Database Users

HELP! SMS recovery needed!

Hi all, I've just upgraded my O2 Exec ROM, not being a PC user i assumed that activesync (using my flatmates PC) would back up everything, including MMS and SMS messages.
With over 300 SMS messages, a lot of them personal, others with important information in them, i would like to be able to recover them.
if theres any way to do this i would appreciate any help.
thanks,
brodie

Nope, you're f***ed. There's no recovery program at my knowledge.

did u make a backup? ...-if u made a full backup, just restore that.

no i think i just synced it. i saw no option for backup, only sync so assumed it would back it up.
I didnt really pay much attention to it, just checked all the boxes in active sync and synced it, upgraded the ROM and synced back again, but no sms.
Just looking now and my other email accounts havent appeared, am i missing something? does activesync not copy your other accounts either?

No, sorry to say but ActiveSync only copies you default outlook folders. No copy is made of SMS, MMS and other mailboxes that are set up. So sorry to say but I don't think you'll ever see the lost data again.
A little late for now but I'd recommend using a backup utility for future use. Which btw does not solve all of your problems as a backup made with a specific Rom can almost never be restored on an upgraded device with a different Rom. For SMS I use Jeyo Outlook Companion which creates a PST in outlook and keeps your SMS messages in sync. You can that also copy the SMS messages to any mail folder you'd like.

thanks for the replies all, looks like i shouldnt be so hasty and assume everything gets synced!
I'll look into backup utilities, have to wait until pocketmac or missingsync works with WM5!

I use jeyo sms outlook add on, for sms, and also look at personal vault, http://1800message.com/default.aspx to back up your phone I use Backup manager of sunnysoft, works like a treat.

Backup AND RESTORE SMS messages?

Hello,
I've searched the board several times since months and haven't found a solution to my problem yet.
My problem is as follows:
I have my Wizard (O2 Germany, so Xda mini S) since february (in fact it is the third one, O2 support changed it two times because the stylus didn't lock anymore after few weeks of use... have to change it again...).
And few months ago, I tried Sprite Backup, what I am using since then. Although it worked well, one thing is annoying: sometimes after hard reset and restore of only my mail database (cemail.vol, the only thing I really need to be backed up), the Messaging app doesn't show mail accounts anymore, but when I try to create new ones with the same names, it says, that the accounts already exist. So I created new accounts with different names, as many other users did, how I could read here. They co-exist and take memory.
Interesting thing: the Spb Diary messaging program can see the old accounts, and so it is also possible to delete the messages, that are still there in the old accounts. It can take a long time and many clicks (taps), because you can delete only one message at once, but it is better than nothing. One problem persists: Spb Diary can't delete the accounts themselves.
Therefore I am searching for a way to extract only my SMS messages (eMail is not important, I have it all on PC), start with an empty mail database (hard reset) and restore only the SMS messages into that new database.
The only program I have found so far, that really looked well for the first moment, is Jeyo Mobile Extender (or Companion). It backups the SMS Messages to PC, but not all of them. Messages in subfolders are ignored (I have subfolders for delivery notifications, call missed notifications and so on). And the restore doesn't work as expected. The date of the messages gets messed up, long messages (>160 charactes) get cut, and even the sender/receiver of the messages can get flipped.
But it must be possible to write a program, that fits my needs, I think (by the way: what is going on with the developers of WM2005? Backing up messages from mobile device to desktop is ESSENTIAL!!! Why isn't such a feature included?).
And because I am sure that I am not the only one with this problems hoping for a solution, I could imagine that someone already has written such a tool.
So, please, if anyone knows a tool or a different solution (editing mail database, removing everything except SMS messages...), PLEASE, help me!
Thank you very much in advance!

Yeaa im also really looking for a soultion to this, i Recently got a Windows Mobile device and i really wanna just be able to transfer my Series 60 Messages in Text format now.. to my Pocket PC's Messaging.

I can't believe nobody has made an app to backup and restore SMS's despite the growing number of people who need just sucha an app.
Except for Kai's, I don't think there is anything out there that does the job.
I hope SPB includes an option in the future to backup specific accounts only, because it is by far the best messaging backup app I have used till date.

leepriestenator said:
I can't believe nobody has made an app to backup and restore SMS's despite the growing number of people who need just sucha an app.
Except for Kai's, I don't think there is anything out there that does the job.
I hope SPB includes an option in the future to backup specific accounts only, because it is by far the best messaging backup app I have used till date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jeyo has. works fine

jeyo is crappy piece of ****. better than nothing, but doesn't back up all messages, no self-created subfolders, no dupe-check, shows error message on ppc on every connect...
you will find out, when it is most important to you, believe me!

