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My problem is very similar to the one described here, However I don't want to fix it, I just want to TRY and retrieve my contacts!!!!
I am looking for the contact data files in WM 6.1 (in other words, the outlook data files that are probably hidden).
Backstory: The resident idiot here (ME) neglected to sync his phone and back things up for, oh, about 3 months. (yes, you know what comes next, and I fully deserve it!).
The phone has now stopped working... Specifically, the Phone application, contacts application, and calendar application. The rest of WM is working fine, except that there is something causing it to run sluggish. AND the phone will not sync. It will connect, but it refuses to sync. Nothing was done to cause this failure, other than waking up one morning.
SOMETHING is corrupted, but I don't think its the actual data file (logic for that is below), SO before I hit the hard reset.... I thought I might try to back it up manually..... what do I have to lose?
A few more specifics:
1. Samsung i770 running WM 6.1 (but I think more of a WM specific issue than a i770 issue). Activesync 4.5 will connect, but it will not sync contacts.
2. When the phone booted for the first 20 or so times after the problem appeared, an error message would across the screen as soon as the desktop was loaded, but far too fast to make out any of the words.
3. Trying to load contacts, calendar, or the phone application produces absolutely no result. No error message, to hung process, nothing.
4. The messaging application works fine, BUT any attempt to load a contact from within fails. Again, no error message, just... nothing happens, it's like you never clicked it....
5. The radio antenna in the top bar says that it has no service.
6. NOW the error message is no longer flashing by the screen when you boot the phone, but all other symptoms remain.
7. Despite the fact that the radio icon and status indicator claims there is no signal, I can send and receive text messages (I just have to enter the number manually).
8. Once, very recently, without doing anything, an error message appeared and STAYED on the screen. Shape of the text looks about right for the message that previously has been flashing by on the screen, I think they are one in the same.
"Shortcut Target"
"error opening the shortcut or locating the target filename."
ANY THOUGHTS? Primarily I'm looking for the contacts data file (I don't care about the calendar, but its probably in the same spot) to TRY back it up before I hard reset the phone.... BUT if anyone has any ideas about a cause or temporary fix to the problems, I'm all ears!!!!!!
I'd highly recommend trying Microsoft MyPhone, just to see if that can access your contacts. It may be that the contacts DB itself is knackered, in which case you obviously can't get anything back.
Worth a try
http://myphone.microsoft.com/
Good luck!
johncmolyneux said:
I'd highly recommend trying Microsoft MyPhone, just to see if that can access your contacts. It may be that the contacts DB itself is knackered, in which case you obviously can't get anything back.
Worth a try
http://myphone.microsoft.com/
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed it was worth a try. Connected via Wifi to install (can't use data plan, that requires "dialing" an internet connection, which must use the phone app).
Synced documents, txt messages, photos, and then said "Synchonization Successful". WOOHOO! all done.... OR NOT! checked online, NO contacts information. No Calendar information. Apparently MyPhone takes the stance of "if it won't work, just ignore it and report success".
Thanks, A very good thing to try, but no go
Unfortunately, I can think of a number of different ways that WM could be programed, each pointing to a different culprit for the problem. If it's straight DB access for each program, then the only conclusion is that the DB is knackered. But if there's a some kind of access control program that handles those things, maybe its just the program that's no good (hence the message that it couldn't load the target shortcut when the phone boots up).
Anyone have any ideas where to find the DB itself? I can always try the traditional (and very bad idea) of a file swap.....
Looks like this mystery will go unsolved... last chance to figure out where to find the contacts db file is. I'll probably be wiping it tomorrow, can't live without the phone much longer. Thanks for the suggestions so far!
Search for PIMBackup, that will enable you to save all your PIM related stuff and then restore it once you have a working device.
Edit
Forgot to say this doesn't require you to install anything, just save the EXE to your memory card and then use File Manager to run it on the PPC.
"Connecting to outlook...."
"Could not connect to Outlook."
Beautiful suggestion, I really thought I had the answer there... Thank you!
Seems to be that poutlook.exe is knackered, but that really would not explain why the Phone (cprog.exe) won't load...
