So, before my first attempt with flashing a custom ROM I made a backup with MyBackup, and like any noob included everything, all apk-s, all data, contacts and everything.
Flashed and rebooted succesfully, restored backup and then something went wrong. Everything was restored except my contacts, but also everything worked somehow buggy, with "com.google.process.gapps has stopped working" all the time and the worst part:
Restore contacts failed: unknown error
Unable to convert BLOB to string
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Some contact were synced in one of the attempts, but most of them were deleted from my phone and ALSO FROM ONLINE GOOGLE CONTACTS, followed with some annoying warnings about deleted contacts. Like I didn't noticed... so, for the biggest part it was my own fault. Should have left the contacts to sync from the "cloud" - or is there another way? Also, I emailed RerWare if they could help me with that. They responded within few hours (very nice!) and here is a part from their answer:
We have a minor bug which affects a small amount of users. People who made a contacts backup from Android 1 device and restoring it on an Android 2 device. (contacts only)...
This issue has been fixed and will be out in the next release. If you can not wait until then, you can send us the .ZIP backup file, and I will alter it so you will be able to restore your contacts. But, if you do it this way, your contacts photos\icons will not be restored. If you want to wait for the fix, this will restore everything including photo\icons.
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But in the meantime I restored it myself the hard way. There is a way to only view the contacts using MyBackup, which leaves HTML dump on SD card under "\rerware\MyBackup\tempHtml" . Copy&Paste into Excel, edit the numbers and what you have to do (little help from Google), save as csv file and import back into contacts. It will merge with existing ones so everything is fine again
Hope this helps someone
Just as a little point (not read you whole topic not got time)
never use mybackup to backup contacts especially if they are also synced with google.
Related
So I just used geekfor.me prekitchen program for its auto-rooter ability and rooted my phone to recovery img 1.2.3... worked successfully and then did a nandroid backup...
But what now?
1. Should I upgrade to recovery img1.5.2 file? Does it matter and why?
2. Where is the nandroid backup saved? Is it on the phone and where on the phone?
3. Do I lose my contacts if I install a rom such as Fresh 1.1?
TIA
You should not loose your contacts...and I would Update to img1.5.2 ... because is newer?
and the nandroid should be on your SDCARD if I am not mistaken
All of what is said above is true, and updating to fresh1.1 shouldnt erase ANYTHING ON THE PHONE. it will only update the Operating System Files
How do I back up my contacts from now on... I had to completely input them manually which was a pain in the ass.
Also... so since I installed fresh1.1... what cool things can I continue to do to the phone?
As for backing up your contacts, if you synced with a gmail account, and if you saved your contacts type as Google, they automatically get backed up to your gmail account, if I understand the system correctly.
ultivegito2 said:
As for backing up your contacts, if you synced with a gmail account, and if you saved your contacts type as Google, they automatically get backed up to your gmail account, if I understand the system correctly.
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Correct, but it is a hell of a lot easier to enter all the contact info at Gmail page rather than on the phone. At least you have a nice big screen and keyboard then. Then those contacts get pushed to the phone.
I've been flashing and enjoying all the different roms. I backed up my phone from a few days ago via clockwork recovery and one version has all of the contacts that I need, but when I restore the data after a new flash, not only do I get the contacts I want, but also other things that I don't want to restore.
So for now, I just want to bring over the contacts file that I backed up, and none of the other data. I tried google sync but it only brings over the email addresses, but not the phone numbers of my contact. I tried Titanium Backup, but it did the same thing. I tried Android Backup app, but it won't restore what I backed up.
Where can I find the specific contacts file and what is the best way to back it up and restore it?
This isn't a direct answer to your question however the simplest and most foolproof way is to go into contacts and export the list. You can take that file and import it into your gmail contacts (the option is there). After that you can move the email addresses to another folder within your gmail contacts. (They'll still be just as easily accessed when emailing) After that when you do gmail sync it will always bring back just the phone numbers. Then it's as easy and adding that acccount within your rom. Hope this helps....
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
worked! Thanks so much.
Hi!
I did an update for xperia x8 today. I made a back-up for calendar, contacts and so on. When the update was finished, i tried to run the backup file to restore the information (most importantly contacts) but it said the file (.sbf) couldn't be read.
I tried taking out the sd card and putting it back in, didn't work. Tried to find a converter or a sbf reader, hoping to at least be able to see the information. No luck.
Can you repair the file? (I guess it is corrupted or something, since i can open an older backup file.) Are there any programs that can read the file? (on the phone, or on pc)
Thanks!
I don't know how to help you with corrupt sbf, but I can give you a tip for the future.
Sync your calendar, contacts, etc with gmail! It's pretty easy and very good! When I format my phone, I only backup my messages, cuz contacts are already backed up @ gmail!
Hi Vixen666,
I'm in the same situation Did you found the solosion?
Thanks!
Hello all, i'm desperately in need of your help!!
1) The problem:
-my NAND (internal storage memory) runs out of space all of a sudden when I know for sure that it has plenty of free space since I install almost everything on my microSD. All my user setting/sms/contacts were reset and emptied. Every time I reboot/turn on my phone, it always make me go through the whole Initial Setup Wizard as if it was a brand new phone. Apparently since there's 0 space available on NAND, it simply cannot save my setting.
2) Back ground Info:
- my hd2 has been running coredroid 1.5 (or 1.6) perfectly on NAND for over 6+ months.
- I know NAND is still working because I'm still able to boot into android.
