Database Info

HELP SOS!!! HELP SOS !!!

I need help urgently with my O2 XDAII.. i was loading a task manager prg after downloading the same.. http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/wisbar/download.html
(WisBar is the leading task management software(skinable) for the PocketPC.)
Just after running the program for the first time the PPC hardset itself wiping out all my data. When I restored from the back up file ..
I have three problems of very serious nature...!!!!!
1) When i did resotre from the back up file... it wont pick up the time and date and also still connects as GUEST and not with original profile. SO I am unable to syncronise the data.
2) It wont send/ receive SMS
3) The SMS inbox is all messed up... the sent items are in "deleted item folder" the received sms are in outbox folder... and i cant delet /move a single sms from any of the folders.
I tried to use file manager and deleting files from windows\ Messaging but it did not help at all. I tried delting files from windows..and i could not do that as i was getting messages which i cant understand.
Rest all programs are running fine without any aparant problems...
Can some one help me restore my handset...please....???
[/b]

Hello,
First of all, I'm not sure what's causing your device to Hardreset by using Wisbar, I have mine working perfectly. :?
What backup software are you using?
If using the pre-installed one you are bound to have some problems.
In my opinion, the best backup solution is Sprite Backup (not a free application but a great one).
I used to have the same restore problems with the included backup solution on my MDA (besides the backups where not compressed and it was not a selective backup/restore).
Next time try Sprite's Backup.
Google it!

As far as the active sync profile is concerned - simple delete the original profile on your pc and allow it to create a new one when you next connect. It will then sync all your data back again.

Please help: Backup a locked up device-over only active sync- please look

My device an Atom Life WM 6 has locked up.
-the screen is locked up on windows boot image- cant control pocket pc
-soft reset battery pull anything i can think of does not help
-my safemode program isnt helping
Only option is HARD reset
Before I do that-
surprisingly can receive calls and sync over active sync
how can i back up the following:
- SMS - most important
- Contacts - second important
are there locations of these databases.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thank you

pim.vol
Hi
The phone module is seperate from the rest of the operating system, hence being able to function when WM has stopped responding.
I think that these databases are in a file called pim.vol. I can't be sure though. Maybe some other members can advise about back up software that runs entirely on the pc. The latest version of Sprite Backup perhaps?
Cheers
andrew-in-woking

If AS works then try Jeyo Mobile Companion, it runs purely on the PC and if it will connect then you should be able to export the stuff you need.

I copied over pim.vol but thats only contacts and tasks/appointments.
Anyone know the location of sms db.??
Unfortunately i do not have spb bakcup installed, dont think i can at this point.
I hope Jeyo works...
thank you

jeyo download sms's automatically.. but you will have to install a client side app.. if it doesn't do that automatically
just a suggestion for the future.
schedule a backup using PIMBackup2.8 to your storage card every once in a while..

the sms and emails are stored in "cemail.vol"

ok go here and install this http://www.mymobiler.com/
Once you have active synced your deivce, you can control it from ur PC
Then find and install PIM backup (using mymobiler). Then backup using PIM backup all your messages, contacts etc.
I find this better than using Sprite backup as this backs up registry too which might not always be a good idea when having problems. Its nice to have a simple PIM back up when needing to do a hardreset.

timmymarsh said:
ok go here and install this http://www.mymobiler.com/
Once you have active synced your deivce, you can control it from ur PC
Then find and install PIM backup (using mymobiler). Then backup using PIM backup all your messages, contacts etc.
I find this better than using Sprite backup as this backs up registry too which might not always be a good idea when having problems. Its nice to have a simple PIM back up when needing to do a hardreset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now why have I not tried this before? Wonderful piece of software.

lol deedee.. i got the impression that you knew everything

nir36 said:
lol deedee.. i got the impression that you knew everything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me, very long way to go for that. Only been on here for 18 months when work decided they wanted to try something on WM5 phones. That didnt work out and I have snaffled one of them for myself. Have tried many things to get a finger friendly PPC and am as near it as I need.

Restoring pim.vol file?

Hello!
I have a HTC Touch Diamond.
I dunno what happened, but i tried to sync it with windows 7 syncing tool, wanted to backup my contacts. But it said i didnt have a program installed for the contacts (dont have outlook, didnt seem to work with thunderbird), and when i checked again on the phone all my contacts except a few were gone. I think the ones that are still there, were on the phone and not the sim (or vice versa)
I do have a backup of my pim.vol file, and i managed to open it in wordpad and see it does contain at least some contacts which are missing on the phone.
How the ¤#%¤ do i restore them? I tried renaming the "new", wrong, pim.vol file, putting the correct one there. I did that outlook-thing in windows\startup\, etc. After the reset, it seems to be the correct pim.vol in the root dir on my phone. However, once i try to go into my contacts, most of them are still missing. I check root dir again, and the wrong .vol file has replaced the one i put there.
How do i either 1) get the contacts back on the phone 2) extract them with some software, either on WM or on my PC so i can manually add them?
When i open it in wordpad its really annoying to see them, spaces here and there etc so it would take me days to restore my hundreds of contacts...
Help appreciated!

