The good and not-so-good of Palm Backup

When I read the description of the profile backup, my first thought was when is a real backup solution going to be published?

Glad you've got a replacement Pre (sounds like you had the slightly-short-battery problem). The backup issue is the same as when Palm originally released PalmOS: cloud backup, like Hotsync, only covered the PIM apps and a few limited others, while the programs and settings for every other app were left out. It took creative programmers like the writers of BackupBuddy (now part of BlueNomad, and a mission-critical app for me on my TX) to provide 3rd party backup for the 3rd party apps and other user settings (even today, there are both Saved Preferences and Unsaved Preferences in PalmOS).

I am certain that this, like the issue with the backsliding on Memos functionality, will be addressed either by a quick OS upgrade and/or a 3rd party app. (Based on history, I'd expect it to first come from a 3rd party, then get integrated by Palm into a future OS release.) {ProfJonathan}

I agree with the notion that Palm has to do more with its backup feature. Yesterday, I received a Pre replacement phone, because the first one had problems with its receiver. Don't get me wrong...it was AWESOME that Palm imported all the settings, particularly Synergy and the apps. But it was so time consuming to re-add bookmarks, hook the phone up back to my Wi-Fi connection, re-customizing login information and settings to the apps (like Pandora, Express Stocks, Evernote, etc.) and phone operations (like screen brightness, ringtones, turning on/off GPS, etc.)

I love the phone and I hope Palm takes this observation as a learning experience to outgrow and improve this crucial feature.

yeah, not good. the backup has to do more, especially since can only do it in the cloud.

Were your profiles still linked (AIM, phone book, facebook)? The Engadget review said it unlinked their contacts and I was wondering if this was fixed?

"It wasn't without issue, however, as we found that details like brightness settings and ringtone selections hadn't carried over to the new phone, and more shockingly, we found that when it restored our AIM and Gmail accounts, it unlinked all of the contacts layers that we'd hand-linked. Not so cool."

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/palm-pre-review-part-3-data-speeds-ba...

Is there any way of recovering some of these things (like bookmarks) if we made a "backup" via USB connection and copied all the contents to our PC?

My first question of concern is why are you using a mac?

My second question of concern is, does palm plan to update this to be more effective, I sure hope so.

I had to make 2 exchanges (slider battery issue on 1 and bubble under screen on other) and now am on my 3rd Pre and it seems to work now. Since I was having so many issues, I didn't do a whole lot of customizing on my phone besides downloading some apps. But I did the Outlook sync through Chapura, then did a backup before I took the last phone in. When I logged into my profile on the new phone, my contacts were gone! Seems the Palm Profile backup does not backup the Outlook contacts? And when I got to contacts, preferences, should I make sure to select the Outlook Chapura as the default and THEN do the backup? I am confused on this backup procedure.

Just got mine yesterday, seems to work fine. I think the first batch they sent out may have been problematic.

So take private convos... Email... Text... Contacts etc...
Well I hope you guys aren't into any criminal activity because you might forget to cutoof the auto back up and then you know... Evidence is left on a sever somewhere I like the backup on my own computer gives you more peace of mind...

On my palm PDAs at least the T|E and T5 I had an app called backup man and if through your own choice or by some sort of freak accident your handheld was wiped clean as if you never owned it backup man literally restored every little tiny thing as if nothing had happened. It even restored all that stuff if it was a new device even a new model if I recall. This is what the backup feature on the pre should be, especially considering their whole synergy thing this should have been a given. I just hope that I don't find myself in this mess before it is the way the backup feature should be, I think it would take me longer to get everything back the way it is now.

I think the automatic backups don't need to save all of that information because it mmight take too long, but at the very least I think everything should be saved through a manual backup.

This is not news for alot of people who have the issue with getting logged out of the Palm Profile. When that happens you lose all personal settings on the Pre.

As someone who remains extremely excited about the potential of the Pre, but is still sitting on the sidlines (for a variety of reasons), this just adds to the reasons I'll wait another 3-6 months (hopefully not more) until Palm gets more things right. I don't expect perfection by any means in that time but something better that what launched two weeks ago. All those about to flame me with 'what did you expect from a v1.0 device?', please chill out. While I do consider myself an early adopter, I'm a power user as well and issues like this are unacceptable when compared to my 3 year old 700p with nightly backup onboard via NV backup to my SD card and ftp'd remotely to my personal webspace server. In my ideal world, there'd also be local backup as well... Understanding that the SD option is off the table, at least for this device, maybe a 3rd party would develop a BT or Wifi local backup to your PC -- at least for nights when I'm not on the road...

