Database Users

cannot receive any new SMS

hi all
i just found out that i cannot receivce any sms anymore.
this is really hard to notice if you don't KNOW that someone is sending you an sms . so i can't tell till when it did work, and when it stopped working.
anyone got the same problem before? this happened to me the second time now, and the only solution (for me) was to HARD reset the device (which is no real fun ).
any ideas?
regards ize|man

Have you, after doing a ROM install, carried out a Sprite Backup Restore?
If so, that's your problem.
Don't ask me why (just do a search on this forum for more users examples), but when you restore the SMS/Email folders as part of a Sprite Backup restore, it corrupts the sms so that notifications are not shown, and the messages are not listed/stored.
In effect, invisible sms.
So far, I've not heard a single response to any user from the peeps at Sprite about this, even though this is a common and widely known problem now. But to be fair, i don't wish to be too harsh, as I find it a life saving application. How I got round it was to run the restore option on the phone NOT the PC (as this is the only way you can do a SELECTIVE restore of items), and unticked anything relating to sms/emails.
Then I found I had a decent restored phone (albeit minus any emails/sms), but with SMS working properly.
Let me know if this might be the case with you...

@shadamere
i'm afraid you're damn right i did use sprite backup - and i did (of course) restore my sms folder and me inbox folder.
i thought about that possibility as well - but wasn't sure of course. now that you're telling me it's sprite backup i can search for that in the forum.
and, i agree with you too: it is a very important app for me as well because i like playing around with a lot of programs ans roms ect....
thanks a lot for the help
bzw: maybe this could help: i just read about a sprite backup 3.0 (though no info on the homepage so far)
regards ize|man

had the same problem...
I had the same problem; ended up having to flash the damn thing and re-install all of my applications.
I DO use Sprite Backup, but I have no idea if I had done a restore or not and whether that terminated the capability.

HELP AND ADVICE TO BOTH OF YOU THEN...
If you haven't done too much to your phone since the problem, do a HARD RESET, and then re-install Sprite Backup (the APPLICATION, not the data), onto your XDA.
Then, connect to your PC, and run the PC Service (needed for a restore if you saved the file to PC).
Now run the Sprite Backup program, ON YOUR DEVICE - this is important!
Choose the data file you have, that you wish to restore from, BUT, then go through the various options where you can tick or untick what you want to restore.
UNtick anything relating to the Email and SMS folders etc, and then start the restore process.
This SHOULD (if done properly), leave you with an XDA with all your apps, videos, photos etc etc on, and able to receive SMS messages as normal.
The only downside is that you will have lost any stored sms etc that you might have had.
But it's MUCH more preferable to an XDA with NONE of your data on at all.
Hope this advice is useful to you, and doesn't arrive too late!

Or alternatively download CleanMail from their website and run it, this requires a soft reset but cleans up the mail/sms system and it will work again.
It also deletes all existing mails.

i also had the same problem with spirate & what i do is restore without sms message & e-mail but i use spstudio to back them up, so after restoring with spirate i use sp studio & retrieve my sms's :evil: long way but something stupid in the sms db wich i think it is due to the constant changing of the db headers that doesn't allow u to retrieve message with db u need a program that talks to the inbox only & not the db

I had this exact same problem!! I never received any SMS messages telling me that I had voicemail and I had about 10 messages and people pissed off because I never called them back! I used the tool on the Sprite website and POOF all the problems went away. I lost all of my prior messages, but not receiving SMS's was worse :shock: !
- Cheers

It's a SWINE to find on the Sprite website, so here's the direct link to CleanMail for any that need it...
http://www.spritesoftware.com/downloads/CleanMail.zip

Shadamehr said:
It's a SWINE to find on the Sprite website, so here's the direct link to CleanMail for any that need it...
http://www.spritesoftware.com/downloads/CleanMail.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW!
This is the first I've heard of this CleanMail program thanks for the link. 8)

OK, Sprite Backup 3.0 Pre-Release now restores SMS/POP/IMAP correctly.
http://www.spritesoftware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=971
We'll be making it the official release, depending on customer feedback obviously (its a release candidate).
Any existing backup files will need to be restored with email deselected. From then on Sprite Backup 3.0 will backup/restore email/SMS services correctly.
..Chuck..

Call History

Does anybody know what file in the XDA II stores the phone call history of numbers called and recieved. And can this file be backed up before installing upgrade software

someone must know what file the call information is strored in

It's in a db called clog.db, though you'll need a PocketPC database program like dbExplorer to view the information within it. You can't access it through Explorer or Windows.
You can use a program like dbExplorer and others to backup that table or the whole set of databases, though some tables will not be the same across all devices. The clog one, however, does remain the same. Word of caution, if you do restore it after say a hard reset, be sure to have already changed the call timers setting to show however many days / weeks you want to keep in memory. If you don't and you have it set to only a week or so, the phone will wipe the data in the recently - restored clog and you'll need to restore it a second time. I have mine set to never expire, and on more than one occasion I've forgotten to set it past 1 week after the "rebuild" - meaning I had to change it then restore the table again.
Cheers
Anthony

Restoring SMS from MPB files?

