While we have no evidence to suggest that the failure of Palm Profiles to successfully sync contacts to newly activated webOS devices is a widespread phenomena , it is widespread enough to be a cause of concern. These recent developments, compounded with the Danger fiasco last month, should serve to reinforce the importance of data redundancy, even in the days of "cloud computing." To echo Dieter's sentiments on the issue:
Our advice: your key data should always be in a minimum of three places:
Your Pre (where it's persistent as long as you don't erase anything)
A cloud service (Palm, Google, Exchange, etc)
Someplace 'else.' For most of us that will be your desktop, where hopefully you're pulling down your data from Google or Exchange. If you're using Palm's profile exclusively, we suggest you take a look at one of the several desktop sync apps that are available now.
Aside from using third party programs like Mark/Space's The Missing Sync or Chapura's PocketMirror, there really isn't an easy to take the contact information stored in the Palm Profile and export it for use in other services, such as gmail or Yahoo. There is a utility in the works by DrewPre that's intended to fill this void, as first reported by Derek earlier this week, but it has yet to be released to the public as of this writing.
Those who want to back up their data without parting with money are still in luck, however: utilizing the tools and resources already made available to us by members of the webOS community, it is possible to back up the contents of your Palm Profile, and even export the contacts contained therein to the cloud service of your choice.
Here's how.
Step 1: install and configure webOS Quick Install
Follow the directions here for installing and configuring Jason Robitaille's webOS Quick Install, and what steps are needed to get your webOS device ready for the procedure.
Step 2: Extract PalmDatabase.db3
Per the webos-internals wiki, everything in your Palm Profile is kept in an sqlite database located in /var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3. If that sentence doesn't make much sense to you, that's okay. To extract the database file, connect your webOS device to your computer, selecting "just charge". Start webOS Quick Install and navigate your way to Tools > Receive file, where you'll enter "/var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3". Select where you'd like the program to save the file, and click "Get From Device!".
Step 3: Archive, Export, or Transplant
Archive: If you're not interested in transferring the contacts contained in PalmDatabase.db3, performing a weekly backup as a "just in case" is never a bad idea.
Export: If you are interested in exporting your contents to a cloud service, xybyre has created a program, which can be downloaded from here, that will extract the contents from the database file into a CSV file that can be exported into gmail, outlook and the like. Questions to the developer can be directed to him in this forum thread.
DrewPre also has a utility for doing this requiring users to root their devices, but the complexity of using his method is beyond the scope of this write up. If you're interested in more about this method, take a look though this thread in the forums.
Transplant: In the way that we were able to copy a file from a webOS device, it is also possible to copy a file to a webOS device.
So long as the OS version of the device the data is taken from matches that of the receiving device, you should be able to transplant PalmDatabase.db3 without any ill effect. Just transfer the file over, restart the phone, and you should be good to go.
Further resources
As always, the forums are an excellent resource if you have any questions regarding this process at all. Many, if not all, of the developers behind the programs and resources used for this quick how to maintain a regular presence there. Go ahead, give 'em your thanks, and if you really dig their work, a donation.
Comments
the first comment
good stuff.. definitely will make use of this.. thanks..
hell yeah. Thanks
great info thx!
Been doing this with the Internals app :)
You guys are freaking GREAT, thx thx thx and more thx... I was planning on installing one of those CPU scaling patches, but I wanted to back up my data first. I already lost all my contacts from Palm's server already, so I was planning on making up a little .xls spreasheet when I get home from work with all my contacts. Lucky for me, as I'm doing my daily reading on this site, the first thing posted is this bad @$$ article.
For all the complainers and whiners in this community, please keep your complaints at a minimal (I know some of you are complainers by nature, and can't help yourself), this is a first generation phone that's been out for around 5 months. This OS has the potential to do more than any other OS currently on the market. If your not happy with it return it, get something else, I and many others are willing to go through the bad times and see this OS succeed.
Palm did rush the phone out to beat the 3Gs and other Android phones, but that was there best option. As time goes by, the OS will be more polish and robust, if you dont beleive me look at some of their recent hirings, along with some of the things they've added in 1.3.1... Sorry for the long post, I just know a few peoples will make a fuss on how palm shoud be doing this themselves. Any grammar police out there, i've seen a few of you one here, if you comprehend my post; please move on. Thank You
This is useful to know. When 1.3.1 came out, I ran WebOSDoctor to have a fresh base to start with when I updated, and after reloading my profile, I had no more contacts. I was very sad. I've since retrieved all the ones I needed (I think), but when I get home I'm definitely going to back-up what I've got so far. Thanks for the info!
does anyone know if this only back up contacts or does it back up SMS, apps, etc too?
