yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Eee Pad Transformer General] sdelliott31:
Thank for all the informative responses. I believe I am going to wait a bit longer and look at the TF Prime or the HTC Flyer when more stock arrives. I like to play games on my tablet so Kal El has me interested. The Flyer will lack here but still like its portability. I could be like the good Doc and get both but that's overkill for me. I'm either at home or in the classroom or at my campground site so I guess the bigger form factor not as big of a deal.
[Nexus S General] bQfQZDEJznX5Y8XiFdhy:
I was using Nexus S i9020T, CM7 nightly (a few weeks old) and for some reason I wake up this morning and couldn't get past the CM7 "blue circle" screen booting. I had about a month old backup but I didn't want to lose any recent data so I made a Nandroid backup.

Normally, to restore SMS or MMS from an old backup, one can just restore the nandroid backup, use a third party SMS backup program to backup the data to sdcard or gmail, restore or install new rom, then restore the SMS from the third party backup software.

However, in my case, I had a nandroid with data on it that I wanted to keep but that wouldn't boot.

So I did some searching and others have had this problem before but I figured I'd put it here for others that may have the same problem. I am not taking credit for this I just found various pieces of info around the web.

The solution is to use a utility called unyaffs. Unyaffs will need cygwin.dll. Yaffs is the file system that CWM recovery nandroid backups are stored in. Windows cannot read or mount this file system AFAIK.

Instead of compiling unyaffs for windows and installing all of cygwin, just use the attached pre-compiled unyaffs.exe and cygwin.dll.

Here's the process:

To restore SMS/MMS from a nandroid backup using MS Windows:

place unyaffs.exe + cygwin.dll + data.img in a folder

open command prompt in this directory (shift+right click -> open comand window here)

type: unyaffs data.img

the contents of the data.img will be extracted to this folder. wait for extraction to complete

browse to \data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases in the extracted folders

copy mmssms.db, mmssms.db-shm, mmssms.db-wal to sdcard

use root explorer to copy these three files to \data\data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases

To restore contacts/call log from a nandroid backup:

repeat above process for \data\com.android.providers.contacts\databases

To restore launcher configuration (only for stock Gingerbread launcher):

repeat above process for \data\com.android.launcher\databases

Note: Be aware that replacing the existing files with those extracted from the backup will remove the existing data so if you're not 100% sure what you're doing, change the names to mmssms_OLD.db or otherwise back them up before pasting the files from the backup.

Edit: Just thought I'd add, I also came across an app called AppExtractor but, despite the good reviews, the SMS/MMS restore didn't work for me.
[Nexus S General] AllGamer:
if you have titanium backup, it makes it a lot easier to restore specific items from Nandroid Backup
[Nexus S General] Jarmezrocks:
Doesn't work for migrating from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason?

I am going to give this one a try.

To the OP your a dead set legend! thank you

PS: Where the bloody hell is the thanks button on this forum? I can't find it
[Nexus S General] tthaz86:
I will give it a try. Thanks. :D
[Nexus S General] RknDroidFreak:
where do i find data.img?
[Nexus S General] carapauzinho:
I'm on an SGS I9000 and made an SMS/MMS backup using titanium backup when I was on Gingerbread.

Now I've installed the "Onecosmic's ICS Port Android 4.0.3 RC3.1" and restoring the backup file using titanium (only data) makes my message app FC.

Jarmezrocks were you successful when restoring your SMS/MMS on ICS?

Does anyone knows how to restore them? From titanium backup I only have an *.apk.gz and *.properties files.

Thanks for any help.

Cheers
[Nexus S General] rockyc4u:
Excellent.. saved me a lot.. thanks for the tool :)
[Nexus S General] albsat:
Great post. I wonder if there is a file extrator in Android like unyaffs?
[Nexus S General] albsat:
I found out that you can restore SMS just by using Root Explorer.

The location is the same, just that the files are these ones:

mmssms.db

nwk_info.db

telephony.db

I tried and it worked only using RootExplorer and I extracted the files from data.ext4.rar
[Nexus S General] Guti1977:
Does this need to be done using ADB? I have set a nandroid backup from a GB ROM and flashed ICS on the phone; however when I extract the data.img using unyaffs and browse to the mentioned directory, there are no db files whatsoever. :confused:

Could the nandroid backup be corrupted for some reason?

I am looking at the data\com.android.providers.contacts folder and I only see a lib folder with nothing on it.

