Hi - I've posted this somewhere else largely too, but as this is finally the area I was looking for of XDA, I thought it might be more useful to post it here, too.
Believe me, I've looked and looked (and looked and looked and looked and looked) both on here, Google and seemingly everywhere on the entire internet for the answer to this question...
As my (very old and out of date, since I've been using predominantly iPhones since 2008) signature will confirm, I used to be a very enthusiastic member of these forums back in the day, and I had many XDAs from the first to the last I bought - the TyTn II. I used backup programs like most people during that time to keep texts, MMS (as they were then) and other important data. Naturally, when I moved to the iPhone, I couldn't really migrate them across so I was happy knowing that I had the data on hard drives, should I ever need it or get nostalgic and look through.
Well the time came recently to panic about those drives, and so I have gone through them all, binned the rubbish and I'm left with the files I want to upload to the cloud and keep forever. I found a number of different backup sets for PCs, old Mac stuff etc, and even backups for my old XDA phones. I must've used PIM Backup at some point, as I had files linked to that app and eventually (a fresh XP VM, downloading of Visual Stuio, a suitable MS ROM emulator of a PPC, and installation of PIM Backup later....phew) managed to restore the backups and re-export to CSV, so I have the texts from that time.
However, one set of backups have completely stumped me, and as I said at the start, I've looked and looked but can't find the answer. "WHAT THE HELL APP USED THE EXTENSION .SPD FOR ITS BACKUP SETS????" I've tried:
PIM
Sprite Backup - though I could only find a WM5 / 6 ROM that had no SMS inbox, so went to 2003 but couldn't find SB's 2003 version. However, their Sprite Explorer windows app suggests the app only backed up as .exe or .pbf
Resco
ActiveSync itself
Does ANYONE know of what the app is to unlock these files? If you open in a text editor then you can mostly determine ie the content of texts, and it's assumed they're in chronological order, but the date formatting is indecipherable and it doesn't show them in conversation style. So it's not the end of the world, but I would like to crack this last puzzle. Can anyone help? I found ONE post over on ppcgeeks that showed someone had a similar issue and also couldn't find what the app used was, but in the end he found his data on another platform and didn't need to resolve it.
Cheers
Ant
Related
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!
I've tried the search option but couldn't find an answer. I want to back up my spv m700 - all of it, not just the contacts, etc. On my old xda11 and acer n35 pda there is a backup program that was brilliant. I left the acer at home for several weeks and the battery ran down and wiped all my programs, settings etc. I clicked on restore and eveything came back - tomtom, books in ereader, all without having to install them. There is not that option in the spv, is there a backup program that i can use? Preferably free but, gulp, I will even buy if I have to - that's how serious I am! As a newbie please don't get too technical if there is a method of backing up already on the phone, I'm scared of b****g it up.
If it's a full system backup you require then SPB Backup is one such program, i have used it and it does do just that. Unfortunately its not free. There are others but that's the only one i have experience of.
Check out PIMBackUp for just your contacts and messages. It is free and can be found on this forum somewhere.
After "re-installing" my laptop I launched ActiveSync the first time and telled him to synchronize with my Touch HD. But AS said: There allready exists a parthernsip on the mobile device - first go and delete it.
Ok... I started AS on my phone, opened the options dialogue and I deleted the partnership with my laptop. That was a mistake - because with the parthnership every contact was deleted.
Wow, nice feature, Microsoft!
So... i know i have a half year old backup, but is it possible to undelete the current contacts? Perhaps there is a file on my phone, where they all are stored?
every hint is helpful, thanks a lot in advance!
//E
puuh.. ok - i found the file "pim.vol". Obviously it contains every contact but they are marked as "invisible" respectivly "deleted". So, how can i reveal them, make them visible?
Yes, I saw that issue when trying to remove association between my PC and my HD. I used ActiveSync to import contacts from PC, but when it's done, why can't I mantain the contacts if I remove the association? Can't understand.
Deleted as mis read the line of "re-installed" laptop.
Soz.
i guess it could be a good idea to move this thread to the general Q&A board, cause thats not really a blackstone related problem.
Also have the exact same issue,
used phone on my spare laptop and was asked to delete a setting,
Now I've lost about 220 contacts. - Any fixes?
I think there is no fix. Just dont do it again. Always have a backup somewhere. Now it is quite convenient to skip outlook altogether and active sync directly to gmail and gcalander.
perhaps there is a solution.
As I found out, the pim.vol is just a database called "EDB" that MS uses for mobile devices. Till now the file format is "closed" but there exists the so called "POOM" - an API to read informations from the EDB.
So... I guess there is someone out there who already coded a Interface to read the pim.vol.... and we have to find him...
This interests me because I tend to delete contacts quite often!
Just Run PPC PIM backup- it creates a backup of PIM on a daily basis. This way you can delete contacts,messages, appointments and so on as much as you like.
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?
Hi
Believe me, I've looked and looked (and looked and looked and looked and looked) both on here, Google and seemingly everywhere on the entire internet for the answer to this question...
As my (very old and out of date, since I've been using predominantly iPhones since 2008) signature will confirm, I used to be a very enthusiastic member of these forums back in the day, and I had many XDAs from the first to the last I bought - the TyTn II. I used backup programs like most people during that time to keep texts, MMS (as they were then) and other important data. Naturally, when I moved to the iPhone, I couldn't really migrate them across so I was happy knowing that I had the data on hard drives, should I ever need it or get nostalgic and look through.
Well the time came recently to panic about those drives, and so I have gone through them all, binned the rubbish and I'm left with the files I want to upload to the cloud and keep forever. I found a number of different backup sets for PCs, old Mac stuff etc, and even backups for my old XDA phones. I must've used PIM Backup at some point, as I had files linked to that app and eventually (a fresh XP VM, downloading of Visual Stuio, a suitable MS ROM emulator of a PPC, and installation of PIM Backup later....phew) managed to restore the backups and re-export to CSV, so I have the texts from that time.
However, one set of backups have completely stumped me, and as I said at the start, I've looked and looked but can't find the answer. "WHAT THE HELL APP USED THE EXTENSION .SPD FOR ITS BACKUP SETS????" I've tried:
PIM
Sprite Backup - though I could only find a WM5 / 6 ROM that had no SMS inbox, so went to 2003 but couldn't find SB's 2003 version. However, their Sprite Explorer windows app suggests the app only backed up as .exe or .pbf
Resco
ActiveSync itself
Does ANYONE know of what the app is to unlock these files? If you open in a text editor then you can mostly determine ie the content of texts, and it's assumed they're in chronological order, but the date formatting is indecipherable and it doesn't show them in conversation style. So it's not the end of the world, but I would like to crack this last puzzle. Can anyone help?
Cheers
Ant