SMS and Call history information is also stored in PalmDatabase.db3
Yes it will restore both of these if you restore the file.
If backing up is just the one file, why not make a simple app/script that runs daily that copies and compresses (gzip -9 or better) the file to the usb drive section (/media/internal) and/or could upload or e-mail the file somewhere?
There is a homebrew app in the works for this already. Not out yet.
1) Because that is just too simple?
2) Because it doesn't require MS-Windows?
3) Because nobody makes any money?
:)
if you can export to a csv file via the ExportPreContacts program, can you edit you contacts in the excel csv file and convert them back to the PalmDatabase.db3? How?
Cannot do this in the inverse manner but what you can do is import it into Outlook and DTA it back to the Pre/Pixi via data xfer assistant or import the CSV into google contacts/calendar and use google profile to get it to the device. Some editing of the CSV file maybe needed, havent actually seen how that app makes the csv sheet yet.
Thanks Robert. I've been using the PalmDatabase.db3 backup strategy via WebOS QI since early Sept when I got my Pre. By doing so, I was able to restore my SMS and Call History (until now, I didn't realize it aslo kept Palm Profile info there as well -- I don't use the Palm Profile for any contact / calendar records).
In my 'restore' after a WebOS Dr, I think my strategy was to log into Palm Profile first and restore from backup (apps, settings, etc...), then set up my contacts, email, and calendar accounts, and then restore my PalmDatabase.db3 file via WebOS QI as the last step. Since I use Google and corporate Exchange for all of my PIM cloud storage, I'm not certain the order matters, but I imagine for the risk-takers out there just using Palm Profile, the order could matter.
Do you have any advice for that crowd?
Also, (mostly for those using Palm Profile only) what is the risk of taking a legacy historical PalmDatabase.db3 file and overwriting the one on your phone? I imagine, any changes to your PIM info since one's last .db3 database backup would be lost and not recoverable (as opposed to restore from Palm profile which SHOULD be up-to-date as of YESTERDAY's backup --- assuming it works). I imagine the Palm Profile recovery will be everyone's first resort, but this is a nice fallback measure. Only problem with this scenario is that those users who do "successfully" recover data via Palm Profile won't have the option to use the .db3 file to restore SMS and Call History.
Interesting question about rewriting your current database with the legacy [backup] database from two weeks ago.
My guess would be that you'd have lost all PIM & other data from the past two weeks. From my understanding, data in the Palm Profile is mostly one-way gig. It's always going to the cloud except for the one time that you run the "First Run" app after a Doctor or replacing your Pre.
Whether you're simply running the First Run app (after replacement or Doctored Pre) or copying the .db3 to your computer and back to the Pre.... the version of webOS from the backup device needs to match the version of the webOS device you're restoring the backup to.
>My guess would be that you'd have lost all PIM & other data from the past two weeks. From my understanding, data in the Palm Profile is mostly one-way gig. It's always going to the cloud except for the one time that you run the "First Run" app after a Doctor or replacing your Pre.
Well, it is only going to the "Cloud" once a day. So you could still lose up to 24 hours of activity. As for the backup file you make yourself- yep, like any backup, you would lose anything that changed after the date/time you made the backup.
I am in HUGE agreement that Palm should just be backing up this (probably small) file, perhaps gzipped, to the usb partition every day ANYWAY.
Doh simple file transfer....
Well I should have thought about being so simple..
I guess I didn't ask the question properly. Here's what I want to do:
1.) Backup .db3 weekly
2.) convert .db3 to csv, and edit contacts as needed. For example, some of my contacts have #s listed as 813999999, but I will like to change it to this format (813) 999-9999.
3.) Once I'm done editing, convert .csv file back to .db3
4.) Upload .db3 back to Pre via WebOSQuickInstall
I don't know how to do step 3. Thanks
I'd go to www.sqlite.org and see if you can turn step 2 into "make backup db" and step 3 into "edit db".
I'm pretty sure if you get the sqliteODBC package you can directly modify the data file using your favorite DB tool of choice (Access, SQL studio, Open Office Base, etc) and/or get the TCLEdit package if you don't already have a database tool.
