I was told I can download handcent sms to fix a timestamp issue im having (because it automatically displays texts in the order they're received instead of using timestamps). However, I had the program and deleted it once before, but after reading up on it I still have a file somewhere on my phone called com.handcent.newsms, and having that somewhere on there is preventing me from installing handcent. I checked in titanium backup and its one of the files with a line through it (aka-its been deleted supposedly), and my phone has been searching my files using ES File Explorer since about 7 hours ago with 0 progress. Any ideas on where this file might be?
Same problem with the XDA Forums app. Had it, deleted it, but after searching Titanium Backup theres still a file being displayed called com.quoord.tapatalkxda.activity and i'm assuming thats the reason I can download but not install the app. And idea where to find this one?
back everything up, boot into recovery and wipe data/cache. then reinstall everything
ive wiped several times when installing new roms (before i knew i even had this issue).
are you restoring the same rom after wiping? if you wipe then install a new rom there should be nothing leftover to give you issues
nope, ive installed a new one every time (to be more specific- miui, cm6, evozone.pure, evozone.riptide). and ive tried searching for the file on my file explorer and it just stays at 0% (on hour 8 now). It shows the files (the handcent one and the xda one) at the very bottom of Titanium Backup with a line through it.
when you touch that line does it not give you the option to delete it? if it is just a line that means that you have a backup for an app that is not currently installed
nope, and it says that theres no backup for it. it has the yellow sign with an exclamation mark in it next to it, which after i looked means theres "nothing"? this is doing a fantastic job of irritating the piss out of me.
in titanium backup, hit menu then clean dalvik, then reload app list, if still there then with a file explorer go into the titaniumbackup folder and delete the files associated with those entries
cleaned dalvik, still there. and thats the problem, i cant find any files associated with them.
ewingt22 said:
cleaned dalvik, still there. and thats the problem, i cant find any files associated with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever copied your SD card to your PC? If so - you can go into the TitaniumBackup folder on your SD from previous manual backups and just reinstal the apk from there... I do that all the time. When I flash a ROM, First I make a NAND backup of said ROM, restore all apps and info (Texts,Contacts,Emails etc) then I do a TB back up and a MyBackUpPro Backup and then I copy all the files from my SD (which will contain all the backups you just made)to safely keep all the back ups you just made safe on your PC...If you dont alredy do that kind of thing, maybe its a good idea to start for these types of problems
hope that helps, if not - I do have the Apks for both apps your looking for - I can email them to you if you want
make a backup of your sd card on your computer, then format it and put only a rom .zip file, wipe everything multiple times, install the rom from sd card
check if handcent or xda will install, if yes, replace the files on your sdcard that you copied before format.
if no you have successfully gotten somebody else as frustrated with your phone as you are
Worked, thanks a ton for the help
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I am running current version of Bonsai 3.0.1 Yesterday, my phone dropped and the battery fell out. When I tried to reboot the phone, there were many Force Closes. I tried fixing permissions twice but it was still having FC issues, so I figured I'd restore the data. Well, I hadn't backed up in several days, so I did a Nandroid backup before I went to restore. I kind of figured that restoring the phone from a backup of bad data wouldn't work and it didn't. Restoration from that backup causes a endless reboot. Sooooo, I restored from a backup which was several days old and it worked fine. But, my data is old for one particular app.
So my question is this: Can I extract data for one particular app and restore it from a Nandroid backup?
Or is it possible to restore the apps only from the Nandroid backup?
If I choose "Restore Data" from the Nandroid backup, I go into an endless reboot loop.
Restoring the "System" will bring the phone back to working, but the data is old.
Yeah, Yeah, I have Titanium and could have accomplished this easily with it, but I hadn't been backing up there either.
I know I'm probably screwed, but if anyone has any suggestions about how to get my data back (for one app or all), I'd sure appreciate it.
sndtubes said:
I am running current version of Bonsai 3.0.1 Yesterday, my phone dropped and the battery fell out. When I tried to reboot the phone, there were many Force Closes. I tried fixing permissions twice but it was still having FC issues, so I figured I'd restore the data. Well, I hadn't backed up in several days, so I did a Nandroid backup before I went to restore. I kind of figured that restoring the phone from a backup of bad data wouldn't work and it didn't. Restoration from that backup causes a endless reboot. Sooooo, I restored from a backup which was several days old and it worked fine. But, my data is old for one particular app.