PIM Backup log history is mostly what could be expected:
appointments failed - cant connect to outlook
call logs worked
contacts failed - cant connect to outlook
messages worked - "connected to outlook" (but thats a different db and a different connection app, tmail.exe)
speed dials worked
tasks failed - cant connect to outlook
So it comes down to this: PIM.vol is knackered, OR poutlook.exe is dead, and I'm not sure which. Anyone have WM 6.1 and feel like emailing me a copy of poutlook.exe? (powderkeg500 ~a~t~ gmail ^d0t^ com !)... I'm sure the versions may be a bit different... but *shrug* maybe it will work?.....
Does anyone know if I can simply copy PIM.vol to my computer, reload the device, and then copy PIM.vol back to the phone? If the answer is absolutely yes, then I can simply try that. But if the answer is no... I could be shooting myself in the foot
i think copying PIM.vol off and then back on might work, but i seem to recall it may require Total Commnader to get it back on as it's locked by the OS on startup - deemed a system level file i think.
i remember doing this once myself but can't remember that far back now.
Sorry for not sounding more positive. You might like to look at alol.net.br as they offer a free Exchange acount you access OTA and so your contacts would always be backed up in future.
Email sync/slowness issue
I have my Captivate to automatically retieve emails every 15 mins but it does not, I have to go into email account and select refresh.
Also it is very slow when retieving/deleting email.
is anyone else having any issues?
Im definitely having the same issue. My email will also sometimes tel
l me i have email when i don't. Its a little aggravating.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Try a factory reset. It was taking SO long to push some emails from an account that is relatively empty so I just had about enough of that and decided to do a reset and everything is peachy. Instantly the emails started to load up into the inbox and 5 seconds later it was done.. Amazing!
heygrl said:
Try a factory reset. It was taking SO long to push some emails from an account that is relatively empty so I just had about enough of that and decided to do a reset and everything is peachy. Instantly the emails started to load up into the inbox and 5 seconds later it was done.. Amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. Any other than a factory reset? because reinstalling everyting and reconfigure all my phone that's a bummer.
floppy__ said:
I have the same problem. Any other than a factory reset? because reinstalling everyting and reconfigure all my phone that's a bummer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Got a weeks worth of time invested in getting this thing set up and programs installed (and paid for).
Mine too doesnt do anything until I go into the mail program. It wont even save my changes I make in the email settings. I set mine to automatic, so they arrive as soon as i get an email, but it keeps going back to the 15 and 30 minute settings. This is my only issue with the phone.
Can someone who has done a hard reset try saving their settings to automatic, go into task killer , kill the email program and go back into email and see if it saved??
Instead of using the "email" program I use the "gmail" built in program and I get instant emails. But then again, I use gmail.
Same here. I use gmail for my personal account but for work I use the regular mail app on the phone. I also set up gmail on that app as well. The actual gmail app works great but my gmail account in the regular mail app doesn't--it will tell me I have gmail mail a couple hours after I have already looked at it in the gmail app and marked as read. Same thing with the work mail, things show up much later then they should.
Haven't found a way to fix it yet.
Are you guys using a task killer? If so and the email program is not ignored, the task killer will close the email app...which at that point is running services to retrieve your email.
In the same boat. I have both GMail and the Email program. Gmail is of course instant, however the built in email is horrible (at least with Exchange). I'm not killing it with taskkiller, and I've deleted and reset it up multiple times. I installed Touchdown and gave it a try, however it really didn't seem to make a huge difference. Unfortunately I think it's something we are going to have to endure until 2.2, which supposedly has Active Synch improvements.
I don't have experience with Exchange but really, a reset will speed up a lot of the loading screen "lag". That's the only thing that will.
heygrl said:
I don't have experience with Exchange but really, a reset will speed up a lot of the loading screen "lag". That's the only thing that will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And after the reset do you use a restore of titanium backup or do you have to do all resinstall manually and re-configure everything (like home screeens and apps)
The issue isn't so much loading screen lag, it's a long period of waiting to do anything (open, reply, delete) when navigation in the program. I'm assuming (more like guessing) that other phones simply make everything appear to happen instantly, and then perform the tasks in the background unlike on Android where everything is done real time.
For instance on my Blackberry and iPhone when I selected 5 emails and chose delete, all 5 would disappear and I could continue working. In Email I select the 5 messages, the program says Messages Deleted then I watch for 5 to 10 seconds as the messages are deleted one at a time, preventing any meaningful use of the program until the process completes. I've checked the Exchange logs, no errors or anything out of the ordinary. It works, just very slowly.