Hidden system files are set to show BTW
[Nexus S General] RichAP:
I did this yesterday using Titanium Backup for my SMS/MMS

You need to go into Preferences and check the *Migrate system data [Experimental] option

Then you go to More - Extract from nandroid backup

There it is listed as

Dialer Storage

You can probably do the Phone log this way to but I did look for it.

I would recommend you do a current backup of [SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage before you attempt this.
[Nexus S General] Lafenear:
Does this restore the whole smsmms database like with the sms.db file on the iPhone? I hate it when MyBackupPro has to restore my texts and the dates are all messed up and i've lost all my MMS'. And it restores them one by one, instead of just putting it in there all at once. Took me like an hour to restore everything.
[Nexus S General] HAKA:
I have an app for you.
[Nexus S General] hp420:
I'd much rather save myself from all this tedious long-winded work and just use apk extractor to restore everything.
[Nexus S General] Lafenear:
Thanks! Wish i've learned about this sooner. Would have saved me a lot of time.
[Nexus S General] shears:
This method doesn't work for me :/

I followed it exactly step by step but when I'm done and go to the Messages app, it's empty.

The same happens if I try it with appextractor or titanium backup.

I made the nandroid backup on CM7, and want to restore the messages to CM9+AOKP on ZTE Blade.
[Nexus S General] shhadas:
Thanks :)

THANK YOU !!!!

That was so helpful. I was migrating from GB to Nyx ICS RC5.0 yesterday and the application I used (super backup) failed to restore the Contacts.

Another app I used did that but missed allot of details (and also was damn slow).

I used your technique and it did the trick!!!

All data is there the same as I left it on CM7.2

You're the king :)

Thanks

[EDIT] just a correction Super Backup was able to restore the contacts but with missing details

It failed to restore the SMS

The other APP (forgot the name) restored the SMS (after ages) but contact associated with the SMS were completely messed up.
[Nexus S General] Spectre99:
perfect

This worked perfectly for me, got all my sms messages back from my nandroid backup.

Thanks!
[Nexus S General] stars01:
thanks!

I did this today when I had to reformat my phone because of a bootloop. I'm using an HTC Desire on MildWild. Worked perfectly for me and was able to restore my messages. Loads of thanks to you!
[Nexus S General] hummer010:
Thank you! This worked perfectly for me!
[Nexus S General] maqninou:
Many many thanks!
[Nexus S General] oldvices:
Hi

big question. I did a nandroid backup with cwm-try1.zip and still have the folder on my sdcard (contents of clockwordmod folder ...

android_secure.vfat.tar

cache.rfs.tar

data.rfs.tar

nandroid.md5

system.rfs.tar)

and I am wondering how I can get back my sms from this. Only sms. No free app has been of any use so far. Any ideas? TIA

---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 PM ----------

Just to add some more info I have a Samsung Y Duos Pro GT-B5512 and in the back up folder \data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases I have four files mmssms.db, nwk_info, telephony. tether_dun. TIA
[Nexus S General] dirt:
Try the free version of "appextractor“ from the play store. I find out to be the easiest & fastest way to restore sms/mms from nandroid, since I have never had much luck successfully restoring through titanium.
[Nexus S General] jitzbox:
I would suggest GoBackup. It will also backup your stock launcher settings, Apps, SMS, MMS, Call Logs, etc.

You can also restore everything with single button click including apps!! :)

Thanks to original poster anyways, since i used this method before i found Gobackup app.
[Nexus S General] foadrezek:
I tried to copy the files, but nothing happens .... I formated the sd card and before I copied the files I didnt have the data dir .... tried to reboot but still nothing shows ...

any ideas ?
[Nexus S General] dirt:
What files did you try to copy?
[Nexus S General] woody2000:
Thanks

Been struggling to restore my SMS (tried AppExtractor and TiBackup to no avail) after my Desire crashed, have managed to get them back using the unyaffs method. Thanks very much for the info :good::good:
[Nexus S General] gatekpr:
YOU JUST SAVED ME A LOT OF PAIN AND FRUSTRATION!

Thank you so much! I spent about 6 hours with titanium backup telling me it was restoring my SMS back and forth and back and forth... This worked in 5 minutes!

