different ways to backup mobile numbers and contacts

I came to know how important it is to back up cell phone contacts periodically until recently when all my contacts and phone numbers accidentally got deleted in my cell phone and what weird is my work is on mobile development and i work on contacts and calendar sync its a really shame! that i did not backed up my own phone, all 200+ phone contact numbers and address went in drain :(

while there are lot of free and paid apps to choose depending on ones need many people including techies seldom backup their phone number and contacts i think many of them like the lesson learnt hard way like me ;) what ever it is damage has already been done and i lost my 200+ numbers of friends and relatives and already started the painful procedure of recollecting the phone numbers back.

backing up a contacts on mobile phone is not a rocket science like before if it was in 2005 or early i would have said it was a bit difficult but now almost all the phone comes with a sync application either properitary or opensource and there are many free and paid applications and services out there that not even backup your phone numbers but also files, ringtones, application almost all the content of your cell phone. below are the some of the tips, tricks to backup your phone:


Proprietary and Open Source Sync Application:

Most of the modern mobile phones comes with the application suites which contains proprietary sync application which helps you backing up your mobile phone contacts on your personal computer some phones even allow you to sync your phone contacts to be synced with Microsoft outlook or outlook express just check your Mobile phone manuals for assistance..

SyncML Client (Open Source)

Many Sony erricson phones comes with a built in SYNCML Client and there are free SyncML clients available for almost all the famous mobile phone such as Sony, Nokia, Motorola, HTC etc which can be used to backs up your contacts on air with free backup services such as Funambol, ZYB periodically so that you can get the latest contacts in case your cellphone gets lost or damaged whats more most of the syncml services allow user to see and modify the contacts on their web portal.

Funambol Mobile Sync Client
ZYB Mobile Sync Clients

above are the links to some of the free SyncML service providers.

Carrier based backup (Proprietary)

Almost all the carriers in the world offer a paid phone sync tied up with third party application developers which can backup contacts, calendar, tones and other files from your phone and this again depends on phones you use some phones may not be supported by the carrier

If you have no issues and willing to keep your phone information on servers i think above SyncML and Carrier Based backup will be a good idea but if you are looking for privacy of information then check out other alternatives.

Google (gmail) - Thunderbird - Cellphone ( My solution and best one)

I was searching for a unified solution, that is i wanted a unified addressbook that can be used on my Mobile Phone, Email Client and Webmail and always synchronized that is i have the upto date same information at any given point of time on my cellphone, email client and webmail... and since my website email is attached to gmail(Google apps) this was a piece of cake and i bet most of the worlds population will be having gmail i strongly believe this is the best solution and not only your contacts will be available offline in thunderbird but also in the gmail server so that you can sync it on air to your cellphone with some free third party application.

So how to use gmail and Thunderbird as a Cloud to sync contacts on ?

Simple! Thunderbird has loads of free addons that can sync your phone addressbook to many mobile phones and the addons which can sync all the thunderbird addressbook to your gmail account...

Firefox addon to sync gmail contacts to thunderbird
Nokia Sync for thunderbird

above are the few such addons that helps in syncing from thunderbird to cellphone (supports major mobile such as nokia, sony erricson, motorola etc) and thunderbird to gmail server as far as i know this is the best and reliable method if you know any other similar cloud sync for addressbook do let us know