I had the same problem, but K9 instead. After a _lot_ of testing, gnashing of teeth, and pulling of hair, I think I've found the cause.
Email and K9 both appear to store stuff in the /data dir. This is the exact same location that others online have found to be drag-ass slow and the general cause for black screens and/or lag in general. Which pretty much describes exactly what was happening to me with Email and K9. Search here or at MoDaCo for more info on the lag issue.
The solution is to either hope Samsung can somehow fix the speed of the internal SD card or store data elsewhere. I'd be amazed if Samsung ever fixes the speed issue. And storing data elsewhere isn't an option build into either application. K9 might eventually have that feature added, but I doubt Email ever will. There's a potential fix shown at MoDaCo, but it involves rooting, updating the kernel, and partitioning an external SD card. Nothing difficult, but not for everybody.
Touchdown has an option to store data on the external SD card, so it shouldn't suffer the same problem. I haven't played with it yet to see if it does or not.
As for why Gmail seems to work ok, that's a little trickier. It stores under the same path as the others, but it appears to work in an asynchronus mode, relying more on what you have on the server and only checking the local copy if it can't hit the network. At least that's the best explanation I can come up with for why it seems to work much better than Email or K9.
I was using the Nexus One 2.2, with 2 different Exchange syncs and gmail... NO Problem at all.
Different story with the Captivate... Not rooted, with ATT bloat... hardly any other apps loaded, tried both popular loaders. The email is all most unbearable (and unacceptable), reminds me of the iPhone 3g, if not worse.
Hopefully we'll see a straight 2.2 build soon, or I'm really considering returning the phone (already sold my N1 for a chunk of change).. I have 27 days remaining for a return.
Stock 2.2 is the only way to go.
I'd love a stock 2.2 build! But... unless we get lucky with a major change in the driver for the internal (non-sd) filesystem, I don't think it's going to help with the e-mail issue (or the general lag/blackscreen issue) at all.
It's definately not the at&t bloat, I have mine rooted and all of the at&t apps removed. I definately think the data parition fx is the best route to persue.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
You haven't tried a reset? The Email app syncs my GMail account quickly for me, however before I did a reset it was loading in my emails one at a time and was noticeably poor.
Hi guys,
I started downloading an image attachment from the stock Gmail app, and my internet connection cut out. The ongoing notification wherein the blue bar just moves left to right prior to the actual downloading commencing is still there. I've re-downloaded the file, performed soft and hard resets, cleared Gmail's cache, stopped all running programs from the Task Manager, and the notification is still there.
Is there any way to rid my phone of the notification, save for a full factory reset?
I've searched this elsewhere on the forum, and none of the suggestions have worked.
thanks.
I'm not sure what the "bumping" etiquette is on this site, but here goes nothing...
Hopefully someone can help me out.
Some more info - my phone isn't rooted. It's a stock Rogers One X.
Try moving the file out of the downloads folder
Use a file manager (like "ES file explorer") to navigate to /sdcard/Downloads and move any files in there to a different location, like /sdcard/Music or /sdcard/Pictures. That should take care of the notification.
Hi all,
Have a strange "issue" with my Z3 Dual.
I noticed yesterday that the Downloader seemed to be running, even though I hadn't asked the phone to download anything. Sliding the notification open seems to suggest that the download isn't actually running, but simply keeps notifying.
Data is not being sent or received, and the items always seemed to be images. I had thought it was my work exchange email (through Mailwise) or maybe even IM chats downloading images. Uninstalled them and reinstalled and that did nothing.
Finally this morning, I received and email (through my Gmail) from my property manager, and it had a pdf, the same pdf was trying to be downloaded by the manager! So it appears, that on my phone at least, Gmail is asking my downloader to download, without the actual download initiating, but simply keeps a persistent notification there! I also have a nexus 9 with the newest Gmail and its not happening there.
Has anyone else had this issue? I'm about to roll back latest update of Gmail to see if it fixes.....
screenshot attached
Rolling back Gmail to original version has not helped.
It has happened to me, and it seems to be when using autodownload on any of the email apps if it begins to download and you suddenly lose the data is connection it gets stuck.
Just go to settings and apps and go to the Download app and clear the cache and data and that will take care of the persistent notification, then try to adjust your autodownload settings.
erasat said:
It has happened to me, and it seems to be when using autodownload on any of the email apps if it begins to download and you suddenly lose the data is connection it gets stuck.