So my question is this: Can I extract data for one particular app and restore it from a Nandroid backup?
Or is it possible to restore the apps only from the Nandroid backup?
If I choose "Restore Data" from the Nandroid backup, I go into an endless reboot loop.
Restoring the "System" will bring the phone back to working, but the data is old.
Yeah, Yeah, I have Titanium and could have accomplished this easily with it, but I hadn't been backing up there either.
I know I'm probably screwed, but if anyone has any suggestions about how to get my data back (for one app or all), I'd sure appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there is a way. Someone else had a similiar problem and wanted to get their text message data out. It is in the thread below where 00dwan talks about unyaffs and data files. Seems a bit complicated but if the data is that important you will need to be able to identify the data file for that app.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=993827
Hope this helps.
kennyglass123 said:
I think there is a way. Someone else had a similiar problem and wanted to get their text message data out. It is in the thread below where 00dwan talks about unyaffs and data files. Seems a bit complicated but if the data is that important you will need to be able to identify the data file for that app.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=993827
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you Thank you Thank you. Works great!
I'm having trouble putting the file where it needs to be (I'll figure it out), but I am able to get the information I need from the data file even if I can't get the file where it goes.
It is kinda weird. I put the file on my SD card and then put it into the phone. I copy the file to the clipboard and then go to the directory I need to place the file in. I select paste and it seems to paste the file, but nothing changes. I think it was because I hadn't mounted the system/data as RW. But the strange thing is that when I copy the file to the clipboard from the SD card, the file DISAPPEARS as if I cut it instead of copied it. Anyway, I'll figure it out.
Thanks again for the tip!
sndtubes said:
Thank you Thank you Thank you. Works great!
I'm having trouble putting the file where it needs to be (I'll figure it out), but I am able to get the information I need from the data file even if I can't get the file where it goes.
It is kinda weird. I put the file on my SD card and then put it into the phone. I copy the file to the clipboard and then go to the directory I need to place the file in. I select paste and it seems to paste the file, but nothing changes. I think it was because I hadn't mounted the system/data as RW. But the strange thing is that when I copy the file to the clipboard from the SD card, the file DISAPPEARS as if I cut it instead of copied it. Anyway, I'll figure it out.
Thanks again for the tip!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad it helped. Definitely sounds like it wasn't mounted r/w. Wierd that it disappears from card on a copy operation. Root Explorer is good for this.
My phone recently got stuck in a bootloop so I had to reflash my stock rom. I had my text messages backed up in two different formats, .db and .html using this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdroidapps.smsbackuprestore&hl=en
but now this app is unable to recognize the backups, it keeps giving an error "Please ensure that the file is valid and try again"
Does anyone know any other apps that can work with .html or .db backups? Or how to get this app to work?
Florad77 said:
My phone recently got stuck in a bootloop so I had to reflash my stock rom. I had my text messages backed up in two different formats, .db and .html using this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdroidapps.smsbackuprestore&hl=en
but now this app is unable to recognize the backups, it keeps giving an error "Please ensure that the file is valid and try again"
Does anyone know any other apps that can work with .html or .db backups? Or how to get this app to work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The actual SMS Backup and restore app uses an XSL file for formatting and an XML file for the actual conversations.
*edit* I just realized there are two apps in the play store named the same thing. I'm referring to the more popular app by Carbonite. I see the one you link to is by MDroid Apps. You might contact the developer and see if they can help you. I've only ever used the Carbonite app, which I've never had an issue with.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&hl=en
sorry if it seems like this is an easy one at first but i've been having some strange issues here.
i installed the 7.0 OTA on a new 5X that i'm about to switch to (coming from another 5X with a broken mic). both rooted. did a clean wipe on the new one with 7.0. moving data from the old to the new i can't get sms/mms to copy over. using titanium, rom toolbox, and carbon it won't work right. at first when i used carbon it only restored texts up to april this year. so i wiped them out and tried titanium etc. nothing works. then i went and directly copied the mmssms.db (and all the files) from /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony and still nothing. there were no texts showing in messenger app (tried textra too) so i sent a few test messages. those are showing up. but when i deleted the entire telephony folder within twrp, wiped cache and dalvik, rebooted those test messages are still showing up! when i browse to the new telephony folder that android created there's nothing in the folder. yet the text messages are still showing up. also the call log is still full (it actually restored properly with titanium).