Best back-up software

I used to use PIMBackup on my xperia but found that after a restore the order of all my text messages was messed up.
Whats the best back up program for the touch pro 2 for contacts/email/messages etc?

Sprite Backup works perfectly.

poetryrocksalot said:
Sprite Backup works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've always used sprite and think it's excellent.

trialling Sprite right now, so far, so good, loaded just fine, worked as advertised, so far therefore, so good

With sprite backup can the data be accessed from a pc if your phone is lost/stolen?
I had my phone stolen and because I had used binary mode with pim backup I couldn't access my data. Thankfully a friend let me restore my data to their phone and I was able to save it in a way that excel would display.

Use microsoft myphone....
Awsome App.
Backups up.....e-mails...contacts and pictures. If your phone gets stolen dont worry...you just re-sync it with your new phone and job done.
http://sn1-p2.myphone.microsoft.com/mkweb/Start.po?mkt=en-GB
I am using this at the moment and it is perfect. You will need a hotmail account...thats it.

you also need a hefty dataplan - I can see a months' metered data (500 megs ain't all that much, really) being eaten up in fairly short order by an over-the-air backup set being created. Think I'll stick with local software solutions, not remote solutions, even though one has to pay for the local solution.

RogerStenning said:
you also need a hefty dataplan - I can see a months' metered data (500 megs ain't all that much, really) being eaten up in fairly short order by an over-the-air backup set being created. Think I'll stick with local software solutions, not remote solutions, even though one has to pay for the local solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you need a hefty data plan ?????????? Slap on Wi-Fi and sync your phone..lol

Trust me Sprite Backup is ****ing amazing. ****ING AMAZING.
I've created backups everyday. And when something happens to my phone. I factory reset my phone. And then I restore it with ONE BACKUP FILE created by Sprite Backup.
I don't even need to reinstall the software after the hard reset, because Sprite Backup creates a file that automatically restores your entire phone without the need to install the app when your phone is completely factory reset.
It always works perfectly. No registry problems. Nothing. You just have to know how it works and how to use it and how it "merges files and settings".

as for sprite, or the MS .. does it correctly save also all the linking and other info created by pocket informant?

Mashe said:
as for sprite, or the MS .. does it correctly save also all the linking and other info created by pocket informant?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprite Backup:
http://www.spritesoftware.com/products/sprite-backup/full-edition
Microsoft MyPhone
http://sn1-p2.myphone.microsoft.com/mkweb//MoreInfo.po?tsid=1249493566820
Make your mind up

I don't believe there any so call "BEST" backup software...it is only the matter of preference which one you like or which have easy backup and restore method.
The most important it must work on your phone and must be able to backup and restore successfully :>
FYI, i am using spb backup... works great on my TP2. never failed me before.

I use dashwire (www.dashwire.com)... The good on this (besides its free), the data is stored on inet server, so u dont need to worry when changing/formating the computer and you can recover the data from anywhere.

SPB Backup

Sprite sucks
I have to say that I am very disapointed in the Sprite backup software. I purchaed this because of the deal they had with the HTC upgrade. I had this software on the tilt it was installed by default and it worked awsome. When you reverted to a backup the whole phone was restored to that state in time. all applications were removed all settings were kept.
When you do it with the current version no applications are removed. You need to do a hard reset. Then your mail accounts, or at least mine are screwed up and you have to fix them.
Does anyone know of a backup software that acts like sprite used to? A snapshot of the phone from a particular point in time?

Try SPB backup. It works great on my old Tilt, but I don't if is compatible with Tilt2 with WM 6.5.
SPB has a trial version

Why not use activesync if outlook if you have it?
I hate those SPB or Sprite, they are bulky programs, and not free!! PIM backup does the job, if you have threaded messaging disabled and restore messages.

Another vote for Sprite.
SPB and Resco backup are a distant 2nd and 3rd.
And I dont trust Microsoft to do backups for me ...

i used to use pim backup then i found spb backup which was nice since i only really cared for my sms which you cannot backup with outlook and ActiveSynch.
i always used a tool for my Sony Ericsson's call MyPhoneExplorer and since having my Touch Rpo 2 i really missed having it until i discovered Jeyo Mobile Companion.
from what i figured u want to do backups of sms and this goes one step further in that you can actually see all your contacts, sms's, call history ect without having the phone plugged in.
so my votes go to Jeyo Mobile Companion and then to SPB Backup.
just my 5 cents...