Just go to settings and apps and go to the Download app and clear the cache and data and that will take care of the persistent notification, then try to adjust your autodownload settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with everything you've said, but in gmail, i've auto download of attachments on wifi to OFF, and Images to "ASk before showing". Not sure there are any other settings I can access?
I have, for the time being, turned OFF notifications from the download app - this is obviously not idea if I really DID have an actual download of a large size or being stuck I have no way of monitoring it.
Open to any other suggestions / ideas
sephstyler said:
Hi all,
Have a strange "issue" with my Z3 Dual.
I noticed yesterday that the Downloader seemed to be running, even though I hadn't asked the phone to download anything. Sliding the notification open seems to suggest that the download isn't actually running, but simply keeps notifying.
Data is not being sent or received, and the items always seemed to be images. I had thought it was my work exchange email (through Mailwise) or maybe even IM chats downloading images. Uninstalled them and reinstalled and that did nothing.
Finally this morning, I received and email (through my Gmail) from my property manager, and it had a pdf, the same pdf was trying to be downloaded by the manager! So it appears, that on my phone at least, Gmail is asking my downloader to download, without the actual download initiating, but simply keeps a persistent notification there! I also have a nexus 9 with the newest Gmail and its not happening there.
Has anyone else had this issue? I'm about to roll back latest update of Gmail to see if it fixes.....
screenshot attached
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same happened to me (also have Z3 dual) but updating Gmail app seemed to fix this issue.
I have the dual sim z3. I originally had my active tmobile SIM in SIM slot 2 when I put it in SIM Slot 1 the problem went away. Rebooted and no more download manager in the background.
My phone hasn't aged the best, and I text my girlfriend every day. My phone has had the option to keep messages limited to 1000 and then it'll delete the oldest texts to keep the number down, but I had it disabled for some reason. About a year ago, I tried to delete all of our texts. It was about two years' worth. And my phone would just sit, saying "deleting" for hours. It would either sit there forever, or my phone would stop responding and restart and the process would stop when it did, making the whole effort useless. A year later, it hasn't gotten any better. Even when I activate the setting to automatically delete old texts, it won't. Is there any way to access these texts by hooking it up to a computer maybe? I'm thinking if I can delete the texts on a device that isn't my phone, the process would go a lot smoother. Any ideas/help would be appreciated!
dkibble said:
My phone hasn't aged the best, and I text my girlfriend every day. My phone has had the option to keep messages limited to 1000 and then it'll delete the oldest texts to keep the number down, but I had it disabled for some reason. About a year ago, I tried to delete all of our texts. It was about two years' worth. And my phone would just sit, saying "deleting" for hours. It would either sit there forever, or my phone would stop responding and restart and the process would stop when it did, making the whole effort useless. A year later, it hasn't gotten any better. Even when I activate the setting to automatically delete old texts, it won't. Is there any way to access these texts by hooking it up to a computer maybe? I'm thinking if I can delete the texts on a device that isn't my phone, the process would go a lot smoother. Any ideas/help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The mms and sms are held in a data base file on your phone and can only be accessed with an app which has root permission. The file path to this folder easily searchable online but there are several mmssms.db files in this folder and the right one has to be deleted, in your case it will be the biggest. db file listed.
You cannot delete individual texts with this method you just delete everything in your mms and sms inbox if you get rid of this file. Android system will then auto generate a new empty one.
You may find it much easier to back up everything you want to keep on the phone then factory reset. Now, it is very easy to do this with Samsung smart switch or simply copy folders from your phone to pc then back again after reset
dkibble said:
My phone hasn't aged the best, and I text my girlfriend every day. My phone has had the option to keep messages limited to 1000 and then it'll delete the oldest texts to keep the number down, but I had it disabled for some reason. About a year ago, I tried to delete all of our texts. It was about two years' worth. And my phone would just sit, saying "deleting" for hours. It would either sit there forever, or my phone would stop responding and restart and the process would stop when it did, making the whole effort useless. A year later, it hasn't gotten any better. Even when I activate the setting to automatically delete old texts, it won't. Is there any way to access these texts by hooking it up to a computer maybe? I'm thinking if I can delete the texts on a device that isn't my phone, the process would go a lot smoother. Any ideas/help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried going into the app manager in settings and just delete the data from your messaging app?