Woot! Thanks again!
[Nexus S General] netfaruk:
thanks

thank you very very much :)
[Nexus S General] n2d551:
I just use sms backup & restore. Works like a champ
[Nexus S General] pnKK:
Thanks alot. Saved! :D
[Nexus S General] Lasantha:
titanium didnt work.this worked.thanks
[Nexus S General] ashtewar:
empty data folder

I copied contacts2.db after unyaffs method... but found that the data folder in my phone is showing empty ... and when I tried to paste the file in it, it failed ... i used ES File Explorer ... help?

XPERIA Neo V ..... custom ROM (ICS Pureness)
[Nexus S General] dogmatism:
You should enable "root" permission on ES, ive used ES and successfully copied the contacts2.db to the respective folder and recovered my contacts. Also check your "datadata" folder instead of "data" this is in the root of your phone

NOT

under SD or EMMC.
[Nexus S General] GoJo ^^:
Worked for SMS but NOT FOR CALL LOG!!! Tried everything for this one, no way... Xperia Play
[Nexus S General] lbibolet:
SMS backup+ works pretty good for backup/restore of SMS, MMS, Call log
[Nexus S General] freakymonkey:
Thank you for sharing!

I used perfectly this tool for extract the mms & sms DB that i parsed with another tool here.

All the operations were finished with success, so I'm grateful for this. :good:
[Nexus S General] Vicne:
Restored mmssms is ignored and gets overwritten

Hi, all,

I am struggling for a few days to restore my text messages but I'm still stuck, so I thought I would ask the experts...

Long story short, I wanted to switch my HTC Desire ROM from Runnymede AIO 6.1.1 to Supernova. I used Backup Everything to back-up my SMS, but also did a nandroid backup just in case.

Once in Supernova, I tried restoring the backed-up SMSes but the app (now called Backup Master) silently exited at about 25-30% completion, without a single restored message :(.

I then turned to the nandroid backup and followed the procedure in this thread to get my messages back, but I can't seem to succeed either.

In detail, extracting the mmssms.* files from the data partition image and copying them back to the /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases folder worked fine, but lauching the Messages app still showed nothing. Going back to that folder, I saw that the restored db file had just been overwritten with a blank version.

I thought maybe this was due to the db being cached in memory (so changes made to the file get lost when db is rewritten by the app), but it doesn't seem to be the case because I rebooted the phone, took care not to open any messaging app before restoring the file again, to no avail.

I also saw some threads state it's important that files have the correct rights, so I performed one more copy via adb push and used adb shell to change owner and rights, but again, messages don't show up and db file gets overwritten.

I am pretty sure the backup file isn't corrupt as I could extract messages in XML with this tool.

So the last thing I can think of would be that the db structure changed between Android 2.3.3 and 2.3.5, and the 2.3.5 database is not recognized and replaced by a blank one upon Message app restart, but I see nothing about that incompatibility anywhere on the net.

Does anybody have an idea what I've done wrong ?

Best regards,

Vicne
[Nexus S General] Bawl:
Thx for reminding me of AppExtractor.

Couldn't get Titanium to restore my contacts coming from CM7.2.0 to CM10, but AppExtractor restored my contacts from my nandroid backup without any problems.

And SMS was restored after a reboot, so everything is working perfectly. :laugh:
[Nexus S General] Stelios85GR:
Trying to restore my Call Logs

Hello guys. I bought MOTOROLA Atrix yesterday. (european version Android Version 2.3.4). My old device was ZTE Blade (Gingerbread 2.3.6). I made a Nandroiod Backup of ZTE Blade system, I made a Titanium Backup and I also saved my contacts in a .vcf file. The only thing I forgot was to make a backup of my Call Logs. I don't have access to my old phone now and I won't also have in the future.

I tried a lot of different methods to restore my call logs but with no success:

1)I tried to restore my Call Logs through Titanium Backup, restoring the system data but I only managed to restore my sms.

Could someone tell me which is the right option for restoring cal logs? I may opted a mistake option.

2)I also tried "migrate system data mode" but I managed nothing. Moreover, I lost my sms and I was led to factory reset.

3)I also tried the Titanium option for Nandroid restore but nothing happens again. I am not sure that I chose the right selection to be restored because I couldn't find the "dialer storage" option.

4)I tried appextractor but without successful.

5)I extract my Nandroid Backup. I found the contacts2.db archive. I searched the same archive in my new device but I couldn't find the same location. I finally searched for the archive using ES explorer and I found the place that was located in my new device. I replaced the archive of the new device with the archive of the old device. After the reboot the system was crashing and I was led again to factory reset.

