Bluetooth connection problems - fix

When it works, it works pretty well, but my Bluetooth phone and PC adapter can give me headaches. I will pair up my phone with my PC using a PIN and the connection will work... until sometime in the future when no manner of unpairing and disabling Bluetooth both on the phone and on the PC will get them to talk. Restarting the computer would probably help, but that's not a workable option as I would have to reload all my programs. The error message on the phone (a Nokia 6133) will be something like "Bluetooth connection not available". The PC will time out even after a successful pairing. My phone will even be "connected" but won't talk (in this case I'm trying to synchronize. I use a Jabra A320s USB Bluetooth device.

However, I have found a way to reset the connection without having to restart the computer. This is with the Nokia PC Suite, so your mileage may vary with other devices. In the PC Suite, go to Manage Connections, and uncheck the Bluetooth (WIDCOMM) option, and check it off again. Click on Close and reconnect your device. If you are using the Synchronise application, you may have to use the Phone Selector to re-select your phone.

[Update] Alas, it was too good to be true. This fix does not immediately work sometimes. You must also unpair the device in your Bluetooth Places, and pair it again. On that note, I find it annoying with my Nokia 6133 that it does not recognize more than one computer. If I sync at work, and take it home, it uses the same computer name/sync pair. So if the passwords do not match, the sync does not work.

Manually synchronize Nokia 6133 and Google Calendar

Work in progress... but I wanted to post it to start a dialog.

I've discovered you can export calendar data from the Nokia 6133 (which I believe is compatible with the 6126) to Google Calendar, and with a few edits, vice versa, using your Bluetooth connection and a PC.

One of my criteria is that I want to transfer calendar data without using web services or packet data connection. I realize this is probably very old school but I have disabled web access on my phone. This guy gets it..

First, establish a Bluetooth connection (this is a separate topic in and of itself). Set up OBEX Object Push. Enable My PIM Item transfer.

Select a calendar item on the phone. Choose Options and send via Bluetooth. Log in to Google calendar and import the .VCS file.

To export from Google Calendar, select your calendar options and use the private ICS link to save a local file in iCalendar format of events. Edit the file to remove the extra data before BEGIN:VEVENT otherwise you will see an OPP error on import. Save and rename the files with extension .VCS. Drag the file to your OBEX link, and the phone should indicate calendar event received.

It would appear that the Nokia only reads the first event. Subsequent events can be imported by deleting the first event and repeating the drag/drop process.

[edited Feb. 2]