Database Users

Force Pocket Outlook to reload pim.vol

Hi everyone,
I'm kind of manipulating the pim.vol file, and when I copy one over the original, and the try to modifie it (using the any api), I can see that the file used by pocket outlook is not the one I just copied.
One easy solution is to soft reset the pocket pc, and then pocket outlook read the new pim.vol, but this is kind of boring.
So my question is : does any one know how to tell to pocket outlook to reload its pim.vol file with having to soft-reset.
P.S : I've already tried to kill the poutlook process, but then everything is going so unstable that I don't think this is the way.
Thanks for your help guys.
Ed

You say you're "kind of manipulating the pim.vol file".
Does that mean you have a description of the file format at hand ?
I'm looking for it.
regards,
inetd.

I have the backup of PIM.VOL from AKU2.x and AKU3.x of my contacts before upgrade but Aku2.x PIM.VOL files are totally useless in Aku3.x. So better use outlook to backup, that is the safest.
They are of very different if you view the files in hex mode.
Those from AKU2.x seems to place the phone number before name and AKU3.x seems to place the name before the phone number.

BACKING UP CONTACTS

Is there any better way to backup contacts list rather then Microsoft Outlook?
I've seen a lot of different softwares around.
I just want some advice of an application that runs ok on 9100 and keeps my contacts safe.
By the way, the worst thing about using windows is that you KNOW that some day it will crash and you will have to format the device. It's dismissable.

I agree with you. I would love something that was able to export contacts to an XML file (and sms to a series of text files) just so I didn't have to pretty much relie on having access to a windows box.

Enjoy!!........... http://www.jeyo.com/companion.asp

As has been mentioned before, in the root directory of My Device there is a file named pim.vol. With Calendar/Contacts/Tasks not running copy this file to another location such as your storage card (don't move it!). Voila! There's your backup. No muss, no fuss.
Good luck!

Tref said:
As has been mentioned before, in the root directory of My Device there is a file named pim.vol. With Calendar/Contacts/Tasks not running copy this file to another location such as your storage card (don't move it!). Voila! There's your backup. No muss, no fuss.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wondering how to back up my contacts too. Thanks for the info!

You're welcome, I was just passing on what I also learned here.
Another thing I do is to use outlook to save an exported copy of my contacts as a .pst file on my PC. I don't sync my pda with my PC but I do periodically allow a sync to take place during which I set up the connection to "replace what is on the PC with what is on the device". After doing so I export the contacts to the pst file, somewhere on my PC and then delete all contacts in Outlook (it's not my primary email app). By deleting them I don't have to worry about hackers getting into them, and I'm then prepared for the next time I want to sync them for the purpose of backing them up.
Then I save copies of both the pim.vol and .pst files to a storage card that I keep locked up.

So i just need to save the pim.vol . And if something happens and i need to format my device i only need to put the replace pim.vol and all my contacts tasks and calendar will be restored, its correct
thanks

i use Shozu ( www.shozu.com ) lets me upload my photos right to Flickr, and as a bonus backs up my contacts. woo hoo

shozu looks good, however the wizard doesn appear in the list of compatible phones? What is the way round this?

How do you use the PIM file as a backup? I recently hard reset and then tried to copy the PIM file from my storage card back into the memory of the 8125 and I kept getting an error message that stated that either the file was in use or memory was not sufficient.
any thoughts?

u can use this contacts backup tool from buzzdev.net

Hammered said:
How do you use the PIM file as a backup? I recently hard reset and then tried to copy the PIM file from my storage card back into the memory of the 8125 and I kept getting an error message that stated that either the file was in use or memory was not sufficient.
any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rename the pim.vol to pim.vo and copy and paste backed up pim.vol - it works :wink:

meschle said:
Rename the pim.vol to pim.vo and copy and paste backed up pim.vol - it works :wink:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sir, Where do I find pim.vol, I don't understand how to go in root please help me.

