Got a Palm Pre? A lot of people have lost there contacts, dont loose yours.

The new Palm Pre is a great phone, but it seems that Palm has an issue being able to restore contacts from a re-sync after replacing a broken or defective Pre.

The first thing I would suggest is to perform your own backup to gmail or exchange and not rely only on the built in Palm sync feature. Also update your phones software and firmware and then perform a backup.

The reason the data is being wiped when they replace a Pre is due to the firmware version on the two devices differ. If you already have a broken Pre and are getting a replacement, here is what you need to do:

This procedure will provide a method of updating the replacement webOS phone to the latest version of software before signing in to restore your Palm profile. Follow the steps below:


1. Ensure that the replacement phone is activated by your wireless service provider with voice and data provisioning.

2. Power on the replacement phone by pressing and holding the power key. After the phone boots, select “Create New Profile.”

3. Create a fake/”dummy” Palm profile using the following format (where x should be any random character) for your email address: xxxxxx@updatewebos.com . Create a password of your choosing to associate with this fake email address.

4. After the phone finishes the setup process, you will be brought to card view. If available and if your phone supports it, open the connections menu, and try to connect to Wi-Fi. If you cannot, ensure that you see Ev in the upper right hand corner of your screen. The data connection will be used to download a software update.

5. Ensure that your battery is charged above 30%. If it is charged below 30%, please charge your phone until it reaches 30% or replace the battery.

6. Go to Launcher > Updates

7. If an Update is available, download and install the update. If no update is available, continue to step 7

8. Go to Launcher > Device Info

9. Confirm that software version is webOS 1.3.1 or higher. If the software version is not 1.3.1 or higher, use webOS doctor (visit http://palm.com/rom), or check for an Update again in the Updates app.

10. Go to Device Info > Resets

11. Tap Full Erase twice

12. Your phone is now updated to the latest version of webOS, and ready to accept a new Palm profile.

13. Ensure the phone has a strong Ev data connection

14. Select “Sign In To My Profile.”

15. Enter your personal Palm profile email address and password (not the “dummy” profile setup in step 2). Your Palm profile will now restore on to the replacement phone using the latest version of WebOS.

DONE! No data loss!