Support

We do not offer ANY support for versions of BitPim that were not downloaded by following the link on the BitPim home page at www.bitpim.org. You MUST go back to whomever you downloaded BitPim from.

Before posting anywhere, please take the time to read this article on How to ask questions the smart way (Note they do NOT provide support, just guidelines on how to ask questions/get support and get the best responses). Then follow the steps described below:

Before making a support request, please gather up the following information where possible. The goal is to ensure you have the relevant information so that the issue can be addressed as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

If you cannot get BitPim to talk to your phone at all, you need to follow the steps in serial troubleshooting first.

If you still cannot get BitPim to talk to your phone then you are out of luck. This page details why.

Summary
 

Start with the following items. If you leave them out, we will have to ask and it will delay getting to a solution for you. BitPim supports multiple phones, operating systems and cables, and they all affect issues you may have.

• Which version of BitPim you are using
• What operating system you are using
• Which cell phone you are talking to (make and model)
• What cable you are using to talk to the phone

 

Make notes
 

You will need to gather information as described in the following points. The most important notes to start with are a description of what happened and a description of what you expected to happen.
 

If you got an exception dialog, please copy the contents.
 

This will show what happened at the point of the problem. The contents of the dialog are in the Log pane. Note that you must include the other contents of the log pane in addition to the exception. This is so we can tell what BitPim was doing leading up to the exception.
 

Get a copy of the contents of the Log pane.
 

This will show the history of actions BitPim was doing
 

What set of steps did you take
 

Work out the set of steps you did. This is to enable others to do the same set of steps in order to reproduce your problem.
 

Is it repeatable?
 

Does the problem happen every time. If it does, it is far easier to track down the cause and fix. Even if it isn't repeatable, there may be enough information from the previous steps to diagnose and fix it.
 

What have you tried?
 

In your attempts to fix the issue, what have you already tried, and what happened.?
 

Look on the web and in archives
 

Do a Google search incorporating lines of the error message, symptoms or what you have tried. You can also search the mailing list archives at SourceForge or at Gmane. Phone specific groups should also have their archives and search facilities.

Where to make your request

You should check the archives at SourceForge or Gmane to see if your problem has already been reported and solved.

BitPim Mailing list

You can post about your problem to the bitpim-user mailing list. This is read and responded to by a wide variety of BitPim users and developers, and you will get rapid responses if you have followed these guidelines fully. Please use this list for issues with BitPim itself.

Your posts should have a subject that indicates which phone you have, which operating system you are using, the type of cable you are using and an indication of the problem.

Note: The mailing list does not provide support for the various operating systems or for configuring device drivers. If you cannot get BitPim to talk to your phone then tough luck.. It only provides support for the BitPim software.

Phone specific resources

Some problems are more to do with the phones and how to use them. The help pages for the phones list various web pages, forums and mailings specific to those phones.

Do not do

Do not do any of the following. It takes up lots of other people's valuable time, and often annoys them. If you do any of them, you will likely just be ignored.

Mail individual developers
 

If the developer responds, the answer won't appear in any archives and so won't help other users. Other users won't be able to comment on the issue such as workarounds they have discovered or indications if the issue is unique to your configuration or affects everyone. Additionally the developers schedule their time carefully so your answer is unlikely to be timely anyway.
 

Mail/post in multiple locations
 

Some people think they will get quicker answers by posting to mailing lists, filling out SourceForge tracker items, and emailing individual developers. I can assure you that no one wants to answer/address the same issue two or more times. And if you are seen posting the same thing in more than one location, the people who can answer will wait a long time to ensure you aren't also posting in others (remember they usually participate in multiple locations as well).
 

Be impatient
 

Some people seem to get upset if their issues are not answered immediately. Remember that other people have their own lives and responsibilities and contribute as their own schedules and priorities allow. If you have given a detailed report, they may be doing research. After all, a good question deserves a good answer.
 

Post no information
 

One report consisted of "When BitPim talks to my phone, it gets some sort of exception". BitPim does fundamentally work with the phones we support. There may be some issues but we don't release software that just doesn't work. Furthermore not giving any information at all about what happened, the contents of the exception etc means no one can help. Follow the steps at the top of this page.
 

Ignoring archives
 

Many questions have already been asked and answered (multiple times). Check the archives!

BitPim Online Help             built 27 December 2006