Using Nokia 6120 on a Mac with iSync

How to use the Nokia 6120 on a Mac by hacking iSync.

Published in Technology on Monday, September 10, 2007 by Tom Bates
39 comments

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It's greener to upgrade!

A terrible feeling - having just purchased a new phone, and finding that isync doesn't support it. Suddenly it doesn't seem to shine quite as much.

Well, lets get on with it. The phone is a Nokia 6120 - not supported by isync, but it will it you tweak it.

For a (possibly) safer way to add support, you can always fork out 10€ and get buy the plugin here. Although I haven't tested it, apparently the phone is supported, along with a host of others. Now, my way is a bit of a bodge, but it works perfectly for me. I say my way, I really mean their way. Here's the instructions: (lifted from another article here)

  • Quit iSync if its running.
  • Right-click (control-click, for you one-button mousers) on the iSync application in your /Applications folder, and select 'Show Package Contents'. Navigate through the folders to Contents -> PlugIns -> ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice -> Contents -> PlugIns -> PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin -> Contents -> Resources.
  • In this file, back-up the MetaClasses.plist file by clicking on it, and select File->Duplicate from the Finder menu. Make sure to do this!
  • Open the original in a text editor.
  • I found a nokia running s60 v2.3. Although the 6120 runs v3.1, this seems to work for me!
  • Search for this 'Nokia+Nokia N70' and you'll find the phone that I copied. I copied its whole entry:
<key>com.nokia.N70key>
<dict>
          <key>Identificationkey>
          <dict>
                    <key>com.apple.cgmi+cgmmkey>
                    <string>Nokia+Nokia  N70string>
                    <key>com.apple.gmi+gmmkey>
                    <string>Nokia+Nokia  N70string>
                    <key>com.apple.usb.vendorid-modelidkey>
                    <string>0x0421/0x043Astring>
          dict>
          <key>InheritsFromkey>
          <array>
                    <string>family.com.nokia.serie60v2.3string>
          array>
          <key>Serviceskey>
          <array>
                    <dict>
                              <key>ServiceNamekey>
                              <string>com.apple.modelstring>
                              <key>ServicePropertieskey>
                              <dict>
                                        <key>ModelIconkey>
                                        <string>NOKN70.tiffstring>
                                        <key>ModelNamekey>
                                        <string>N70string>
                              dict>
                    dict>
          array>
dict>

Changed N70 to 6120, and pasted the new xml entry below it (looking like this) - 

<key>com.nokia.6120key>
<dict>
          <key>Identificationkey>
          <dict>
                    <key>com.apple.cgmi+cgmmkey>
                    <string>Nokia+Nokia  6120string>
                    <key>com.apple.gmi+gmmkey>
                    <string>Nokia+Nokia  6120string>
                    <key>com.apple.usb.vendorid-modelidkey>
                    <string>0x0421/0x043Astring>
          dict>
          <key>InheritsFromkey>
          <array>
                    <string>family.com.nokia.serie60v2.3string>
          array>
          <key>Serviceskey>
          <array>
                    <dict>
                              <key>ServiceNamekey>
                              <string>com.apple.modelstring>
                              <key>ServicePropertieskey>
                              <dict>
                                        <key>ModelIconkey>
                                        <string>NOKN70.tiffstring>
                                        <key>ModelNamekey>
                                        <string>N70string>
                              dict>
                    dict>
          array>
dict>

Now, I'm not sure why this is necessary, but unpair your previous phone before you add this new one.

Then, open isync, add a new device, watch it pop up with the green light, and off you go!

About the author

Tom Bates now has is own blog over at Assorted Scribbles and created a Djembe Drumming Lessons website.

Comments

  1. Cool, this solved my problem!

    Written on Friday, September 21, 2007 at 10:32hrs by Steve

  2. You rule

    Written on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 3:15hrs by Koan

  3. Sweet! Worked like a charm! Thanks :)

    Written on Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 23:10hrs by Onkia

  4. Thank you very much! Worked perfectly.

    Written on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 7:07hrs by Craig

  5. Great.. perfect solution! fast, clean ... really Apple! thanks :)

    Written on Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 3:32hrs by Marco

  6. im a very basic mac user.. and it didnt work.. probably me , not you.. but would someone please please help!??

    Written on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 16:17hrs by it didnt work for me .. PLEASE HELP??

  7. Comment 6: Did you back up the metaclasses file as I said to in the post? Assuming you did, put this backup file back in the directory, and get rid of the new one that you tried to fix. Then, start again step by step, (making a NEW backup of course...), or post back here and tell us what the problem was.

    Written on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 1:36hrs by the author

  8. A wonderful fix. Thank you!

    Written on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 1:10hrs by Mike Owen

  9. I'm by no means a computer programmer (I think pen up / pen down in basic was the last thing I did), but this remedy took less than 15 mins and worked perfectly. Thanks for saving my fingers hours of manual button pushing! I would have thought that those clever people in California should be chatting a bit more regularly with those clever people in Finland, but thank goodness for the other clever people out here on the web. I suggest using the find / replace function in TextEdit (Apple F).