Here's your best bet: do a hard reset. After the phone boots up, disable tf3d or manila/sense, if it's running, then use total commander to copy pim.vol to your device root. Soft reset, and you should be good to go.
Your next best option would be to use a database explorer to open up your copy of pim.vol and then export the contents and see if you can re-import them (try sk tools and the mount volume command-just a guess).

Farmer Ted said:
Here's your best bet: do a hard reset. After the phone boots up, disable tf3d or manila/sense, if it's running, then use total commander to copy pim.vol to your device root. Soft reset, and you should be good to go.
Your next best option would be to use a database explorer to open up your copy of pim.vol and then export the contents and see if you can re-import them (try sk tools and the mount volume command-just a guess).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do i do a hard reset again? And does it remove all my data, installed programs etc?
Going to try the sk tools first, anyway. Thanks!

Hmm. Im not sure, but maybe my contacts are somehow still in the phone, but hidden? When i browse my text messages, i see the name (not just number) of the senders. But those names are not amongst the names that i can see in the "contacts" page. How is that possible, and is there a chance that some setting was changed to only show SIM contacts or something? I searched all over the contact settings but couldn't find anything...

You could be seeing some messages and contacts that are on the sim card; if you have sk tools, you can look in the SIM Contacts and SIM SMS tools.
You may not need a hard reset, if you're pim.vol is basically empty. I think you're just better off over-writing an empty one with one stored on your sd card. It's probably just worth it to try over-writing with total commander (and soft reset), and see if you get everything back. The hard reset will wipe all your user settings/data.

Farmer Ted said:
You could be seeing some messages and contacts that are on the sim card; if you have sk tools, you can look in the SIM Contacts and SIM SMS tools.
You may not need a hard reset, if you're pim.vol is basically empty. I think you're just better off over-writing an empty one with one stored on your sd card. It's probably just worth it to try over-writing with total commander (and soft reset), and see if you get everything back. The hard reset will wipe all your user settings/data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, the contacts stored on the sim are still available in the "contacts" on the phone.
All the other ones which are/were stored on the phone, are gone.. Im going to try to force-replace the current pim.vol with the one that contains my contacts with Total Commander now.. I didn't get the "mount volume" thing with sk tools to work.

Well, i managed to overwrite the pim.vol file now. But after i reset, the size of the .pim file is wrong again and the contacts still aren't there.
How do i solve this? :/

pelle123 said:
Well, i managed to overwrite the pim.vol file now. But after i reset, the size of the .pim file is wrong again and the contacts still aren't there.
How do i solve this? :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using SK tools to empty all your pim data (with the PIM information tool). Then try over-writing it again. That's my only guess. I've had issues over-writing pim.vol, even after a flash. Sometimes it works perfectly, which is great because it's fast and easy to do. Other times, it just doesn't work for me.
With 'mount volume', you just select that under the 'Action' menu, then navigate to pim.vol and select it. You may need to change the name to pim2.vol, or something like that, because there's already a pim.vol mounted on the route of your device. I'm not guaranteeing this will work, it's just a suggestion. It still may not open it up. You could also get the demo of "Pocket Database Editor"; it will allow you to open up a copy of pim.vol. Not sure it's going to help, though.

Farmer Ted said:
Try using SK tools to empty all your pim data (with the PIM information tool). Then try over-writing it again. That's my only guess. I've had issues over-writing pim.vol, even after a flash. Sometimes it works perfectly, which is great because it's fast and easy to do. Other times, it just doesn't work for me.
With 'mount volume', you just select that under the 'Action' menu, then navigate to pim.vol and select it. You may need to change the name to pim2.vol, or something like that, because there's already a pim.vol mounted on the route of your device. I'm not guaranteeing this will work, it's just a suggestion. It still may not open it up. You could also get the demo of "Pocket Database Editor"; it will allow you to open up a copy of pim.vol. Not sure it's going to help, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all i really appreciate your help.
Removed all PIM information and tried to put the "correct" one there, didn't help.
When trying the mount volume thing, i mount the pim.vol file which i've seen contains names from my contacts which i cannot find anywhere on the phone. However i looked through all the databases in the .vol file i mounted and couldn't find my numbers anywhere.
But like i said, if i open it in wordpad, and search for a name that i know was in my contact list and isn't any more, it's in there.. it just doesn't show up.
This is driving me crazy.. really need all those numbers..
Any other tips? Isn't there some software that can extract the relevant data from the .vol file? There should be, no? Or at least could be.. Considering that PIM Backup software exists and the fact that you're able to view databases in the SKtools software...

I think the main databases you'll need to export off the backup pim.vol are the Contacts Database (has phone #'s), the Contacts Group Database, and the EmailRecipient one. You need to export them one at a time. Check the xml-you may need to change the path (from storage card to device root) as well as the name (if it's pim2.vol). I'd actually export all, although you'll probably see duplicates for the real \pim.vol. It's gonna be a pain.