I don't know what else to do. I have the archive contacts2.db but I can't restore my Call logs.

Any smart ideas?
[Nexus S General] Koik:
Dude thank you so much! You can't even imagine how much I tried to get my sms back. Stupid titanium backup didn't work or App Extractor. I can finally rest at ease now. Thanks again! :)
[Nexus S General] ketwi15:
thanks a lot!
[Nexus S General] hp420:
guys, this is a long, drawn-out, unnecessary process. It's far easier to just restore the nandroid, run any one of about 4 dozen FREE sms/mms backup/restore apps from the play store.
[Nexus S General] dogmatism:
This is in case nandroid is corrupt or is old ,, and in case you do not have any other backup.
[Nexus S General] ancym:
Thanks! Tried all 3 methods, came closest with Titanium Backup. The unyaffs extraction from OP is simple enough, I wouldn't say long or drawn out, except that - where is the data/data folder? Couldnt find it on my phone, so didn't know where to paste the database files extracted from data.img. Think i must be missing something very obvious, but dunno what? rookie mistake- ESexplorer didnt ask for root til I opened tools menu. Found databases and now sms are back, yay.

AppExtractor failed totally. But I was restoring from CWM7 and it maybe is only working for CWM<6.

TB restored contacts and also call log but no luck with sms/mms. Contacts were the most important (I know I should just let google keep them but sometimes I get tired of being owned by google...) so this was a big help for me since i forgot (if i ever knew) that TB could restore from nandroid.

Seemed easier than restoring and re flashing but maybe in the end it is a tossup. Was a useful learning experience for me, all in all. I have never restored from nandroid so I am perhaps over-cautious. Hmm, maybe I should go ahead and try that...tomorrow

Thanks for all of the help here.
[Nexus S General] M.WeWe:
Can`t Get Contacts

Hi I Managed To Convert mmssms.db To sms.xml Now I Need To Convert contacts2.db Can Anyone Guide Me Through?
[Nexus S General] lkslef:
It does not support MMS restoring.
[Nexus S General] phreak0ut:
Honestly, you saved my life!! After installing the leaked JB 4.2.2, I thought I had lost everything since the phone wouldn't be detected in Kies to restore my contacts and SMS. Titanium Backup didn't work for me and though I was a bit late in checking posts about AppExtractor, the effort was worth it. Now, Nandroid makes a backup as data.ext4 and you don't have to go through the hassle of the software which is given, which made things a lot easier for me. Thanks a bunch!! :)
[Nexus S General] ashrivastava:
Can't get old texts back after extracting nandorid backup file

I found mmssms.db file from the nandroid data.img backup. However, there were no mmssms.db-shm, mmssms.db-wal files in that folder (nandroid backup was made on stock ATT ROM 2.2). I followed the instructions placing the file in the appropriate folder, but device now running cynaogen mod 7 ROM fails to find the old SMS/MMS.

Any thoughts on how what I may be missing here?

Thanks

Ash
[Nexus S General] nimbin2k:
Good ideas

Some great ideas here - I originally used a similar unyaffs way ages ago to extract these logs which was very tedious. Then I came across Nandroid manager, however i found it didnt always work after certain updates. I've had to recently restore my phone again (seems some corruption occurs to internal sd memory if the power drops to zero which leads to no boot - thankfully recovery still works!), and cant use Nandroid manager - so i will give a lot of these suggestions a go.
[Nexus S General] Garmus:
Thanks a lot!

Your Thread is thery useful. I helped my friend to restore his contacts (a lot and importants) after a virus and becamed not working system (only working recovery).

Fortunatly I was who install on his HTC the custom ROM and he didnt changed it.

I made the backup, reinstall the same ROM clean (to avoid any non-combatibilities) and after I used succesfully your instructions :)

Good luck!
[Nexus S General] pelo88:
Worked perfectly using a backup made from CWM Touch on a TouchWiz SGS3 ROM (Synergy) going to CM 11.

The backup format required me to use a nice linux computer to

cat data.ext4.tar* >> data.tar

which created a 6GB file then

tar -xvf data.tar

to extract it all before I was able to continue with the extraction of the tiny files I needed.

I also noticed that the -shm and -wal files didn't exist when I went to rename stuff to .bak but it all worked. I used the root browser in the free ROM Toolbox app and when I was finished with the copy I also matched the permissions and the owner/group to the file I renamed to .bak to ensure it all works well.