    Written on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 17:39hrs by Toby Roscoe

  10. Worked a treat. But not when I copied the code from above, just copied from inside the file (as specified!) Thanks. Has anyone got the SMS from address book working for the 6120? My options are grayed out.

    Written on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 23:12hrs by Andrew

  11. Great solution :D I just got my Nokia 6120 classic today and there still wasn't a solution at nokia or apple I do hope they'll fitx it in the next iSync (update). Thanks for hacking/tweaking the system :D

    Written on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 14:10hrs by Mike van Kuik

  12. Almost lost € 30 on a plug-in to make it work ... thank God I found your site :-)

    Written on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 11:54hrs by Bart Lammertyn

  13. For some reason it won't let me sync my contacts ? Any advice ?

    Written on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 9:36hrs by no sugar

  14. Woo Hoo! Worked like a charm and was too easy! Thanks very much!!!

    Written on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 19:53hrs by Jeff

  15. @Andrew: Don't think SMS from address book is supported yet, I haven't found any fixes. @no sugar: Not sure why it doesn't work for you. I can suggest restoring the backup file that you made, restarting the system, then starting again step by step.

    Written on Monday, November 19, 2007 at 4:00hrs by the author

  16. it worked! million thanks!

    Written on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 9:23hrs by Marlon from HK

  17. This is so great! I almost purchased another phone because I knew the 6120 wasn't supported by default, but now I'm glad I didn't. It's a great phone and iSync makes it 100x better. Thanks!

    Written on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 5:44hrs by Esben

  18. After restoring the backup file and deleting the bluetooth entry it's showing up now in iSync an has a green light! But for some reason it still won't let me sync my contacts. Only my Calender entries get transmitted. Any advice?

    Written on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 8:00hrs by no sugar

  19. @no sugar: well, with the green light your half way there! The only thing I can suggest is to fool around with the sync settings actually on the phone - bare in mind that you have a few options this end of the sync as well. Go to menu > settings > connectivity > sync > PC Suite > edit sync profile > applications > contacts, then make sure 'include in sync' is set to yes for a start, and have a fiddle with the rest!

    Written on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 8:37hrs by the author

  20. Couldn't get it to work. How do I restore the file I duplicated?

    Written on Monday, December 3, 2007 at 10:25hrs by Dan

  21. Thank you so much. You saved me from a headache!

    Written on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 4:58hrs by J

  22. Cool!!!It just works!!!Thanks a lot~~

    Written on Friday, January 4, 2008 at 18:09hrs by YaoHsien

  23. I´m so greatful!!! Thanks! And it was Nokias tech support who "inofficial" told me about this site and solution. It worked for me at once!

    Written on Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 9:36hrs by Johan, Stockholm

  24. I've found a widget that will work with the 6120 so you can SMS from the phone (not a separate subscription). emitSMS dashboard widget here http://algoritmer.dk/widget/ works very well. Simple to set up. Not quite as good as SMS from address book but that's gone in Leopard for everyone anyway.

    Written on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 17:07hrs by Andrew

  25. works only with bluetooth, how do i get it working with USB??

    Written on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 2:57hrs by Simpleminded

  26. Thank you heaps i thought i had purchased a dummy or i was a dummy for purchasing the phone.

    Written on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 5:39hrs by George

  27. THX!!!

    Written on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 10:31hrs by Dani

  28. You'r a genius!! keep up the good work!!

    Written on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 23:40hrs by Micke

  29. Thanks mate, big help :)

    Written on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 17:40hrs by John

  30. Thanks! it worked perfectly! :)

    Written on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 17:04hrs by Ferlin

  31. Just found this site. I have the same problem with the new 6124 Nokia have released to Vodafone. I understand that it is a development of 6120. Would the same dix work?

    Written on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 11:56hrs by Stuart

  32. I have a 6120 isynced to my laptop powerbook (system10.5.2) and it work perfect. But I am trying to set it up on a mac with system 10.4.11 but isync reject it. It says Nokia 6120 is not compatible with Isync.Is it because of 10.4.11 system or something i do wrong. Can someone help pleez

    Written on Monday, May 26, 2008 at 9:10hrs by isaac

  33. Great solution!Thank you for this!

    Written on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 0:19hrs by Roberto

  34. I am confused only with one thing: what exactly is to "unpair" my previous phone?I'm almost done!

    Written on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 21:37hrs by Mar

  35. Thank you so much!

    Written on Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 3:17hrs by Courtney

  36. Thanks, worked great. Much appreciated.

    Written on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 12:50hrs by mak

  37. Wow... works great - thank you.I could not find the file Metaclasses.plist, but with COMMAND-SHIFT-G in Finder and pasting the filepath below, it worked:From Application, ISync, "Show Package Contents" From there navigate to: /Applications/iSync/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns/PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/

    Written on Friday, July 4, 2008 at 17:56hrs by zonek

  38. Yesssssss! Why wait for Nokia/Apple to get round to making a patch when this is all it takes? You totally rule!

    Written on Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 14:31hrs by Jon

  39. Grande!!! Great! Thank you so much. Easy and very fast.

    Written on Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 0:38hrs by Vittorio

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