If you aren't a SQL type I'd go with something like Access or OO.Base to give you a GUI so you can edit the data in an spreadsheet format.
I used Internalz, and copied the db3 file to my /media/internal, then attached it to an email on the phone and emailed it to myself. No computer interface needed! Presto I have backup local.
Brilliant as well!
hi! how did you do this exactly? how did u use Internalz? could u plz explain it to me? i'm a bit confused by how it worked.
did u do all this on the phone alone or did u use QI to grab the db3 file & emailed it using the pc?
how is Internalz incorporated on this process?
i'm replacing phones right now and i've been researching & came across ur comment.
it seems pretty simple. if i could use it for this replacement would be great!
plz help? thanx!
Super useful thank you guys soooo much... i really can't say how much i appreciate everyone out there working w/ the pre and making it better and easier to use. THANK YOU!
i have all my contacts backed up on my HTC Snap which i use if my pre were to fail. i also have them backed up on palm and google. however im mainly concerned about my apps and the data saved that goes with them?
for WinMo i had SPB Backup which made an exact copy of the entire phones contents. is there anything out there that currently does that?
the earpiece on my Pre went out and ill be ordering a replacement once i can figure this out. thank you for all your help guys
is there a way were I can save my yahoo or google contacts to the palm profile so that I can make changes to that contact. I know google you can make changes, but if you remove the google account, the contacts doesn't stay.
this article came out literally minutes after I doctored my pre, logged back into my profile... and guess what?!? NOTHING! SONOFABITCH!!
You prolly didn't update to 1.3.1 before opening the "First Run" app. Your "old" and "new" device must have the same version of webOS... or else!!
What exactly is stored in that file? Besides SMS and call history.
Yes I'd like to know the answer to this as well. What's stored in the .db3 file? I want to backup my apps ex. apps that i purchased "splashID".
That data is located elswhere, var/usr/palm/applications im thinking from memory. Shouldnt have to worry about apps, seperate backup options and havent seen that not bring back apps unless you still have the old free one and now it is a paid version.
WARNING!!!
DO NOT CREATE A NEW PALM PROFILE WITH A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS!
THIS WILL CAUSE ALL YOUR PAID APPS PURCHASES TO BE LOST!
This happened to me when I needed to do a clean install after a doctor and I didn't want the old profile to get in the way.
Unaware that the Palm Catalog Purchases are stored in our profiles.
So if we create a new profile and then you go to download the apps that you already purchased, it will force you pay again.
I've been in touch with Palm and they didn't even know this was possible, and I was the first person to do this and report it.
I did suggest that instead of storing the purchases in the Profile that they store this information on the Billing Server and somehow have a way to restore purchases from the Palm App Catalog Application.
Hope this helps some if this happens.
Rob
PS I'm faxing my double receipts to Palm and they are going to refund my money on those duplicate purchases.
And I have to tell you, Palm is listening to all of us. I was allowed to talk about other issues which most of us complain about and or want. They seemed to care a lot us. I was totally impressed by this particular service rep.
The idea is that there should not be a logical reason to create a new profile and stick to it. If there is "corruption" on that backup then the app on your pre can purge it and make a new one.
You did this all wrong... The idea is to use the new dummy profile, just so the phone can be activated on Palm server. Then make sure your phone is running 1.3.1, then to a full erase; but this time around you will enter your real/old profile and all your data should be back.
http://www.precentral.net/disappearing-palm-profile-backup-solution
In fact, as long as he hasn't intentionally wiped
his old profile, he should still be able to go back
in and link to the old profile following a doctor
of the Pre. If he did erase his old profile then
that's really not Palm's problem.
Guys I did intentionally wipe it out!
But as I discovered and as I said in my 'comment', I did not realize by doing so, I would loose my paid app information.
I did not understand that it was stored there.
And that the App Catalog now without that Profile is going to want to charge me again for apps that I paid for.
And Palm themselves sees this as a problem, even though I did something that 99.9% of users would never do or encounter.
The fact that that is the only place that the billing information is stored is a problem.
I did get my refunds today, and with the reps guidance I faxed all my receipts to Palm.
As I said they were great!
But let's think about this. Let's say that I did a doctor on my phone.
I felt I didn't want to use that email address any longer that I originally used, so when I reboot my doctor'd phone and then said 'create new profile' instead of 'use existing profile', that would cause the issue.