Contacts & Calender files

Hi
Can someone let me know where are the contacts & calender files stores in i mate Jasjar? File location & file name.
Thanks,
Suresh Nallan

ncsuresh said:
Hi
Can someone let me know where are the contacts & calender files stores in i mate Jasjar? File location & file name.
Thanks,
Suresh Nallan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pim.vol in the root of your pocket pc
[As an aside your call history is also located in this file]
Matt

Hi
This can be of some help to someone....
I was having a lot of problems to sycn the data. I suspected that there was some goof up somewhere in the settings of my JJ. So I planned to restore my JJ to factory settings. But my biggest problem was contacts & calender items, as i know my JJ has the latest info than my outlook. I discovered a work around. I have done the following and it roked successfully:
I have copied pim.vol to my SD card. If you cant see the file, go to file explorer and select show all files. Now copy pim.vol to SD card. Done hard reset to my JJ. Overwrite the pim.vol file with the earlier copied one in SD card and viola.. all the data is back.
Now I am with all the data & even the sync is working fine. I hope this would be useful to somebody out there, when required.
It could be a good idea to copy the pim.vol onto SD cards fairly often. Then a hard reset when away from the pc and you can still have all your sync data!
cheers,,,
Suresh Nallan

u guys rock
u guys rock...
i have been tryin to do this since so many days...
thnx a lot

Folder of SMS's in WM6 ?

hi everyone,
i was'n able to find the file(s), where the incomming sms-data is stored. are they accessable directly from the xda/pda/... or via activesync-connection? can i get any access to these sms?
i'm using the excalibur with wm6.
thanx, dess

-UP-
no ideas?

They're not just in a folder. They're stored in some kind of datafile.
I don't know where unfortunately. You can find more info on this at the MSDN.

Hmm, seems that \PIM.VOL contains the contacs etc. but it seems, like this file don't saves the SMS.
So any suggestions, where to find the "SMS"-datafile?
By the way, does anybody know where to find some information about the structure of PIM.VOL?
Regards, dEsS

For the info about the PIM.VOL structure you have to be at the MSDN. There you can find all information about how to access them. (this is also possible with .NET Compact Framework)
Edit: maybe you'll find something usefull over here: http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/se...ery=access+sms+store&refinement=55&lang=en-us

\CEMAIL.VOL as far as i know, look into that file name, are you trying to backup your sms's ?

Backing up contacts with "pim.vol" file

Hi.
I've got an i-mate JASJAM and stupidly managed to delete all of my contacts while upgrading to WM6. Having realised I could one day be this foolish I backed my contacts up about a year ago by copying the "pim.vol" file which I'd read somewhere is this phone's contact list.
Unfortunately I can't seem to copy this file from my computer back onto my phone as it won't let me replace my current pim.vol file as it say's there is a sharing violation. I've tried renaming the files etc, so my old contact list might be recognised but it doesn't seem to work.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
Australia.

mattward74 said:
Hi.
I've got an i-mate JASJAM and stupidly managed to delete all of my contacts while upgrading to WM6. Having realised I could one day be this foolish I backed my contacts up about a year ago by copying the "pim.vol" file which I'd read somewhere is this phone's contact list.
Unfortunately I can't seem to copy this file from my computer back onto my phone as it won't let me replace my current pim.vol file as it say's there is a sharing violation. I've tried renaming the files etc, so my old contact list might be recognised but it doesn't seem to work.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
Australia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try to delete poutlook.lnk from the windows\startup folder
softreset
connect pda to your pc
rename pim.vol to pim2.vol
restore your pim.vol
immediately perform a soft reset

egoist6 said:
try to delete poutlook.lnk from the windows\startup folder
softreset
connect pda to your pc
rename pim.vol to pim2.vol
restore your pim.vol
immediately perform a soft reset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked! Thanks!

Thanks alot m8!! you saved my life, this is usefull help!
Regards,
Newbie, but learning

I'm sorry interrupt, but I had and still have a problem with pim.vol. I accidentally deleted those contacts from happiness, I saved the pim to card, and now when I want to put back the original pim.vol every time the WM is creating a new empty pim.vol. I tried the version that gave success to Axelman8 but I would like to ask if you could help me with some suggestions.
P.S.: I have a HTC Tytan II with WM 6.1
I'm sorry for the language I use the Google translate, hope You understand me.
Regards