I think m:iq is really good - and free!
http://www.miqlive.com/

Backup Software Problem

Hi,
I've used SPB backup for years on my PDA's so when I backed up my HD2, everything looked like it backed up ok. Had to hard reset the HD2 but didn't think much about it because I had a backup exe. Ran the exe twice and nothing changed. Im pretty sure I have the latest version that is compatible with WM 6.5.
Do you have to turn off HT sense in order for the back up to work properly?
I've read in the forum that others have had good luck with Sprite, anyone use either of these programs successfully?
Thanks for any insight you can provide
Mike

mhmobile said:
Hi,
I've used SPB backup for years on my PDA's so when I backed up my HD2, everything looked like it backed up ok. Had to hard reset the HD2 but didn't think much about it because I had a backup exe. Ran the exe twice and nothing changed. Im pretty sure I have the latest version that is compatible with WM 6.5.
Do you have to turn off HT sense in order for the back up to work properly?
I've read in the forum that others have had good luck with Sprite, anyone use either of these programs successfully?
Thanks for any insight you can provide
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used SPB successfully, except for the fact that when sync'ing after restore, the PC does not recognize the device as a device that was already connected, and sets up a new Mobile-pc connection (which makes a second connection on the mobile, and can cause problem sync'ing mail).
I have read that others had problems with restored SMSs when using SPB, I did not check that.
I had a VERY BAD experience with the Sprite backup.
I just would NOT restore the contacts and calendar data,
and messed up the multi-language support after ROM upgrade,
no matter what restore method I selected.
So -
in my experience concludes that - NO backup program is reliable.

Depending on what you want from your backup solution, Microsoft MyPhone is particularly good!
It syncs data to & from an online store where you can view it via a web interface. You can sync your data with MyPhone, hard reset the device, sync your data again and it's just back.
What's more, you can set it to automatically sync data on a periodic basis. I have it run a sync at 4am every day, and it's only ever failed a couple of times, and I've been using it for over 6 months now!
Have a look at it - it should be on your phone, but it's in the marketplace if it's not there. Alternatively, just google MyPhone.
Hope this helps

johncmolyneux said:
Depending on what you want from your backup solution, Microsoft MyPhone is particularly good!
It syncs data to & from an online store where you can view it via a web interface. You can sync your data with MyPhone, hard reset the device, sync your data again and it's just back.
What's more, you can set it to automatically sync data on a periodic basis. I have it run a sync at 4am every day, and it's only ever failed a couple of times, and I've been using it for over 6 months now!
Have a look at it - it should be on your phone, but it's in the marketplace if it's not there. Alternatively, just google MyPhone.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, right,
just the small fact they dont back up the data on their servers make it just as unreliable.
(The server crashed no too long ago, and they had no backup, and many users lost their data)
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/N...rver-failure-causes-smartphone-data-loss.aspx
http://www.scmagazineus.com/microsoft-server-failure-causes-sidekick-data-loss/article/152114/

Som30ne said:
Yeah, right,
just the small fact they dont back up the data on their servers make it just as unreliable.
(The server crashed no too long ago, and they had no backup, and many users lost their data)
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/N...rver-failure-causes-smartphone-data-loss.aspx
http://www.scmagazineus.com/microsoft-server-failure-causes-sidekick-data-loss/article/152114/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you rely 100% on a backup then you are gonna get screwed sometimes. Like I said, mine syncs daily, so even if it didn't work for a couple of days I wouldn't actually lose any data unless my phone went down.
So basically, if everything fails then yes, you'll lose your data.
Anyway, neither of the articles you linked even mentions the MyPhone service.
Thanks for the info though

Just as a matter of interest, cloud services like MyPhone seem to be on the increase. However who is asking the questions of these service providers as to how safe and secure our data really is?
So if I upload a thousand contacts onto MyPhone how do I know that someone isn't going to get their hands on that data or, worse still, use it for either commercial advantage or nefarious purposes?
I am not against cloud services per se; however these services, including MyLocation, seem to be getting accepted without any of us either fully understanding how secure all this data is, who actually holds it, what the impacts are on our right to privacy, etc, etc.
Just asking the question chaps. Interested in your sensible views.
WB

I'm with you, WB, I suspect we (the global "we") are losing our grip on our data and privacy without even realising it.
personally I just sync with outlook for contacts and mails and I backup outlook every week or so. I doubt ill use cloud services for some time to come.

hey dude, i am using spb backup i hard reset lots of times because i trial lots of softwares, till this date never had any problems! SPB been really reliable

I've been using SK Tools to backup my HD2 since I got it. It works fine with the HD2 except for one small but weird issue.
The first time I restored a backup from SK Tools, it restored everything just fine, except, when in ActiveSync, I could not copy or write to the phone, nor could I install new software on the phone. It seems like the permissions on the phone had been changed to "Read Only" for all files and folder. However, if I then connected the HD2 to my PC, but select it to connect as an external drive, I could then perform read/write data from/to the SD card. However, if I started to install a new .cab file from the SD card it would still fail during installation.
The way to overcome this issue, was for me to perform a hard reset, connect the phone to my PC with ActiveSync, perform a read/write to/from the phone, then after that, do the restore with SK Tools. If a file had been read and written to the phone/SD card with Activesync prior to the restore, it would then restore perfectly, and everything will be back to normal.
Other than this one weird issue, I haven't had any problems with using SK Tools for backup.