Just creating a new profile would cause the issue, because Palm is not looking at the phone's serial number or anything like that only the email address.
So none of the info about billing is moved into this newly created profile.
So to say that nobody would ever want to create a new profile is bogus.
Is there a warning in there anywhere that you would loose your billing information if you created a new profile.
At least there should be a warning or sorts.
So just don't ignore what happened to me as 'user error', it will end up happening to someone else and that was why I told my story.
Rob
Oh I might have left one point out in my store.
After I created my new profile. I did go in and change my email address to the original email address.
So there is no way of going back to the old profile.
Once you created the new profile, that old one is gone!
Putting in the old email address just adjusted the new profile it did not go back to the old profile.
Rob
I keep getting an error when trying to receive file. Is anyone else having this problem? My phone is in developer mode and I have the latest version of QI. Anyone Help?
I make no guarantees as to whether the Pre will accept
a modified database file (I have not tried it),
but here's one easy way you can edit it in place on your PC.
Download the SQLite Manager add-on for Firefox.
Then choose Database menu - Connect database
and point it at your local copy of PalmDatabase.db3
You can see all of the tables, their structure, and their data.
If you choose the Browse & Search tab you can instantly
see all the data in any selected table and double click
on any row, edit values and execute the SQL to modify that
row automatically.
Note however that some data is in multiple tables.
For instance you'll find your contacts in
com_palm_pim_Contact
as well as
com_palm_pim_Person
It looks to me like Person is probably used as the key
for universal search or something like that.
If you add or edit a contact on the phone it undoubtedly
updates both tables immediately.
As for what's in this database.
At a glance.
Accounts - all synergy account profiles
Credentials - usernames and encrypted passwords
Backup config settings
Luna job scheduler for background automated tasks
email accounts, hosts etc.
Email subject previews
Calendar events
Contacts
Locations - physical addresses, probably pulled from Contacts
Memos
Part - email attachments
Person - contact names converted to searchable format
Recipient - email addresses
Task - tasks and task categories
There's other more esoteric stuff related to synergy
but you can see that for yourself.
Good info here.
My screen cracked so I used WebOS to backup my database and it worked great. I got the new phone. Upgraded to 1.3.1 software like the broken phone. When I go to send the file back to my phone I get an error message. I get Error 5. File Open Failed. I am sending the file to this location:
/var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3
Any ideas. This looks like the same location from the screen shot.
Sorry for posting to quickly. I just had to delete the PalmDatabase.db3 from the destination folder. The screen shot is not correct.
My downloaded apps did not come back but emails and text message logs did.
How can you view it on Micrsoft Word?
I had to do this b/c I just traded to a new Pre today since the old one had a speaker malfunction.
Incidently, when I got the new phone I tried to 'sync with the cloud.' The only things that came down were the applications. Email settings were buggered. Contacts made an epic fail for Palm Profile. Thankfully I had backed up my PalmDatabase.db3 file three days ago before taking the phone in. I had success putting things back together as follows:
Old Pre prep:
-Update to 1.3.1 if not already updated.
-Offload Media (mount as USB drive) from old phone.
-Offload PalmDatabase.db3 using the above instructions from old phone.
New Pre swap:
-Immediately upgrade to 1.3.1
-Don't change any of the settings.
-Copy Media on USB mode; dismount USB; reconnect on "Just Charge"
-Overwrite PalmDatabase.db3 (although, as somebody noted you need only specify the folder - the image above is wrong, take off the "PalmDatabase.db3" on the end of the file location)
-Restart phone
Except for my wallpaper everything came back as it was previously and the phone seems to be working fine even after another power cycle from being completely shutdown.
Thanks to everybody for posting helpful things. I couldn't have done this without the people on the website!
Ok, call me stupid. I was following the instructions to the letter I thought and getting an error every time. After about four tries I decided that the instructions had capital letters in the command line. Being a Linux novice I had no idea it was case sensitive on the command line.
Changed that and presto, worked like a charm.
Live and learn!
Thanks guys for the article.
Super thrilled that 1 day after this wonderfully helpful article comes out, the link to download the Extract program on Zybyresoft is disabled. Le booooo!
yea, the guy wants donations, I was about to give it to him,,, but not anymore
Check this article http://forums.precentral.net/webos-synergy-synchronization/216993-export... for a workaround since Zybyresoft's download link is still disabled. This method took me all of 10 minutes, and worked like a charm. Big ups to all the brainy folks around here who make owning a Pre a great experience!
