[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III General] taiseer999:
Last update: 21 Dec 2007

PIM Backup application

http://www.dotfred.net/

The PIM backup application is a tool that allows to backup/restore personal information stored on windows mobile based pocket devices. Concerning the personal information, I refer to contacts, appointments, tasks, messages, calls,...

The backup is totally independent of the version of Windows Mobile running on the device and independent of the device itself. The backup is also independent of the language used on the device. You can easily backup on a Chinese device and restore in a German one.

There are two kinds of backups. The binary based backup has been implemented in order to have a backup/restore process which is fast and more reliable, the disadvantage being that the backup contents cannot be easily modified or viewed.

The text based backup has been implemented in order to see/edit the contents on a pc for instance.

PIM Backup screenshot

Downloads:

Download PIM backup v2.6 for WM5 & WM6

History:

Version 2.6:

- fix bug in binary restore of contacts (birthday overwritten by anniversary)

- fix bug in binary/text restore of appointments (status, reminder not correct)

- fix bug in zip utility => unicode compliant

- fix bug in restore of tasks (wm2003se only) for (partially) undated tasks

- fix bug in restore of messages (only messages from an unknown account are discarded)

- fix bug in csv contacts import (csv coming from another application)

- fix bug in restore of speed dials (wm6 only)

- added restore custom files individual selection

Use notice:

The exe contained in the zip file, should be copied and launched on the pocket pc, and not on a pc.

If you have any comments, bugs report, suggestions, problems, then you could send them to this address dotfred@dotfred.net, I will carefully consider them.

TODO:

MMS Backup/restore doesn't work!

- fix problem with mms "attachments" which are stored on disk but are not considered as attachments in the cemail.vol (wonderful!)

Arcsoft MMS software uses own-defined properties (blobs) in pmailMsgs table in cemail.vol but I cannot decipher them for the moment.

- conversion of text backups <-> binary backups

Features:

- backup/restore appointments

- backup/restore call logs

- backup/restore contacts

- backup/restore messages (SMS, Mails, ...) NEW !!!

- backup/restore speed dials

- backup/restore tasks

- backup/restore custom files

Restore contacts:

It is possible now to restore a text file containing contacts backed up from other applications, like in Outlook Express, the only constraint is that the first line should contain the fields and the fields need a separator. (See screenshots). The tool allows to map default fields to fields found in the file. It is possible now to insert duplicates.

Backup messages:

The mail database is completely parsed to retrieve all the messages stored in every directory and subdirectory. It is possible to select which account and directories should be backed up. You can save attachments as wel if they exist on the pocket pc.

Restore messages:

Same as the backup, you can select which account and directories should be restored to the device. Caution, if an account doesn't exist on the pocket pc, this application will discard the messages that belong to that account.

Scheduled backup:

It is possible to schedule a backup, each day of the week and this at a specific hour. If the pocket pc is suspended, it will wake up and do the backup. You can eventually control the number of backups to keep and switch off the pocket pc after the scheduled backup is finished.

The schedule backup creates a notification that can be cleared via the Options Menu.

File types:

There is only one file type now, which is .pib (Personal Information Backup), in fact it is just a zip file (so you can open it with a zip application) which contain the different text files used in PPCBckpContacts, so you can still extract these files, edit them on a pc using Excel or Notepad and eventually restore them without putting them back in the .pib file.