Hi,
Prior to upgrading to 2003SE, I copied the contents of the Messaging folder to my PC and then back again after the upgrade.
My belief that this would retain my SMS messages was wrong - is there any way for me to restore my SMS messages from the MPB files?
I've searched the forum over and over but can only usually find references to Sprite or other backup/restore facilities - they would've been fine for me if I'd used them prior to the upgrade, but since I didn't the only way I'm able to restore is to somehow get them from the MPB files.
Any thoughts?

maybe here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=21681&highlight=
or you can try dbExplorer

AllExport
Unfortunately AllExport doesn't work for me. I guess I'll give dbExplorer a punt, but again I don't think that will work as I didn't use it to export them in the first place. All I have are a whole bunch of MPB files.

try google for the format and possible programs to access such files
http://filext.com/

Database gone
Turns out I should've also copied/exported a particular database file from the XDA before I upgraded the OS.
Guess I've lost it now, for whilst I have the messages themselves I don't have the message headers (they are contained in said database).
In a word... bugger.

I've got a similar problem...
I've both mpb and database but they seem to be unbound
I can see header from one side and contents form the other...but no way to recover the complete functionality...
Guess we'va lost everything!

Gone gone gone
Wow, interesting that even preserving the db and the mpb files doesn't help you out.
Strikes me as pretty stupid. Whilst I haven't used them because of my current problem, has anyone been able to export and import SMS (particularly imported to a new installation / fresh upgrade) using one of the existing programs (Sprite, dbexplorer) WITHOUT losing SMS functionality (as Sprite seems to do) or having to manually stuff around with databases? Interested for future reference (as in, if I decide to up to WM2005 when it gets relatively stable).

Interesting Messaging Problem

Firstly, I did a search and this issue was briefly touched on, but no resolve was given. I receive a new text message, I go into my inbox it says 0 items 1 new. This has been going on for a week. Now I have missed 11 text messages. My inbox and today screen say 0 items 11new. Any way to find these messages and to repair so this does not continue?
Thanks

Help I can't retrieve my text messages... now there is 13.

nerdgurl, kindly send a list of all 3rd party programs installed.

Here is the list:
Total Commander, Sygic Mobile Contacts, Pocket Max PhoneAlarm,
AE Button Plus, SetAsRingTone, ME PhonePlus, SPB PocketPlus, Sprite Backup.
It was working fine until last week, when I did a full restore, but I do have the newest Sprite Backup so there should have been no conflicts, but I don't know.
Is there any way to retreive them with another messaging software?
Thank you so much, I'm getting desperate

Are you going to the correct inbox? There are several inboxes: MMS, Outlook E-Mail, SMS...

Restoring backups screws up inboxes. Sprite's the closest thing to a proper backup app but still not perfect.

Yes, I'm going to the correct inbox, as for Sprite perhaps I am unable to save my old messages but I can't even receive new ones. If I knew how to do a screen capture, I would post a picture of this bizzare behavior.

jdee246 said:
Restoring backups screws up inboxes. Sprite's the closest thing to a proper backup app but still not perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, I would suggest SPb Clone, lotsa issues with Sprite :>

Is there any remedy for this, to retrieve my older messages or to stop this from occuring with new incoming messages?

Nerdgurl said:
Is there any remedt for this, to retrieve my older messages or to stop this from occuring with new incoming messages?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a tool to backup messages. I have not yet tried it myself. I'm just going to post a link to it since after install you need to put in a code at their website in order for software to be able to run. Hope it helps.
http://pdafresh.freeweb.hu/communications/sms/app_smsbackup.htm (Backs up only messages)
Developer site: http://www.zedsoft.net/smsbackup/
http://pdafresh.freeweb.hu/communications/sms/app_allexport.htm (Exports messages AND Outlook data)
UPDATE: Export function works fine. Restore will test after a HR. Backup worx.
Developer site: http://www.zedsoft.net/allexport/
Hope it worx 4 u

OH I messed it up good! It says Message Backup successfull (0 Messages), then I tried to restore the messages and it would state: Message restore successfull (0 Messages). What have I done?

Nerdgurl,
Your sms database seems to be corrupt. Use the attached tool to delete all mail/sms databases. Dont forget to backup since it destroys all SMS, mail & account info. I had a similar prob & resolved.
Cheers...

