wrong location. Another possibility is that you unplugged the phone before releasing it from Windows, which can render the files you've transferred, or even the whole memory card, unreadable. As with any other USB device, it's vital to 'safely remove' your phone's storage before unplugging it, either using the menu that appears when you right-click its drive icon or by clicking the icon in the Taskbar (showing a tick in a green circle).

Using your phone as a modem

In issue 206 we looked at the current crop of 3G broadband USB 'dongles' that let you access the Internet at high speeds via the mobile phone networks. Most 3G-capable mobile phones can also be used as a modem, connected to your PC via USB. This works the same way as with a separate dongle plugged into the PC, but bear in mind that your existing mobile phone tariff may not have the same low data transfer costs that you could get when buying a dongle for the same network. Check it out before you browse.

It's surprisingly simple to use a 3G handset to connect a laptop. Because all your user and billing data is already stored in your SIM card, there should be no configuration required. For example, using our modest Sony Ericsson K610i, it was just a matter of clicking Internet Connection in the PC suite software, then choosing Connect on the main screen.