i can't find any info that says the texts are stored anywhere besides the mmssms.db file so anyone know what i'm doing wrong?
recap:
-backed up sms/mms with carbon, titanium, rom toolbox (on android 6.0.1)
-fresh install 7.0
-restored with all those apps
-*partial restore*
-wiped com.android.providers.telephony folder
-manually copied backed up files into com.android.providers.telephony folder
-*nothing*
-sent a few texts through the app
-wiped com.android.providers.telephony folder
-*can still see texts with nothing in the folder*
-------------------
SOLVED
found it in /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony on the device running android N. don't know if it's like that for everyone but that's where it is on mine.
I used Titanium backup to backup call log/SMS from M and restore in N (clean install) with success.
dlegit said:
sorry if it seems like this is an easy one at first but i've been having some strange issues here.
i installed the 7.0 OTA on a new 5X that i'm about to switch to (coming from another 5X with a broken mic). both rooted. did a clean wipe on the new one with 7.0. moving data from the old to the new i can't get sms/mms to copy over. using titanium, rom toolbox, and carbon it won't work right. at first when i used carbon it only restored texts up to april this year. so i wiped them out and tried titanium etc. nothing works. then i went and directly copied the mmssms.db (and all the files) from /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony and still nothing. there were no texts showing in messenger app (tried textra too) so i sent a few test messages. those are showing up. but when i deleted the entire telephony folder within twrp, wiped cache and dalvik, rebooted those test messages are still showing up! when i browse to the new telephony folder that android created there's nothing in the folder. yet the text messages are still showing up. also the call log is still full (it actually restored properly with titanium).
i can't find any info that says the texts are stored anywhere besides the mmssms.db file so anyone know what i'm doing wrong?
recap:
-backed up sms/mms with carbon, titanium, rom toolbox (on android 6.0.1)
-fresh install 7.0
-restored with all those apps
-*partial restore*
-wiped com.android.providers.telephony folder
-manually copied backed up files into com.android.providers.telephony folder
-*nothing*
-sent a few texts through the app
-wiped com.android.providers.telephony folder
-*can still see texts with nothing in the folder*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does your old phone still have all the texts you want on it? If so, use SMS backup and restore from the play store. Backup on the old phone, transfer the files to the new one and restore. It seems like you're doing more work than you have to just to transfer texts.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&hl=en
jsgraphicart said:
Does your old phone still have all the texts you want on it? If so, use SMS backup and restore from the play store. Backup on the old phone, transfer the files to the new one and restore. It seems like you're doing more work than you have to just to transfer texts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i get it. it's a little much. i guess it's become more about how this thing is storing the texts if it's not in the usual place.
well if anyone is interested i found on the device running N that the new location is /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony. don't know why it's like that for mine but maybe it'll be useful for someone else too.
dlegit said:
well if anyone is interested i found on the device running N that the new location is /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony. don't know why it's like that for mine but maybe it'll be useful for someone else too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to extract the 'databases' folder from this location before restoring, but I'm having trouble restoring. Any ideas to restore these .db files to show in Messages app?
I tried to just copy them back to the /data/user_de location mentioned above, but also noticed there was no 'databases' folder there (I'd received one 2FA text from Google since doing the fresh restore) but even with root access couldn't properly create the folder. I then checked the /data/data location mention by OP and noticed there was a 'databases' folder there, I was able to paste my .db files in the folder, but they're still not showing in the Messages app.
Any input is much appreciated. At the least, I have the files, can open them in Windows with text editor and have confirmed there is conversations in there, my mmssms.db file is about 3 MB.
mrniceguy1437 said:
I was able to extract the 'databases' folder from this location before restoring, but I'm having trouble restoring. Any ideas to restore these .db files to show in Messages app?
I tried to just copy them back to the /data/user_de location mentioned above, but also noticed there was no 'databases' folder there (I'd received one 2FA text from Google since doing the fresh restore) but even with root access couldn't properly create the folder. I then checked the /data/data location mention by OP and noticed there was a 'databases' folder there, I was able to paste my .db files in the folder, but they're still not showing in the Messages app.