You can try the soft from Jeyo to see, if it can salvage your messages. But when all is said and done, you will HAVE to do a hard reset, to get things running again. With a bit of luck you can reinstall everything but the messages, otherwise a full reinstall is needed.
Also, you may wanna try visiting www.Sunnysoft.cz for Backup Manager. A very nice alternative to Sprite, which has way too many unsolved bugs. I fully agree with dmmh on that...

SMS incoming problem ... solution !!!

Hi there.
I had problem with sms-messages after modaco-2.2 flashing.
When I got sms-message phone made sound and vibration but nothing to read in message program.
After reading couple hundred pages I found solution:
(Before you do this remember that this distroys your old mms and sms archive )
1. I found and downloaded adb.zip file and extracted it. You can get it from attacement. ( nope ... I can't upload it here )
2. Then I turned phones debugging on ( home-> menu-> settings-> Applications-> Developement -> USB debugging on
3. Wired phone to my mac
4. Opened terminal and then went to that directory where I extracted adb.zip
5. First checked device with command
./adb device
6. When everything was ok then shell command
./adb shell
7. Now prompt was #
8. Changed directory with command
# cd /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases
9. Look that there was mmssms.db
# ls mmssms.db
10. Erased that file
# rm mmssms.db
11. Went out from shell
# exit
12. Went out from terminal
exit
13. Rebooted my phone and then everythin worked perfect.
I think that old mmssms.db file was different format than new one and thats why message-program could't use it.
I hope that this helps somebody.
...Lasse...

worked perfectly for me, thanks a lot of the tip!

The database from 2.73.405.5 build got a lot of changes to the old one (1.76.405.6). So it does not work to copy back the old Database after an update. I imported my old Mails manual to the new databasefile by accessing the database directly.

patzek said:
The database from 2.73.405.5 build got a lot of changes to the old one (1.76.405.6). So it does not work to copy back the old Database after an update. I imported my old Mails manual to the new databasefile by accessing the database directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please describe how you restored your old data? I know it's a SQLite database and manually changed data in it before updating, but my knowledge with SQLite ain't that great, so I don't know "the perfect" SQL manager and so on...
Any advice is highly appreciated!

For me it was really easy as i only have SMS messages in my Database. So i wrote a very simple windows-app that imports the old messages out of the old database-file into the new database.

i have read about this fix in a german forum. it doesn't seem to fix the issue completely. i would suggest to keep smstomailbox installed for a while so we can be sure this really is a permanent fix.

This fix (german forum) does not work because the database got also changes in other parts of the database than the sms table. only in import into the new format will work.

patzek said:
For me it was really easy as i only have SMS messages in my Database. So i wrote a very simple windows-app that imports the old messages out of the old database-file into the new database.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I used your method when migrating from Windows to Android. It worked great and it was me who wrote directions for Notepad++ on how to change dates to proper format with regexp for other countries
Although, with the new Hero ROM database ROM seems to have changed in such a way that old message collides with new database/table structure. I will transfer new database to my computer and do some research soon.

sibbor said:
Yes, I used your method when migrating from Windows to Android. It worked great and it was me who wrote directions for Notepad++ on how to change dates to proper format with regexp for other countries
Although, with the new Hero ROM database ROM seems to have changed in such a way that old message collides with new database/table structure. I will transfer new database to my computer and do some research soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SMSImport Application was done to import my SMS Messages from Windows Mobile. The application is based on the 1.76 Rom SMS Database.
After my Update to 2.73 is was in the same situation, how to get the messages into the new Databaseformat and so i wrote a second little application that just make a transfer from the old databsefile to the new databasefile Quick and Dirty

sibbor said:
Yes, I used your method when migrating from Windows to Android. It worked great and it was me who wrote directions for Notepad++ on how to change dates to proper format with regexp for other countries
Although, with the new Hero ROM database ROM seems to have changed in such a way that old message collides with new database/table structure. I will transfer new database to my computer and do some research soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
patzek said:
The SMSImport Application was done to import my SMS Messages from Windows Mobile. The application is based on the 1.76 Rom SMS Database.
After my Update to 2.73 is was in the same situation, how to get the messages into the new Databaseformat and so i wrote a second little application that just make a transfer from the old databsefile to the new databasefile Quick and Dirty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Come on guys, lets share these about...
I have to migrate my brothers contacts from his Diamond to his Hero, he's on the 1.76 rom at the minute but will be upgrading to 2.73 later on.
I then have to import my messages from my old 1.76 database to my 2.73 database.

