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Using BitPim to Access Data on LG VX6100 Cellphone

July 22, 2007 by debbie T | Mac Software • Wireless

I have a few saved camera photos on my LG VX6100 and since Verizon Wireless restricts access, I needed to figure out how to access it myself.

I ordered a cheap USB data cable on Amazon.com and downloaded BitPim – the free open source software for Macs, Windows and Linux that allows access to the file data on closed/restricted cell phones.

I am a Mac User, but I suspect the experience is fairly similar for Windows users, although it states in the help files that Windows users need drivers.

After download, I installed and launched BitPim. I highly recommend reading through the help tutorial, it will save time on figuring out what to do.

I attached the LG VX6100 to my laptop, after BitPim launched and that could be the reason it didn’t work initially. I quit the app, and started again. It didn’t recognize my phone again at start up, but somehow once I set the preferences again, it did recognize the phone.

BitPim settings

NOTE: If you just want to download your data, check the box next to “Block writing anything to the phone” – I unchecked this setting in order to upload ringtones.

Click the “Get data from phone” icon, and add a check next to the items to download.

I didn’t care about my contacts, call history, etc. All I wanted was my camera photos. I chose “wallpaper” and “ringtones” in the data download settings.

BitPim data download settings

I checked the log, and my data was downloading. For some reason my ringtones didn’t download, but a few sounds did download; all my camera photos downloaded, along with the default phone graphics.

Adding a Ringtone to the LG VX6100

I wanted to test the ability to upload a new ringtone to the VX6100, so I found a cute little “Bewitched Nose Wiggle” sound on my hard drive.

On the main workspace, right-click on Ringers, and choose “Add to Ringers”, navigate to your sound file, and select it – BitPim converts to .mp3.

Once it was added to the ringers folder, I chose the “Send Data to Phone” icon, and carefully chose the “add” radio button with a check box next to ringtones. I did not want to choose “Replace All” as I didn’t want to risk losing all my beloved default ringtones, especially since it was unable to download them.

It worked! I have a new ringtone on my cell phone! COOL!

Adding New Images to LG VX6100

Since the ringtone was so easy to add, I thought it would be cool to add one of my logos as my phone wallpaper. On the main BitPim workspace, right-click on Images and choose “Add to Images”, navigate to the image file. Choose how you want to format the image; I selected wallpaper, and I adjusted the crop boundaries to fit fully around my image.

Using the same process as the ringtone upload, I clicked the icon for “Send Data to Phone” and again, I carefully chose the “add” radio button along with a check box next to images.

It worked and now I have my web site logo on my cell phone!

LAST NOTES: BitPim cautions unplugging the phone from your computer if data is busy uploading or downloading. Be very careful with this. I don’t know if I was correct, but I quit the app before unplugging. This is not official software, so it could damage your phone irreparably, so proceed at your own risk!

There are 3 comments

  1. Hi, readers of my blog very often askes me about how to upload ringtones on CDMA phones, trying to solve this problem i found your blog, and this cool tool BitPim, realy good tool for CDMA phones, thank you very mutch …

    Comment by ringtones dady on April 27th, 2009

  2. Hello, is the cable that you ordered the one that is $.01? Just making sure; there’s no “lump” in the middle of the cable, and most of the ones I see have that lump. And you really had no problem with it at all? I think the cable that I have must be the problem. Thanks so much for writing this up. Jason

    Comment by Jason Creek on May 16th, 2009

  3. Hello Jason,

    If I remember correctly, yes, I did order the one for $.01. It’s the one linked in the article. I really should find the cable and install it again on my laptop. It’s been awhile since I used it.

    Good luck, I hope it works for ya!

    Comment by debbie T on May 17th, 2009