Replacement Phone with no Palm Profile Information Tip (ex. Contacts)

[bpdamas]

I have received 6 replacement phones (lucky number 7! ... sort of. Few dead pixels and slider oreo but dealing with it). Anyway, one thing that I have learned is how to recover my Palm profile data specifically pertaining to information stored in apps to link contact information. Almost every time I received a refurb I lost my Palm profile information in the process, specifically the contacts and memos.

Here is what I learned. The refurb normally was on an older version of WebOS (normally 1.0.2 or 1.0.3). This caused something not to transfer over to the phone. Makes sense if they updated certain items pertaining to certain apps. Anyway, to recover this data I just followed a couple simple steps.

• Upgrade your phone to the current WebOS software version
• Once phone is finished upgrading and reboots, do a full erase
• Reactivate your phone and log into your profile
• Wait for the phone to reboot and all of you palm profile data should be restored

So far this has worked the 4 times I have needed it to. Originally while in the sprint store, my contacts were not loaded from my exchange server. I think the settings just weren't saved or something like that. I told them this process I would undertake and they let me leave the sprint store. Ultimately, if it didn't work I was just going to restore things manually. Anyway, hopefully this can help someone else who is having issues.

[bpdamas]

I am bumping my own thread for a couple reasons. One, I posted in the correct forum so it probably doesn't get noticed much and two, because I am still seeing people complaining about losing their contacts when all you have to do is follow the steps in this thread to prevent most errors.

[Skribbles505]

bpdamas since it seems like you've worked on this quite a bit perhaps you have ananswer for this. I had this issue after replacing my phone where instead of all my contacts syncing back I just got 7 entries. I tried various ways of recovering them, that I found on the forum with no luck. Unfortunately that was prior to this posting, and since I have gone into Google and added all my contacts there and they sync to the phone no problem. However I have lost a few contacts that I didn't have other places to add to google, so if I follow your instructions now is it likely they will then get pulled back down to the phone? Its a long shot I'm sure but I figured I'd pose the question before trying it since setting up the phone again gets to be a chore.

[xplozian]

Lost mine a few days ago, went through everything with palm and sprint with no success, is it possible that this could work now like skrib asked? Any new contacts I have added are with google as I lost all faith in palm, so I'm not worried about losing them again..

[bpdamas]

Originally Posted by Skribbles505

bpdamas since it seems like you've worked on this quite a bit perhaps you have ananswer for this. I had this issue after replacing my phone where instead of all my contacts syncing back I just got 7 entries. I tried various ways of recovering them, that I found on the forum with no luck. Unfortunately that was prior to this posting, and since I have gone into Google and added all my contacts there and they sync to the phone no problem. However I have lost a few contacts that I didn't have other places to add to google, so if I follow your instructions now is it likely they will then get pulled back down to the phone? Its a long shot I'm sure but I figured I'd pose the question before trying it since setting up the phone again gets to be a chore.

Originally Posted by xplozian

Lost mine a few days ago, went through everything with palm and sprint with no success, is it possible that this could work now like skrib asked? Any new contacts I have added are with google as I lost all faith in palm, so I'm not worried about losing them again..

I doubt doing these methods will bring the contacts back in either case if it has been over 24 hours. I don't know exactly how Palm's servers are working but the data can be overwritten by a backup that is performed most likely on a daily basis. It honestly can't hurt to try though but I have a feeling the data has already been overwritten. If you do try, feel free to post your results.

[cooper1010]

i thanked you preemptively, as i'm hoping this works for my new replacement phone. i'll let you know in a few minutes.

edit: didn't work. any other suggestions?

[bpdamas]

It has worked 7 times for me thus far so hopefully it does the same for you (I seriously had to think of how many replacements I had)

Post back what your results are if you could and good luck.

[bpdamas]

Originally Posted by cooper1010

i thanked you preemptively, as i'm hoping this works for my new replacement phone. i'll let you know in a few minutes.

edit: didn't work. any other suggestions?

Did you check if your Palm Profile backup was working prior to exchanging the phone? I know I have read people having the backup not working at all.

Also, you did upgrade to the most current version, correct?

[cooper1010]

this is my 3rd phone (2nd replacement) and the 1st replacement synched up fine, so i'm assuming backup was working.

the first thing i did when i got this one was update to the latest firmware (1.2.1?)

i'm no business man or anything, so this isn't the end of the world for me, but it sure is a pain in the butt.

[bpdamas]

Originally Posted by cooper1010

this is my 3rd phone (2nd replacement) and the 1st replacement synched up fine, so i'm assuming backup was working.

the first thing i did when i got this one was update to the latest firmware (1.2.1?)

i'm no business man or anything, so this isn't the end of the world for me, but it sure is a pain in the butt.

Well if you did a full erase then I don't know what else can help. You could try another full erase.

For the time being, I would disable the backup feature until you can speak to someone at Palm about your issue. That way it won't overwrite whatever data is stored there.

[cooper1010]

i'm chatting with them now (2 different ones; the first guy gave up on me). i've done full and partial erases, no luck. they're having someone from palm call me, but i'm not holding my breath.

thanks for your help.

[bpdamas]

Originally Posted by cooper1010

i'm chatting with them now (2 different ones; the first guy gave up on me). i've done full and partial erases, no luck. they're having someone from palm call me, but i'm not holding my breath.

thanks for your help.