I checked my SMS's and everything was there! No reboot or nothing.

I us Go SMS Pro and used its internal backup to backup the few messages I did have since flashing this CM 11 and getting the failures from restoring from Go Backup Pro (must be buggy on Android 4.4 still, others have the same problem restoring from their backups). After seeing how successful this was I restored my tiny backup again using Go SMS Pro's internal tools to do so and now I haven't lost a single text message!

I won't be using Go Backup Pro to backup texts again. Just not reliable for that, compared to the internal tools which are simple xml files on the sd card and include an option to email the backup when done.
[Nexus S General] n0frills:
Thank you

This saved me a lot of trouble. SMS Backup+ somehow screwed up on my phone and all I had was my Titanium Backup. Inspired by your advice, I just went to com.android.providers.telephony-20131007-041401.tar.gz and recovered all the SMS's.
[Nexus S General] Anistruk:
Hi there!

Where can i find mmssms.db, mmssms.db-shm, mmssms.db-wal at a cm11 nandroid?

Thanks in advance!

Regards
[Nexus S General] mouloudia007:
Can anyone help me here, I have the file contacts2.db and now what ? i did try to put this in my actuel phone but it did not work... help me please.
[Nexus S General] banguru:
Hi,

I came here from a google search as I was searching for a method to extract sms.call log from a CWM nandroid backup.

I really appreciate the developers effort way back in 2011.

With apps like Nandroid Manager available now , I am just curious how this tool is advantageous over the app.

Thanks!
[Nexus S General] TechShui:
[MENTION=3788181]Stelios85GR[/MENTION] that was a long time ago but did you ever figure out a solution?

Dealing with the same problem, and I think it stems from ES file explorer. Very frustrating I think I will try dd if=/data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db of=/sdcard/contacts2.db and then the reverse on the new phone.

If anyone has a better suggestion please share.
[Nexus S General] Stelios85GR:
Unfortunately, as I remember, I didn't found a solution. I was trying to find a way to restore my call logs from nadroid backup but I didn't managed to do it. Mayde there is a solution but I didn't found it and I finally lost these call logs for ever.
[Nexus S General] valix85:
Hello how i can restore my contact from a clockwork/nandroid backup without restore all backup?

i backup my original samsung galaxy s3 i9300 (OS 4.3) but i don't find samsung account and i have lost my contact :( thnak you
[Nexus S General] ako673de:
I changed from (a relatively outdated) 4.2.2 to CM12.1 on my Samsung S4 and tried what you all are posting in here: extracting the three sms/mms related database files from a TWRP generated backup file. It was even successful at first glance, but soon I noticed that my system somehow got rotten. I didn't receive new SMS any more, accessing any of the restored conversations made the App "stop", afm.

At the end I restored the database to it's initial state (=without the old conversations) and then my android.phone was in an unrecoverable "app has been stopped" loop.

My first idea was to clear those caches, but without success.

Any ideas what went wrong? I did the copy operations with ES file explorer not with root browser. Something to do with permissions? Or with mismatching database versions?

Now, after a complete factory reset and install of all apps (VERY tedious!), I'm back to normal - so far. Does any of you suggest to try that again, or have another idea to extract the conversations from the old database?

thanx for help

ako673de
[Windows Phone 7 General] evolutionqy7:
With everyone trying to copy folders from iOS and Android i kind of got bored of it. Either way folders on WP7 will never work cause they don't match the design language.

Making application lists would save clutter and would act as storage folders to store certain app you want to hide out of the full application list.

My concept isn't new. Just different approach to categorising your apps. Which lets face it is pretty brutal in WP7. Jump lists are sort of a pain in the a$$ as well.

By clicking on a thread header (just like in the email threads) you will pop out the application list that you added to that thread.

If you pressed and held onto an app. Instead of the option pin the app and uninstal it to the start screen another option would pop up for making a new application list, as well as extra option to add the app to an existing list or remove it from the list if it is already in it.

Once you click on make a new list, you would be asked to name it.

After making a folder you can click on an app you want to add. Select add to a folder and a pop up would come up which folder do you want to add it to.

I think the start screen takes good care of making sure most apps you need are on it. This would ensure that the must need applications for you that you don't want to pin to the start screen are always there without a long list to scroll through.

Now to find some one to make it? :)