Had always good experience with Sprite Backup, used it on "O2 Orbit II", HTC Touch HD, and now using Sprite Backup on HD2.
On HD2 i didn't need a Image restore yet, but I do not expect to get a problem in this case.
File restore worked well!
Using the default Sprite Backup configuration contacts, calendar and tasks will not be backed up, because in the case of a Image restore Sprite-Software says you can get double entries afterwards when sync with Outlook.
manilla

Thanks all for your input, maybe this was just a glitch. I'll stick with SPB unless it happens again...

I've tried Sprite Backup and SPB Backup to get my call history and SMS's on to my HD2 (from a TyTN2) but have a problem with the results form both. Messages display in the Sense tab, and in the "all messages" list if the traditional non-conversational view mode is used they all display correctly and can be opened and viewed. If I leave the phone in conversation view however, I can't view any of the conversations. The conversations appear in the list, but if I tap any of them it goes straight bcak to the Sense tab showing the newest message. Photos for contacts are also not displayed against the conversations. If I send a text to someone it starts a new conversation and displays the photo. These new conversations open properly when you go back to them.
I can't work out what is causing this, anyone else had this problem?

[Q] How to Backup and Restore SMS and MMS

Now that myPhone has closed, is there a way to backup and restore my SMS and MMS messages? SkyDrive is no help at all. I have all other data and my email safely backed up.
I have found an application called 'PPCPIMBackup' which was designed for WM5. Does anyone have any experience with this? I also have Sprite Backup and the backup utility in SKTools. I have a licence for SPB Backup.
My messages are critically important to me and the threaded version on my HD2 is extremely helpful. If I can't restore them after a reset, I'm in trouble. Unfortunately, that's just what I need to do. I can't afford to make a mess of this and so I haven't experimented with what I have yet.
Any help will be appreciated. If anyone has backed up their SMS, reset their HD2 and restored their messages successfully, I like to hear from them before I go further. I have read what I have found here but have found no mention of a successful outcome.
I have only had my HD2 for just over a year and Microsoft and HTC seem to be determined to turn it into a brick. If anyone is looking at Phone 7 devices I'd say 'beware'. Will Microsoft drop support for your phone?

I can recommend pimbackup. I use it after flashing ROM's. Works fine.
Edit: I have only used it on SMS msg's. No MMS experience.

I used spb backup and it also works fine.
Sent from my HTC HD2

Thank you for your replies.
My SMS are most important. I can live without my MMS.
Does SPB backup allow restoration of SMS alone after a full reset?

yes i think it does. sorry it's over 1 year now that i used wm on my hd2. but you can just make a backup and go to the restore menu before you reset your device. then you can see and be sure that you can restore only your messages.
but as far as i remember this is possible. i think you even can chose only to backup messages and not everything.

SPB will backup all sms mms 100% perfectly using the mail backup function.
This backs up email too & can not be sellected individually.
Have used SPB for over 5 years & have not lost any messages or PIM in that time.
Free PimBackup app is not that good, no MMS support & only inbox sms is stored (outbox is not, would make threaded sms a bit one sided)
If ultra important I would use both SPB & Sprite for backup.
Another good software for sms & contact backup is iMobile sms-contact backup (has PC app viewers which can be handy & supports unicode characters correctly)

Thank you all. I'm going to make backups with everything suggested.
Your comments have cheered me now that I know I stand a good chance of success. I thought I was stuck after the demise of myPhone.
I would press the 'thanks' button if only I could find it.

You can use any one of these to backup and restore your SMS: -
1. PPC PIM Backup
2. iMobile Backup Suite
3. SK Tools
4. SPB Backup
5. 91 PC Suite for WM
I use PPC PIM Backup regularly and have used it to restore my SMS & Contacts without any problems.
iMobile Backup Suite too is very reliable and simple to use. It gives you "export to text" option too.
91 PC Suite for WM has export to CSV/XML options which too are easy to use for backup/restore.