patzek said:
The SMSImport Application was done to import my SMS Messages from Windows Mobile. The application is based on the 1.76 Rom SMS Database.
After my Update to 2.73 is was in the same situation, how to get the messages into the new Databaseformat and so i wrote a second little application that just make a transfer from the old databsefile to the new databasefile Quick and Dirty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, sorry I missunderstood. Please share your dirty solution with us ;-)! Btw, can one merge the old structure with the new one (two databases) and keep data intact from both? Or is it just a conversation from old to new structure, where you keep old messages? Either way, sounds great! I can manually add messages that I recieved in my new database "manually" afterwards

i will try to make an sql update script that will update the structure from the old database to the new one.

so i make a quick compare of the database files from a wiped hero 1.76 rom and an wiped 2.73 hero rom. the only difference is the column "index_on_sim" in the table "sms" as an integer field. an simple "alter table sms add index_on_sim integer null" would fix this. i think this field will store the id of an contact which is on the sim card stored, otherwise its value is "null" on messages that was sended and "-1" on messages that was received.
there are hugher differences between a normal android sms database and the hero one and and "easy" upgrade is not possible. its necessary to add columns to different tables and it is also necessary to have them in the right possition so that when a application try to access the column by the index and not with the column name it uses the right one. maybe there is a application in the www available that makes an automatic database update. for other databases like ms sql server there are solutions available...

patzek said:
so i make a quick compare of the database files from a wiped hero 1.76 rom and an wiped 2.73 hero rom. the only difference is the column "index_on_sim" in the table "sms" as an integer field. an simple "alter table sms add index_on_sim integer null" would fix this. i think this field will store the id of an contact which is on the sim card stored, otherwise its value is "null" on messages that was sended and "-1" on messages that was received.
there are hugher differences between a normal android sms database and the hero one and and "easy" upgrade is not possible. its necessary to add columns to different tables and it is also necessary to have them in the right possition so that when a application try to access the column by the index and not with the column name it uses the right one. maybe there is a application in the www available that makes an automatic database update. for other databases like ms sql server there are solutions available...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've made this conclusion too. I've now merged my entire MMS/SMS database:
1) I exported both the 1.76 db and the 2.73 db as SQL dumps
2) Merged them together and got rid of lots of messed up data. Also I had to fix formatting for strings for the application to be able to import it properly again. Changed some ID's too.
3) Then I truncated the tables "sms" & "threads" + made minior fixes around the database (clean-up). and made changes to other ID's for it to look cleaner.
Since I've done SMS migration like this: Nokia > Windows Mobile > Android (Hero, v1.76) > Android (Hero, 2.73) there was some differences within the database. I fixed number formatting + updated data in proper places. Ex. sms.toa + sms.sc_toa (145 for one person and 0 for me), sms.person to correct ID for the contact (since there was diffs between the two Android databases and no person ID at all for earlier merged databases; Nokia + WM).
Side note: it seems sms.index_on_sim should be NULL for outgoing SMS'es and -1 for incoming (that's not stored on SIM card).
Also I added correct ID to the sms.person column for all my old SMS'es. First

Tx uttila for the sms problem solution
@uttila: it worked fine for me and my htc hero. I erased the database table mmssms.db and now it saves the messages

I have the Sprint version of the HTC Hero, Just got it a few days ago. I started noticing in about my second day having the phone that I wasnt receiving texts either. Same problem as everyone else, could send, make calls, receive calls, etc. Just couldnt recieve texts. After a while, i will eventually be able to recieve again, usually because I restart the phone, or that could just be a coincidence. But nevertheless I dont recieve any of the "lost" texts.
I just got off the phone with customer service with Sprint, They had me turn the phone off, take the battery out, and were doing some "updates" on their end. And then tried to send a text to me after turning it back on. They werent able to resolve the problem. They are telling me to take it to a Sprint store, so that they can run some tests on the phone, and send it off for a replacement.
I mentioned to the customer service rep that I've read about this problem online, that alot of people seem to be having the same problem. His response was "Yeah, I have been receiving some calls, but not to the point where we would consider it a known issue"
So I guess thats where we stand right now. Is there someway that I can fix it on my end, or is there an update out from HTC that resolve's this. Because it doesn't seem to just be a Sprint issue, since people overseas in Europe with different providers are having the same issue. So I'm guessing its a software\hardware issue, and not a network problem.
Any solutions?

Same Issue here.... about to send it back!
From Sprint's actual Hero forum users are reporting the same issue...
http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/22913?start=30&tstart=0&reqsorting=dec
Hope posting this link is ok
Additionally it seems like some files are not being removed when performing a factory reset as I had installed a sound board and after two factory resets I noticed some sound files were still on my phone. TO me this indicates not all files are being removed correctly. I doubt the sound board messed anything up but this may indicate another app inadvertently did and the factory reset isn't cutting it as far as fixing the issue. Called Sprint and they offered to replace for free and also refreshed my syst settings which had zero impact.