Restore / View text messages on pc

matt85 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-09-2009, 02:35 PM

I've searched for a while and haven't been able to find anything to restore a PIM text message database onto a computer without using a windows mobile device. Is it possible to view text messages that have already been backed up in a PIM file directly on a PC without using the phone at all? I've seen a program that lets you sync text messages with your phone but I have over 8000 messages I want to view them on a pc and just trying to restore half of them takes an hour on my HTC touch and it is impossible to try and find exactly what i'm looking for. I don't even care if it is plain text, that would still probably be easier than loading it on my phone.

**Hafrust** · #2 (**permalink**) 02-09-2009, 02:57 PM

I'm not sure if Dashwire would let you upload them from a PC or not, but it might be worth a look.

**ScrapMaker** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-09-2009, 10:48 PM

For a long time, I have REALLY wanted a way to view/modify/organize/retore/backup text messages on the PC...

I wish someone would write a program to read/modify/create PIMBackup files...

In the meantime, you can use PIMBackup, deselect "compress backup," as well as "use binary".

This will create a file you can view on your PC. I believe it's XML.

SMS-export does this as well.

I think there are other programs that can do it as well... there just aren't really any good programs to play with the data on the PC.

At one point, I needed to organize, and remove a few texts from a PIMBackup file. The problem I had, is that once I modified the file, and restored the texts to my phone, Dashwire saw my texts as NEW messages, and not existing duplicates. I had get Dashwire to delete my texts, and start over... Not fun.

FYI, I just tried the non-binary, non-compressed PIMBackup, of ONLY messages, and it's already been going for nearly 8 minutes, and it's only 30% done. I reckon this will take about 30 minutes.

So it's a great deal slower. SMSexport, and the other backup/restore applications are faster, and great if you just want to view them.

You will need an XML viewer to properly navigate these files... MSWord or Internet Explorer seemed to have issues...

matt85 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-13-2009, 03:54 PM

I was able to change the pim file to a .zip file and extract it with winzip on my computer but now the messages are in a .pbm file and i can't seem to find a program that will open it and be able to let me look through them in order by date and threaded preferably.

**ScrapMaker** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-13-2009, 04:18 PM

Like I said, you should be able to save as uncompressed and NON-binary, from PIMBackup's options.

Then you can edit it directly--but be careful... if you restore it back to your phone, it will MOST LIKELY think that ALL of the messages in the file are brand-new, and you will find yourself with a host of duplicate messages. This is true, even if you have no messages on your phone--Dashwire will think they are new as well--and create online duplicates that are nearly impossible to get rid of.

**No1ustad** · #6 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 09:48 PM

tried the PIMbackup method and get some really ugly lookin data viewable with as .xls, error as .xml though...

so my search continues

i'm thoroughly surprised there's no solution to this yet..

**ScrapMaker** · #7 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by No1ustad

tried the PIMbackup method and get some really ugly lookin data viewable with as .xls, error as .xml though...

so my search continues

So you did non-compressed, and non-binary?

I know when I did it, I COULD view it using IE or MS Word, but it was only properly editted with a third-party XML program...

**No1ustad** · #8 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 09:57 PM

yea. i'll give it another go, takes me a good hour to backup 4000+ txts, so i'll post results tommorrow prolly

**ScrapMaker** · #9 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 10:01 PM

No kidding, it takes AMAZINGLY long to backup and restore... restore takes several hours...

I know this doesn't help you much, but one thing I have found is that the Microsoft MyPhone service restored about 3,000 texts to my phone, remotely, in about 5 minutes.

WTF!? That would have taken about 3 hours with PIMBackup.

I wonder what Microsoft does differently? Although, my texts STILL did not re-thread themselves properly, but I think that is ROM/base-dependent...

Still impressed though.

I am trying to go through and load up all my PIMBackup files, and sync to MyPhone, but this is a very tedious task. Literally hours upon hours of waiting with no phone usage...

**No1ustad** · #10 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 10:44 PM

does their myphone service allow for you to export all of them easily? even a select all, copy, paste function is something i could deal with...

well, PIMBackup has been running w/o an update for quite a while, but ya can't really beat how dependable it is..

man, i'd rather look into SKSchema or Mortscript to try to automate that process! those are two things i need to become well versed in...