Any input is much appreciated. At the least, I have the files, can open them in Windows with text editor and have confirmed there is conversations in there, my mmssms.db file is about 3 MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem, so I deleted the *.db-journal files, and after that I could start the SMS app and all messages were there!
Error.
Have been doing this since CM12 up to CM13. When I tried LineageOS 7.1.1 a few days ago, I restored my mmssms.db backup just like I always do. Found out that it was not located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/database anymore so I found this thread. The problem is, if I put my mmssms.db backup at/data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/database, my sms app crashes. Tried to delete *.db-journal files too but still my sms app crashes and the only way to make it work again is to wipe my data.
cyberangel22k said:
Have been doing this since CM12 up to CM13. When I tried LineageOS 7.1.1 a few days ago, I restored my mmssms.db backup just like I always do. Found out that it was not located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/database anymore so I found this thread. The problem is, if I put my mmssms.db backup at/data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/database, my sms app crashes. Tried to delete *.db-journal files too but still my sms app crashes and the only way to make it work again is to wipe my data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that you should delete the contents of /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases and the app_parts folder, then reboot. Then do the manual move of your attachments (into app_parts) and the .db files (into databases). Then reboot again BEFORE opening your SMS or messaging app. This addressed the messaging app being unable to load MMS for me, but I don't know if this will help your crash problem. I'm on OxygenOS 7.0.
Silly22 said:
I found that you should delete the contents of /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases and the app_parts folder, then reboot. Then do the manual move of your attachments (into app_parts) and the .db files (into databases). Then reboot again BEFORE opening your SMS or messaging app. This addressed the messaging app being unable to load MMS for me, but I don't know if this will help your crash problem. I'm on OxygenOS 7.0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your suggestion. I will try this later. :good:
Tried this:
-deleted contents of /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases
-rebooted. A new set of db files were generated automatically
-overwritten mmssms.db
-rebooted. Messenger app does not crash anymore but cannot load messages and cannot create new message.
-tried steps 1-3 again
-after reboot I cleared the messenger's app data but still same result.
I will convert my backup now to xml and restore it via app until there's another way of restoring it manually.
Using lineageOS BTW. Thanks.
I've been able to restore SMS/MMS/APN data from Titanium Backup on LOS 14.1
I just need to copy and keep file modes and ownership of "com.android.providers.telephony" from /data/data to /data/user_de/0 folder. The built in tar command will do that just fine
Code:
# tar -C /data/data -cf - com.android.providers.telephony | tar -C /data/user_de/0 -xf -
If you have copied the folder manually, just change the ownership of com..android.providers.telephony to "radio:radio" (user=radio, group=radio). No need to do this with tar command above, since tar when run as root will keep file and folder ownership.
Now waiting for Titanium Backup to support "user_de" system folder backup and restore on Android N based ROMs.
Can anyone explicitly confirm this works copying from a <=6.0 system to Nougat?
Here's what I gather:
- Mrniceguy can't get it to work
- criza got something to work
- for cyberangel, it crashed
- silly got it to work on Oxygen
- mydeardiary got tar to work (though your tar command looks a bit funny)
My Droid Turbo's (6.0) screen died, but I can access ADB. I tried copying the mms db to a Galaxy S4 (5.0.1) without success. When I copied the mmssms.db and journal, Messages showed an empty history. I made sure the permissions were set (660, radio:radio). Copying the telephony files over caused the Phone app to constantly spam a FC dialog until I turned the phone off. Restoring the original (S4) files fixed it.
I don't want to risk my shiny new Nexus 5X unless I'm sure that just copying the files over will work.
I can confirm that copying the database from an older version to Nougat doesn't work.
- in /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases:
- backup all files
- delete mmssms.db, mmssms.db-journal
- reboot
- copy in mmssms.db, set permissions 660, radio:radio
- reboot
- run Messages
empty message list
when trying to create conversation: "Failed to create conversation, please try again later."
- restoring original files fixes messaging
I suspect there's something to the format of the mmssms.db file that is different across releases, or between phones.
cyberangel22k said:
Thanks for your suggestion. I will try this later. :good:
Tried this:
-deleted contents of /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases
-rebooted. A new set of db files were generated automatically
-overwritten mmssms.db
-rebooted. Messenger app does not crash anymore but cannot load messages and cannot create new message.