You could also try and call Sprint to do a factory reset and see if that somehow works. You will need to ask them for your MSL code (Master Subsidy Lock), go into the phone dialer, dial ##RTN# (##786#) scroll to the bottom and click the button that says to reset the phone. Type in your MSL code and then click yes to reset your phone. Then when it comes back up, type in your profile information and cross your fingers.

[strudeau]

I had this problem on my insurance replacement. I called sprint, ended up eventually at the Palm Support department. They told me to go to the corp store, but I couldn't get there until later the next day. by that time, it was too late because it had automatically backed up my empty contact list...but I didn't realize that till later. The corp store tried activating my old pre, and trying to turn both on to "transfer" the contacts from the old pre to the new one. Obviously, this is impossible since you can't "login" to both phones using your Palm Profile.

They gave me the number for Palm Retail Pre Support. They told me to update to the latest WebOS then do a partial erase. No go. Said all my contacts were lost and were very appologetic. I ended up calling sprint back and seeing what I could get for some type of reimbursement. got a $50 credit from account services supervisor. I think during this whole ordeal I had to explain how the Pre stores it's contacts "in the cloud" and you can't just transfer contacts to another Pre via bluetooth/usb/wifi/sprint store/etc. They all claimed to have a Pre (talked to like 7 different people on the phone between Palm Corporate/Engineering and Sprint), but no one seemed to have an understanding about the Palm Profile and how it works! LOL

But, luckily, I had been reading on here about how to backup txt messages since I knew they aren't backed up to the Palm Profile. I had copied the PalmDatabase.db3 to my laptop using novaterm. Well, guess what happened next when I copied it back to the new phone? bam! all my contacts were there. I guess I lucked out...don't recall that that file had the contact list too....I guess Karma was on my side for being nice with every rep I talked to about a credit.

I've setup the backup to go to google now instead as recommended by Palm Engineering themselves! lol even they don't have confidence in their own technology. :P

[bpdamas]

Glad you got it working out. I might be somewhat hesitant to just place the old database file on your new pre though. I heard of some other people having issues down the road when they did that.

Honestly, what I would do since your contacts are already syncing to google is wait until WebOSDocotor 1.3.1 comes out and doctor you phone with that image. Or I guess you could just overwrite the database file with the new one from the 1.3.1 doctor. Ultimately, if it is working for you and you aren't worried then I guess you could keep it the way it is. Personally, I would just be a little hesitant.

[Dic Doc]

I am now about to receive my second refurb replacement. I don't mind so much getting a refurb, but I do mind having no phone for 48 hours (they overnight it to my work address). I can't believe you have been through 7 replacements!!! At what point can you say, "I want a new phone, and I want it today before I leave the store." Anyone had any success with that?

[bpdamas]

Originally Posted by Dic Doc

I am now about to receive my second refurb replacement. I don't mind so much getting a refurb, but I do mind having no phone for 48 hours (they overnight it to my work address). I can't believe you have been through 7 replacements!!! At what point can you say, "I want a new phone, and I want it today before I leave the store." Anyone had any success with that?

I have not and I have been pretty patient with them. If my 8th replacement (9th overall phone) is not up to par, I will do just that. I have heard some people get some success with asking about Sprint's multiple exchange policy. Basically, if you have exchanged a phone multiple times they can replace it at their discretion. However, I think that is up to the employee and the manager you are dealing with. I really want to get a phone that I can stop worrying about. I have not fully tweaked my phone because I don't want to have to keep redoing all of these modifications. My patience is almost about out though.

[strudeau]

Originally Posted by bpdamas

Glad you got it working out. I might be somewhat hesitant to just place the old database file on your new pre though. I heard of some other people having issues down the road when they did that.

Honestly, what I would do since your contacts are already syncing to google is wait until WebOSDocotor 1.3.1 comes out and doctor you phone with that image. Or I guess you could just overwrite the database file with the new one from the 1.3.1 doctor. Ultimately, if it is working for you and you aren't worried then I guess you could keep it the way it is. Personally, I would just be a little hesitant.

I think because I transfered it over to a clean phone before patches/tweeks/mods/etc., that it hasn't caused any issues. And I don't want to replace that database file because it has txt message history, the main purpose for saving that file on my computer.

Having the contacts back because of it is just a bonus. Haven't had any issues yet except for one contact that I get txt messages from. i get the notification sound, but her name and text don't show in the txt message list and there isn't a notification at the bottom of the screen. I have to universal search her name then touch the SMS icon next to her name.

Not worth doctoring over though.

[bpdamas]

Originally Posted by strudeau

...
Having the contacts back because of it is just a bonus. Haven't had any issues yet except for one contact that I get txt messages from. i get the notification sound, but her name and text don't show in the txt message list and there isn't a notification at the bottom of the screen. I have to universal search her name then touch the SMS icon next to her name.

Not worth doctoring over though.

Well this might actually be solvable without doctoring your phone. I have seen this be a solution for people and it appears to work. I don't know if your situation is exactly the same as these other people but you can perform a search and look for text message not showing up or something like that. Basically, link that particular contact temporarily to an arbitrary contact. Close out of everything and then unlink that same contact. Supposedly this has been solving the issue of the text message not showing up in the list.

[ktessner]

Originally Posted by strudeau

Haven't had any issues yet except for one contact that I get txt messages from. i get the notification sound, but her name and text don't show in the txt message list and there isn't a notification at the bottom of the screen. I have to universal search her name then touch the SMS icon next to her name.

Link her contact to another one (any one) and then unlink them again. It's a known problem...

[Mhunterjr]

thanx for this, i will try this now because i was thinking i lost all my info!