3) What I need:
- I need to figure out a way to recover my contacts and sms from NAND before I reformat it and reflash android. Please help me I've been searching on XDA and google for the past hours but no dice
thanks a million in advance!!!
just download sms backup app and add contacts with your google accout
nameless517 said:
just download sms backup app and add contacts with your google accout
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thanks for your response, but I dont think u understand my question. My contacts and SMS are emptied, so a regular backup app will not help me in this case. What I need is to somehow recover contacts and sms from internal storage.
Titanium backup can schedule the backup/restore
You guys are not understanding me, backup app can only backup the data that's currently there. but if the data has been deleted, these backup apps cannot recover them...
since they are gone, they have probably been removed. I don't think u can recover them..
computer memory and/or hard drives usually still retain the files that you deleted. it's possible to recover files after you format hard drive, so of course it's possible to recover files from a memory chip.
so I was looking at my TitaniumBackup folder, and I see these files:
com.android.providers.contacts-20110409-103323.properties
com.android.providers.contacts-20110409-103323.tar
com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-20110409-103331
com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-20110409-103331.tar
can one of the files above contain my contacts?
mythek88, first
P.S. and Titanium can backup to dropbox =)
sorry buddy...i dont think you can recover contacts and smss....they are converted into binary and stored is what i vaguely remember reading.
there is a undelete app for root users, if you are one... try this app. i cant promise it will bring back sometime, but sometime trying is all it takes...good luck
to avoid this situation, i typically sync everything with my gmail so i can always recover anytime....
Thank you for all the inputs, I've given up on trying to recover my data and have went ahead and reformat/repartition/reflashed my rom. Luckily I found an old backup of my contacts, so I only lost a handful of new numbers.
mythek88 said:
Thank you for all the inputs, I've given up on trying to recover my data and have went ahead and reformat/repartition/reflashed my rom. Luckily I found an old backup of my contacts, so I only lost a handful of new numbers.
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now...dont forget to sync it with some service
Restore SMS from mmssms.db with adb
Hi all,
Can anybody help me how to restore mmssms.db and also the contacts2.db? I read I can do it with adb, but as I tried, it sayd Permission Denied.
Can anybody write me a step-by-step guide how can I restore them for sure?
Thanks a lot.
Additionally, I tried Titanium, it doesn't see these files, so that is why is went for adb.
Please help!
Thanks a lot.
Getting ready to OTA the official 8.1 from Nougat BUT I am paranoid.
I have two PH-1's so I would like to update the never yet used phone to 8.1 THEN copy all contacts, text, photos and downloads into it from my in use PH-1. After that, I would like to factory reset my used PH-1, update it to 8.1 and then copy my stuff back.
Coming from Samsung to Essential, I lost a lot of file downloads - mostly .pdf's, some photos and some contacts. It took a long time to recover not knowing what was missing until I could not find it and some things are still missing!
Thanks in advance for all suggestions!
That's what the cloud is for my friend. Google Contacts, Drive, and Photos.
Used Google last time. Lots did NOT transfer!
If you're rooted, I love Titanium Backup. I've used it for years now. It will backup anything and everything, then just backup your Titanium folder to your PC. I also have tried SMS Backup+ which will backup your texts and MMS to Google. I will restore texts but will NOT restore MMS (yet. maybe one day.) Contacts should always be available on the cloud as long as you have the settings for it set. (You can check what contacts are saved to the cloud by going here: https://contacts.google.com) Also, if you're using Google's built-in backup services, you can check in settings to see when the last successful backup was done (Or check here: https://drive.google.com/drive/backups. If you change any settings you'll have to wait a while for it to sync again. Hope this helps!
Contacts look good but File Backups only have 5 files. Lots missing!
Zargone said:
Contacts look good but File Backups only have 5 files. Lots missing!
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Do you mean that Google Drive only shows 5 entries named something like "PH-1 backup"? This should be correct -- it stores the entire backup as one entry. What you'll want to check, most importantly, is the date on the right side of each entry. The most current, which would be done 'today' will have the time, instead of a previous date.
I may be wrong, but to me, it seems like some apps just don't backup their data to Google Drive. I know, for instance, my bank app does not seem to remember my login, but I find that to be more secure.. if someone gains access to my Google account, they cant just restore my bank app and get my login handed directly to them. Another thing I've personally noticed is that when you do a fresh install and during setup it asks if you want to restore, the top option is NOT always the most recent backup. I don't know why this is, but I have accidentally restored an older backup while restoring a fresh install. Maybe that's what happened to you last time when things were missing?
If you want to make absolute sure you get everything in a backup, or don't trust Google to get the job done accurately, I still recommend Titanium (I use this, I'm not affiliated.. I just KNOW it works and it works well). Or, you can use any other 3rd party backup utility that you like.
Hope this helps!
-----EDIT----
If you want to just make a backup to your PC, you can use ADB to do backups.
adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|nosystem] [<packages...>]
I personally don't use adb for backups because I only backup a few select apps, but I would think that running adb backup with the 'nosystem' argument would provide you with a solid backup. I do NOT know all the ins and outs of using ADB so you'll want to research the correct usage to backup what you want, but I just wanted to add this as a backup option.
I also see no reason you couldn't use adb backup to do exactly what you originally asked... that is backup one PH-1 and restore it to another?
The link to the Backups keeps changing to:
https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/my-drive
It shows individual files only, no Backups.
Zargone said:
The link to the Backups keeps changing to:
https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/my-drive
It shows individual files only, no Backups.
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Hmm. I don't have my phone right now so I can't look into it further, but is there not an option somewhere within that (in a dropdown menu maybe?) to view Backups? Alternatively, you could try the Desktop version. Click the 3 dots on the right upper corner of Chrome and select the box that says something about desktop version or desktop view.. something like that.
If all else fails, open the link I shared on an actual computer.