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WP8990 flip phone. The options to send pictures from the phone is by picture message or to online album. The phone is no longer useable as a phone. The album no longer exists. It is obsolete and was manufactured in South Korea Verizon never responded to my email asking for help. I have a data transfer cord but it lacks a driver but none are found when I search. I tried using my newer laptop running Windows 10 with no success.The cord shows up as a modem during a search for drivers. I did not write down the manufacturer, unfortunaely. Anyone know if it is even possible to do what I want to do here? I tried at Verizon store & was told that they used to have a way to do it but they no longer have the needed equipment.

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  • 1. Welcome. 2. Your question is potentially off-topic; on-topic only if it's about connecting it with a computer. 3. Ignore the ramblings in the answer. 4. In the old days you'd use the Pantech PC Suite for that but that software can't be found online now, all links are down, including 3rd party (and shady) ones. 5. mobiledit.com/mobiledit used to work with any of those old phones. It cost $49. Are you sure it's worth it? Commented Jun 3 at 21:44
  • If when connected via USB you're seeing a modem, it's likely the phone has the ability to behave as a modem to a connected computer, basically what we'd use hotspots for now. You may want to dig through the phone settings to see if there's any regarding changing the USB mode to file transfer or media access or something like that. If the phone tells the computer it's a modem, drivers probably won't help you get access to media on the phone. Commented Jun 13 at 16:39

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[EDIT] It seems that hardware only/hack solutions aren't acceptable, nor is the server app that used to provide the phone services not available any more, so the PC cable solution is the most favored one (albeit not found). I will leave the collection of information together in case someone else is curious.

Have you checked with someone selling the phone like this? I have often found that repair shops have boxes of floppies for old hardware. Especially in Asia.

https://www.amazon.com/Pantech-Escapade-WP8990-Verizon-Wireless/dp/B006ZQBTDK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I recommend NOT using amazon search engine since it shows you what it wants to sell you and not what you asked for.

Found a manual. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1454353/Verizon-Wp8990-Zephyr.html In this manual, page 9, is a menu item Media/Pictures/Online Album. Anything there?

You might need a traditional (mini) 3G CDMA data sim to send yourself the photos, you can get this for about 10$ or even 10euro. Maybe try getting a ThreeInOne prepaid SIM from Verizon, should work. Walmart lists them at $9.88, but it sounds like 1/3 had issues with stale cards. Try the Verizon store first. Their SIMs should support 3G operation, my 5G phone dipped down to 2G on Friday because of a nearby tower issue.

Next step would be to take it to a generic phone repair center, have them open it up, copy the memory chip. This might be expensive.

Your BT probably paired as an audio output device, so that won't help download files.

You only have 53 MB of data maximum on the phone, 2megapixel images, maybe a few hundred or so photos. It might take a few hours to SMS them to yourself, even at 3G speeds (16 KB/s) is an hour total of transmit time best case. You might be able to send a few at a time.

Phone specs: https://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=2082

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  • All your answer is about the potential off-topic part of the question. Connection with a computer is the only salvageable part of the question. And everything you mentioned re: using a SIM like a regular phone simply won't work. SMSs can't be used for that, the online album feature no longer exist and neither any of the instant messaging services the phone supported. It must be done with a data cable and the OP has one. This is the only ON-TOPIC part here. As I commented above it needs software that no longer exists but there's a generic commercial alternative that should still work. Commented Jun 3 at 21:55
  • I don't believe that it's fair to discount an hour's worth of research, and some answers you haven't addressed, as it's hard to tell from the question why the various features aren't working, nor why the Verizon store no longer has equipment (ie flash data readers?) indicating that other options might have been on the table. My first job writing phone software was in 1983, and much has changed since then, and some of the semi-technical info isn't clear. So I started from scratch. Thanks for clarifying some of the details. The phone was supposed to be able to send emails too, discontinued? Commented Jun 3 at 22:47
  • Yes, discontinued a long time ago, it was service provider dependent. It's not like you could use your personal GMail or similar. Anyway... Anything other than connecting the phone with a computer is off-topic at superuser.com, that was the point, i.e., pretty much anything you suggested. And the question is actually about how to make it work with the data cable. At least my comment under the question addresses that part and even so I didn't consider it as an answer. I would posted as an answer otherwise. Commented Jun 3 at 22:54
  • Real options? Buy a software? Hack/Write a software? Wire up a memory reader? I know people in my city that do that, and it was part of the OP, but I doubt that it's cheaper than the software you mentioned. If it was in my hands, I would do that. Depends on the skill level, the $$$ someone wants to spend on something that seems important enough, given the age of the phone. Op seemed to misunderstand stiff, so I outlined possibles, given a lack of knowing those SW issues. I would have preferred a comment, because if it was an answer, it would never get upvoted. Commented Jun 4 at 0:24

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