I totally agree. I have already gone through 1 exchange due to a faulty headphone jack and it looks like I need another due to a poor slider(this one does not slide smoothly or close completely flush at the bottom). But I hesitate to do the exchange because it takes too long to restore my Pre to its current state.I hope Palm is already working on a fix for this. And I do not want a 3rd party solution. Truth be told i want Palm to give me a Hot Sync solution with my own personal PC(or Mac).

Please tell me this is a joke? Come on people, have we as humans got so lazy that we refuse to do any leg work? This phone is rock solid as a 1st. Gen, and is not a month out the gate.

unrelated: I have full signal EV Do Rev A in my area right now. I just ran speed tests on two different websites: mobilespeedtest.com and dslreports.com/mspeed my results were 2.34 Mbps and 1364 Kbps! These speeds seem absurdly fast for 3G connectivity, but I can't argue with results. The highest I have ever seen on iPhone's At&t is 400 Kbps! You guys visit the websites and test your 3G speeds.

Does anyone know if the Classic App data gets backed up? TIA

I've had this problem over and over again as my Pre logs me out of my Palm Profile once a day. I'm on the waiting list for a new Pre from my Sprint store. By now I'm an old pro at starting from scratch with settings, etc. When I finally get my replacement I hope to never have to worry about it again. Everything else about the phone is top-notch.

Hrm, I did a WebOS Reset Doctor restore the other day. It did it's thing and asked for my Palm Profile info. Entered it. Got my apps back. Everything you said was true except I still had my Express Stocks info there. Interesting.

When you plug the Pre into your computer, is it possible to backup everything or are you limited in what you can see?

This was my biggest concern with the Pre having no external memory card (i.e. SD/microSD slot). Even if someone makes a backup program, where are we supposed to store it? I'm assuming a hard reset wipes out the "usb" drive as well, correct? My only thought is any backup solution will have to work in conjunction with the USB cable or WiFi to store the backup on a computer. Not exactly the ideal solution; I can't tell you how many times I've restored a WinMob or PalmOS phone from a memory card after installing a bad application or having sudden random weirdness affect the phone. It's a total lifesaver, especially on a trip when you're away from your home/work computer. I used to keep at least my last 10 backups on my SD card on my treos.

If Palm Synergy backup doesn't work like a full memory-card backup, it's next to useless.

NVBackup was one of my favorite programs on my treo 650 as I have been through a few of them and was always able to get all my info+ back. I hope that they can increase the functionality of the current back up system they have for the Pre.

my pre just died. i swapped batteries with my wife's pre and both powered up. my battery in my wife's pre shows to be 82% charged. all i have done today with it was make two phone calls and check our local weather with the weather app. very minimal use compared to a normal day since we got them last week. it stayed in my palm holster when not in use. i did not even open the slider today. wifi is off, bluetooth is off, my email settings are to check gmail every 6hrs.

To cover several questions at once:

Classic: No, Classic is not backed up by Palm's backup. You can use utilities like Resco Backup inside the Classic emulator to make a backup of the emulated device, then copy the backup to the exposed USB area to store it on a PC. Kludgey, but possible.

USB limitations: You can only see the 'USB Drive' space of the Pre, nothing more. You cannot see your installed applications, bookmarks, mail, etc. So no backup is possible by that route.

AFAIKT, the only current possibility for full backup would be through rooting the Pre. I don't see how a WebOS app would have enough rights to copy everything, never mind restoring.

This is going to have to either be addressed by Palm themselves, or by a commercial app that Palm has given special access.

You can get at everything if you've rooted your Pre, but restoring is going to be interesting as you'll be trying to overwrite files that the system is using. A more limited approach that just restores app data might work.

In any case, this really needs to be addressed. People keep a lot of critical data on their PDA's, and there has to be a way to safeguard it.

Just got a replacement due to reception issues. The backup did not restore my calendar events I had set up... what kind of crap is that?

I lost the web bookmarks I had set up after getting a replacement unit. Would be nice if you could back these up.

The fiasco behind this is what's keeping me from getting a replacement Pre. I have the light leakage issue that some have had (along with the insurance plan, should be an easy swap at the store), and IMO it seems to be getting worse.

I know I'm entitled to a new phone, but the hassle of re-configuring the remaining phone features is unsettling.

I had the SAME exact experience as this article and hope that Palm makes changes to listen to its customers.

So, still no full backup to local computer? I've gone thought saveral Palm TX's (fragile thing). and I just plug it in. press the hotsync button, enter my name, and it's just like it was before. AND, no one else has access to my personal data.

I'll consider the Pre when I can keep all my data to myself, and back up absolutely everything.
In the meantime, I'll keep buying spare TX's and screen kits.
(Need to check if Palm desktop will run under Windows 7..)