SplashID: PalmOS to Android

In this continuing series on my conversion from PalmOS to Android I discuss my solution for passwords and other sensitive information. To read Part 2 click here: Converting Palm eBooks to Android

I used SplashID on my Treo to hold all my passwords and other sensitive information. So, I was pleased to see that Splash ID was available for Android. However, after further investigation, I discovered that it only runs on Android version 2.0 and greater. I own a Sprint HTC Hero which still runs Android 1.5. I have seen some stories indicating that Sprint would be releasing Android 2.1 during the first half of 2010. So, I needed to find alternative means to store my passwords. I looked at several password apps and settled on Android Password Safe. You can visit their Google Code Site here:Password Safe at Google

Password Safe is straight forward to use and has the benefit of being able to import csv files. Although I’m using Password Safe the steps below should work for any Password program that allow exporting and importing of csv files.

 Transfer Passwords from SplashID on PalmOS to Android
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1. If you don’t have it already, download the SplashID Palm Desktop Conduit and Sync your passwords to the desktop.

2. Open the SplashID Desktop application and export the password entries to a csv file. (Note: Safeguard this file as it has all of your private information in plain text.)

3. Download and install Password Safe from the Android Market to your Android hand held.

4. Create at least one record for every category you have in Splash ID. In other words, if you have categories for Credit Cards. Banks, and Web Sites create one entry for each of these categories in Password Safe.

5. In Password Safe choose Settings -> Export CSV File and pick a location on your SD Card to save the exported file.

6. Connect your Android hand held to your computer via USB and mount it.

7. Using a file manager Navigate to the Android device and find the location of the Password Safe exported csv file.

At this point you have your SplashID exported csv file with all your ‘live’ data and a ‘template’ csv file exported from Password Safe. This is where it gets a bit labor intensive. You need to reformat the columns in the SplashID cvs file to match the columns of the Password Safe csv file.
I accomplished this by opening both CSV files in OpenOffice.org (Excel would work fine also). I then sorted my SplashID csv file by category and copied each category into the Password Safe cvs file, being careful to re-order my SplashID columns to match the order expected by Password Safe.

Additionally, I copied the icon file information from the Password Safe entry into the SplashID entry. Password Safe will force close if there are any entries without an icon in the csv file.

8. Okay. Now that all that hard work is done and you’ve save your newly populated Password Safe csv file, un-mount the Android hand held from your computer and start Password Safe.

9. Choose Settings -> Import CSV file. Navigate to the location of your Password Safe csv file and choose it. Then choose CSV file first.

There you have it. All your passwords are now imported into Password Safe.

10. This is an important step. At this point you have one file stored on your PC and one on your Android’s SD card with all your passwords in plain text. Immediately, remove the csv file from your PC and re-mount your Android and remove the csv file stored there. If you don’t do this step, having your passwords in a program like Password Safe defeats the program’s purpose. Please do this now!

My next project will be the Memo Pad.

Until then Happy Dancing.

Terry.

7 thoughts on “SplashID: PalmOS to Android

  1. I’m in the same boat with my Droid X. Getting ready to migrate, based on the less than satisfactory experience with SplashID on my BB Storm, and the very mixed reviews in the Market for SplashID for Android.

    How’s the Password Safe been working out for you, months later? And, are you using the one by Rhythm Software?

    TIA

    PS Now that I found your site, you may be seeing a little more of me.

  2. Dan,
    Yes, I’m using Password Safe from Rhythm Software. It does the job. I much prefer the way Splash ID worked on the Palm. I am considering going to Splash ID for Android.

    Terry.

  3. Well, Terry, after more research, I took a different route entirely for my password keeping.

    I left the SplashID fold with a rather difficult but ultimately successful migration to KeePass. It’s Open Source, secure, free, and provides a desktop client.

    Let me know if you need more info on what I did to accomplish the migration.

  4. I upgraded from SplashID 4.x (Palm) to SplashID 5.x (Android) and the import and upgrade process was very smooth, not a single problem!

  5. We have a Palm Treo 755p and the HTC Evo. Can the Palm and Android Splash ID’s co-exist on the same desktop?

  6. I’d like to know how the Splash ID to KeePass transfer was done. Dan H, Terry, anybody have the details?

    As an alternative if that’s not available, does anybody know how to do a Splash to Wallet transfer?

    Thanks,
    John

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