Farmer Ted said:
I think the main databases you'll need to export off the backup pim.vol are the Contacts Database (has phone #'s), the Contacts Group Database, and the EmailRecipient one. You need to export them one at a time. Check the xml-you may need to change the path (from storage card to device root) as well as the name (if it's pim2.vol). I'd actually export all, although you'll probably see duplicates for the real \pim.vol. It's gonna be a pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, i managed to mount the real pim.vol and i saw all the databases. However the amount of entries in the contacts database is the same as in the "wrong" pim.vol... I previewed the databases in SKtools and couldnt find the rest of my contacts in any database..

I think this is what happened to me;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=454586
When i read that post, i remembered that i deleted 2 old sync relationships (they were really old, probably 10-15 months) and that's why my contacts are gone...
Any tips for solution are welcome..

I restored my pim.vol and it worked
Sorry to revive this old thread but I had this problem too, and this thread kept coming up in my searches. I had to post my solution somewhere.
I did a sync without backing up :facepalm: and I saw that pim.vol had some of my contacts. I tried all of the above but none of it worked. in the end. I used Sashimi to restore a copy of the Pim.vol i made from my phone directly after I realised I'd inadvertently deleted all my contacts. I could see in the pim.vol that there were some contacts that were missing using txt editor. When sashimi finished, it said reboot and delete the pim.deleteme file. So I reset and saw that pim.deleteme was a few megs bigger than my original pim.vol (voodoo magic!). So I renamed it to pim2.vol instead of deleting it and used sashimi to restore from that one and all my contacts reappeared. I hope that helps someone if anyone actually uses windows mobile anymore..... probably not.

Sprite Backup: where are sms stored ?

I'm new to Sprite Backup, and not sure how it saves my sms. In custom backup there is only an option for email. where can i find my sms?
thx for help,
uxu

No one an idea ?

I haven't worked it out either so I use MyPhone to back up SMSs. That doesn't save MMSs though.

DrATty said:
I haven't worked it out either so I use MyPhone to back up SMSs. That doesn't save MMSs though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use myphone too, but i don't realy like to have all the stuff online. According to the sprite backup website it saves sms, so why isn't there an easy way to show them ?

Thought I'd posted a reply here but now a little later I can't see it - well I am 64! Just in case I'll replay again (but damned if I know what I did witht eh earlier one!) I much simpler way I've found for maintaining backup and restore of SMS, appts etc is pimbackup - free download from here:
http://www.dotfred.net/default.htm
Recommended if you haven't seen it.

Thank you. I will take a look at PIM Backup. Otherwise, i like Sprite Backup. Hopefully someone knows where are sms stored

I did a bit of reading on this and SMSs are stored in pim.vol from what I understand.

DrATty said:
I did a bit of reading on this and SMSs are stored in pim.vol from what I understand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's a beginning. thanks

I've found SMS data in the file \My Documents\SMS.MSGS.xml on my HD2 as well. This file doesn't exist on my older Windows Mobile phone.
I'm just blundering around and don't have any particular expertise with Windows Mobile, but, as you say, it's a start. I've been looking for a way to selectively back up and restore SMSs, and in particular, MMSs for a while now. The best I've come up with so far is MyPhone, but it doesn't save MMSs; nor is it likely to according to the Microsoft MyPhone forum.

DrATty said:
I've found SMS data in the file \My Documents\SMS.MSGS.xml on my HD2 as well..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mh, i didn't have that file.
searched the net and different sites say that the pim.vol is a database which stores contacts and stuff like that, but not the sms

SMS.MSGS.xml isn't hidden on my HD2 but it's worth checking.
The more I look into this, the more confused I get. Searching through my device I've found text from my SMSs in a number of places. SKTools is useful for browsing the databases on a device. In addition to the above, I have SMS data in cemail.vol. I suspect that this is the default store and that Pocket Informant and HTC's own application muddy the water. At least I'm able to back my SMSs up, even if I can't selectively restore them with Sprite Backup.

App for deleteting of old appointments

Hi all,
pls. is any easy way, how to delete my old calendar appointments?
My piv.vol is 3,5 MB big. It is full of my old appoint. and i don know how to easy delete it.
Any suggestions?
I mean is here any app for it.
thx a lot.

danusko said:
Hi all,
pls. is any easy way, how to delete my old calendar appointments?
My piv.vol is 3,5 MB big. It is full of my old appoint. and i don know how to easy delete it.
Any suggestions?
I mean is here any app for it.
thx a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too! My PIM.VOL on my WM 6.5 is 19.3 megabytes! I need to get this smaller. I tried using PIMBackup to save each section (contacts, tasks, appointments...) in csv format. My plan was to kill PIM.VOL and restore those sections back in to it. But something is wrong with my calendar (appointments) and PIMBackup keeps freezing. At this point I am thinking to manually go through my appointments and write them down. Then I will have to figure out how to wipe out the old PIM.vol and then put them back in manually. I think what messed up my PIM file is the ActiveSync. Most every time I used that it made trouble. It would double up my contacts and appointments or lose them. I don't use that anymore. I tried Google Sync. That was good for my contacts but it could not sync my appointments. I believe because PIM is all messed up.
Have you got any better ideas? Thanks for your help.
Eli

SKTools can do this nicely.