Is there a contact file stored on the phone?

13ducati13 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 11:17 AM

I do not have a backup of my contacts and was wondering if they are in a certain file on the phone?

I have searched with Total Commander and have checked but to no avail.

**Hafrust** · #2 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 11:24 AM

Your contacts are stored in a file called pim.vol. However, if your contacts are missing/have been deleted, you will not be able to restore them. I highly recommend installing a program such as pimbackup (free) that allows you to backup that info to your internal storage.

slpintern · #3 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hafrust

Your contacts are stored in a file called pim.vol. However, if your contacts are missing/have been deleted, you will not be able to restore them. I highly recommend installing a program such as pimbackup (free) that allows you to backup that info to your internal storage.

Halfrust is exactly correct. You can also use active sync to back up your contacts if that is easier for you...

13ducati13 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 11:34 AM

I still have all my contacts so I just wanted to make a backup just in case. I will put a copy on my internal storage..

thanks for the info.

so if i did lose my contacts for some reason, I would just put the backup pim file back in it's original location?

**Hafrust** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 11:40 AM

Exactly. When the phone boots up, it looks for a file with the title pim.vol. There are a few steps you need to do to restore it. First, after a hard reset or whatever, you would go in and change the name of the current pim.vol file (which would be empty since a hard reset was done) to something like pim2. Then you would copy/paste your pim.vol file that you saved to internal storage to the device. Then you would do a soft reset. The phone will no longer recognize the pim2 file and now pick up the pim.vol that you copied from internal storage. Now that the pim2 file is no longer in use, you will be able to delete it. It's pretty simple to do, but I still recommend using pimbackup b/c it's even easier.

**briggs** · #6 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 12:20 PM

if you use active sync don't back up the pim.vol

you'll wind up with duplicate contacts when you flash your phone and restore the backup.

On that note, does anyone know how to backup your active sync partnerships so you don't have to reset them up everytime you flash?

**Hafrust** · #7 (**permalink**) 02-06-2009, 12:22 PM

Quote:

you'll wind up with duplicate contacts when you flash your phone and restore the backup.

If this does happen, there's a good program called DupeDeDupe that will eliminate duplicates. But yes, there is a risk of duplicates with Activesync.