I know Preware and WebOS QI are the top 2 internals, based on an excellent comparison written on PreCentral earlier. I subsequently downloaded PreWare and am very happy with it.
Can the back up described on this thread for QI also work for PreWare?
Thank you for this article. Four days ago I read it and promptly did this to backup the PalmDatabase.db3 file to my computer. Last night I had unlinked a few contacts that I didn't want linked. Did a backup to the failure that is the palm cloud. And then tried searching for those contacts.
I noticed that it took forever for them to come up. Not only just these but it was slow with others. So I restarted using the Device Info reset options. When it restarted I got the, Sign in to the palm profile business. WTF, I did a restart not a reset.
I entered my profile info with my original email and password when I first signed up. I know, use a dummy email but I should not have too<
When I go to send the file back to my phone I get an error message. I get Error 5. File Open Failed. I am sending the file to this location:
/var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3
Any ideas. This looks like the same location from the screen shot.
Thank you for the great info; keyboard just went out and I was looking for a way to back-up info before I go exchange my phone at the sprint store. Love this site; I have learned a lot since using coming here. Thank you everyone who puts into all the great work to some of us who are less computer savy.
Thank you so much for this write up. Four days ago I read this and promptly backed up my PalmDatabase.db3 file to my computer. I just knew from hearing about others losing their contacts that I would someday have the same failure.
Just last night I un-linked a few contacts that had linked themselves together. I did a backup to the palm profile. Shortly after my phone became real slow. I tried searching for the two contacts I had just unlinked. It took forever to even popup their name. It even was happening to other contacts too.
So I restart via the Device Info>>Restart. Once it started back up I got the "Login to Palm Profile" to sync information...WTF, I tapped restart not reset.
So I entered my original email and password when I first got my pre. It synced and restarted. I immediately checked my contacts and it showed I only had 3 while the rest were GONE. Oh !@#$, I know I should have used the dummy email method. But WE should not have to do that<<
Is this only for PC? Because I have a mac and when I click the "Get info from device button" nothing happens. I can just keep clicking it and still nothing. Anyone else having this problem?
Nevermind, apparently you have to save it to "My Documents" as opposed to a folder of your choice.
For those of us with Macs, make sure you choose /Users/{put your username here}/Documents.
YEA YOU HAVE TO SAVE IT TOO MY DOCUMENTS FOR IT TO WORK PROPERLY
To all the people going off the screen shot where /var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3 is the directory to SEND to the PalmDatabase.db3 to when replacing the one on the your new Pre MAKE SURE TO DELETE PalmDatabase.db3 FROM THE FILE PATH or you will get error number 5. Had me scared to death as my screen cracked and had to get a new one.
P.S. All backing up and reinstalling of PalmDatabase.db3 can be done with a broken screen as long as your Pre is in dev mode; SO PUT THAT PRE IN DEV MODE NOW... NOW!
P.P.S. I searched the forums and Google, took screen shots of people's problems with their screens/Sprints knowledge of the issue and had ZERO problems getting a NEW Pre in 48 hours (over a weekend no less)
Thanks Palm and Sprint.
What if i used a 3rd party software like Chapura Echo to get my old Palm Desktop onto my Pre... Now is there anyway to get that data to start syncing with my Palm Profile? or does it do it automatically? SO... if my phone dies, will the Palm Profile in the sky, in theory, have all that was on my phone??? -thanks for any info.
my pre keeps deleting my pictures just randomly. I will take a picture then check again later and it wont be there,
When I tried this, I was receiving an "Error 5: unable to open file" when I tried to send the PalmDatabase.db3 back to the Pre. My fix:
1) Root the Pre
2) rename the live PalmDatabase.db3 file:
mv /var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3 /var/luna/data/dbdata/PalmDatabase.db3.old
3) Continue with "Step 3:Transplant" above
SCREEN SHOT IS WRONG. Caused much heartache.
Steps that worked for me after doctoring.
1) Follow Step One above
2) Follow Step Two and save the .db3 file to "my documents"
3) To "transplant" the file back on to your pre, follow the instructions but only type "/var/luna/data/dbdata/" minus the quotes in the send a file portion of Web OS Quick Install.
I spent way to much time trying to find a solution to back up my sms and call logs. Send me a PM if you think I can help. Good luck.
ineeld Thank You! 62 comments to finally find your words of wisdom!
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