-tried steps 1-3 again
-after reboot I cleared the messenger's app data but still same result.
I will convert my backup now to xml and restore it via app until there's another way of restoring it manually.
Using lineageOS BTW. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I finally got it working... I was eagerly ready all the posts here.
Here is my solution:
After freshly installing the new LineageOS I installed Root Browser and BusyBox (obviously you need root permissions for this). Then I opened in Root Browser the location /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases. I made a backup of the files inside in a subfolder. I copied my old files into the now empty folder (adb root, adb push.....--> six Files: HbpcdLookup.db, HbpcdLookup.db-journal, mmssms.db, mmssms.db-journal, telephony.db, telephony.db-journal). Then I gave to all xyz.db files the read/write permissions for the owner and the group, and for the journals, I gave them only read/write permissions from the owner (I got an error that the permissions couldn't be applied --> ignore it, it does get applied). To all six files, I changed the Ownership from root to radio. --> rebooted --> no crashing but no messages visible --> installed the "SMS from Android 4.4" from the PlayStore--> set this SMS app do be de default one (I set the mark to not delete old messages in the settings) --> this app restored all my SMS that I had lost.
Its quite some trouble to get to the files but in the end it seems to work.
I hope you can reproduce this procedure...
Same problem here with latest Lineage on a rooted serranoltexx (Samsung Galaxy S4 mini LTE). I think something changed in the last update, but I don't understand whether it's Android's or Lineage's fault.
I give you more information, as it seems like a recent issue which troubles a lot of users - I found many similar threads, but no solution so far.
On my old Samsung S2 I was using the app SlightBackup (free, from F-Droid) to backup SMSs. However, copying the SlightBackup database (.xml format) on my new phone and reinstalling it there doesn't seem to work, so I decided to copy manually the mmssms.db file. Also in my case, the new directory seems to be /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases (however, there is also a file called telephony.db which has a symbolic link in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases )
Still, my SMSs do not show up, and moreover the "contacts" app crashes. I tried deleting all the content of the folder and then the messaging app crashes (a full reboot restored the content, however, and the functionality of both apps with it).
Interesting to notice that all the *.db and *.db-journal files in the folder do not change size even if I send/receive SMSs, so I guess they are there just for compatibility, and do not actually store the messages. The "real" database is probably somewhere else, but I have no idea where to look for.
Help would be really appreciated. I'm willing to send 0.01 BTC to the first person who finds a working solution
P.S.: yes, I have also taken care of the filesystem permissions of the .db file, which is something only mentioned in this thread amongst all those I've found, but important I think. In my case the .db file is 660 with owner radio:radio, same for the .db-journal but permissions 600.
P.P.S.: installing third-party apps to restore my SMSs is not an option in my case. I know about working apps in the Play Store but I don't want to use them.
P.P.P.S.: yes, my phone is rooted, and I am not using third-party messaging apps, just the default one.
Silly22 said:
I found that you should delete the contents of ... Then do the manual move of your attachments ... Then reboot again BEFORE opening your SMS ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This doesn't work for me.
Serachja said:
I finally got it working... I was eagerly ready all the posts here.
Here is my solution...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the hint. Your solution probably works because the app "SMS from Android 4" is still using the old location/format of the database. This strengthens my idea that in the last update the situation has changed for the default messaging app (as I said, I don't want to use third-party apps in this case).
That's really frustrating... it's crazy that such a simple thing as the local SMS database creates so much trouble
Here is new db location: /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases/icing_mmssms.db
You can also find a lot of things in that folder
ognevod said:
Here is new db location: /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases/icing_mmssms.db
You can also find a lot of things in that folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks but unfortunately that doesn't work for me: I don't have that location at all, the only com.google folder I have is com.google.zxing.client.android and that doesn'tcontain the mmssms.db
It's in the same place on my Galaxy S6. Does this file also contain the APN settings on your phone? I was able to edit it and enable my phone's native tethering
As I said, unfortunately that doesn't work for me I'm using Lineage OS 14.something (nightly). At this point I just gave up and deleted all my old SMSs, there was nothing too important anyway. But it still kinda suck. Well, never mind.