[ParlabaneAgain]

Hi there. I just installed the new Nokia Suite 3.2.100. Nice colours.

First problems:

1. The manually defined directory paths for photos and movies are gone without notice. Nokia Suite simply reestablishes the default directories, but retains the monitored directories. You can easily overlook the fact that new fotos might now be stored outside your backup directories as both are displayed as before.

2. Much more annoyingly: Nokia Suite does not find any of the SMS stored on the PC. I know (hope), that they can not be vanished but the Suite does not display any of them. Does anybody have a solution for that already? Many thanks!

The Nokia Suite softeware frustrates so very much. Almost every update is mainly an update on very time consuming problems then anything else.

[ParlabaneAgain]

Some time ago Nokia Ovi Suite started to store the messages in a SQL database msg_db.sqlite (before that ist was MDataStore.db3)

The new Nokia Suite does just the same.But the upgrade just ignores the existing database

and creates a new one in a new directory.
Solution: Replace the new empty msg_db.sqlite in the new directory with the old msg_db.sqlite. As a result Nokia Suite displayes all the old messages. Bfore doing this shut down Nokia Suite (completely) and create backups.

Navigating to the directories is not that simple as Windows 7 hides the partly. Also there are similar directories that may confuse the search addtionally. For me copying the following strings intoi the explorer works convineintly:

Old path for Nokia Ovi Suite:

C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Nokia\Nokia Ovi Suite\Messages\Database

New Path for Nokia Suite:
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Nokia\Nokia Suite\Messages\Database

Result: All messages are back in the suite again. Thanks you Nokia for wasting my  time!

By the way: There is a Firefox plugin available that makes it possible to query those Databases easily via SQL. Once the date/time conversion is solved it is very easy to create clean csv-files for reuse in Ecxel, upload to other applications and so on.

[hunchback]

Thanks for informing this and finding a solution to it also. Suite should have changed the folder automatically during update. Did you had any problems with update that could explain this?

[ParlabaneAgain]

There were no problems at all during installation.

What makes you think the folders should have changed during the process? There is no indication for that at all. The new folder structure is similar but not identical to the old one.

[magovoru]

@ParlabaneAgain

Hi,

This problem is under investigation and fix will be soon available.

Best regards,

Marina

Nokia suite team

[hunchback]

When we changed the application name from Nokia Ovi Suite to Nokia Suite we also changed the name of the folders that the application uses. So far you are the only one who has reported that this change has failed. We are investigating if we can find the reason. 

[mayouymoussa]

i am having exactly the same problem, pls help.... contacts and text msgs have gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! am going crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Diablo89]

I have a different problem but always with sms.I have done a backup of messages contacts images videos of my phone memory and memory card.I have restored all of this but not the sms because ovi give me an error and say that text messages couldn't be restored.....why this happen????It is a different problem because i haven't sms saved on the pc that i can syncronize with the cell but only the backup file .nbu that contains the sms.Someone can help me pls!!!!

[rameshiyer]

Thanks for the detailed explanation and solution. However, I have checked the folders as mentioned by you and noticed that my previous folder (under Nokia Data Store) is having only MDataStore.db3 file and not the newer msg_db.sqlite. Seems Nokia Ovi Suite used to use MDataStore.db3 file while the Nokia Suite uses msg_db.sqlite file, which are two totally different file types. Have also tried copying the old MDataStore.db3 into the new folder as mentioned by you, but seems Nokia Suite 3.2 doesn't recognize this db3 filetype.

Seems Nokia Suite devt team didn't anticipate this issue. Hope they provide a fix for it as all my messages have disappeared from my phone (from all folders). If anyone has a workaround or solution please share the same. Thanx.

Ramesh

[ParlabaneAgain]

Hi rameshiyer,

a few months back Ovi Suite seemed to have switched from MDataStore.db3 to msg_db.sqlite. This change also happened without notice or any data conversion. I was really mad to have lost all messages once again. A very bad habit of Nokia PC software!

Anyway there is at least one way to salvage the messages in MDataStore.db3. You need to have some expertise to do this.

1. Create a backup copy of MDataStore.db3

2. Get & install SQLite Manager Firefox addon

3. Open database MDataStore.db3

4. Query table >MessageEx<. All your synced messages are in that table.

5. Select all the messages and export into a csv-file (actually the best way is to export to csv but give the file the extension .txt)

6. Open the file with Excel, make sure to give columns with numbers the type "text", date columns --> date

A major problem is the message date which is stored in SentReceivedTimestamp. This field needs a conversion. I was not able to really understand what field type that is and how it is converted correctly. By adding a generic constant it worked okay with me.

So instead of step 4 above you can try to copy the following SQL-Statement into the the adequate field in SQLite Manager and run it. Maybe that helps you as well.

With some Excel formatting you could also try to create an import file for Nokia Suite and import the old messages. I did not do that yet.

Good luck! Always make backups!

--        sqlite nokia, MDataStore.db3, ParlabaneAgain, 2011-09-21
select case when status = 5   then 'MY NUMBER' else sender end  AS sender,
          case when status = 36 then 'MY NUMBER' else sender end  AS received_by, datetime( SentReceivedTimestamp,'+6612.097260274 year') AS datum,
          text  AS text, status, imei
from  MessageEx
WHERE datetime( SentReceivedTimestamp,'+6612.097260274 year')  >= date ( '2001-01-01')
AND     datetime( SentReceivedTimestamp,'+6612.097260274 year')  < date ( '2012-01-01')
ORDER BY SentReceivedTimeStamp;

[rameshiyer]

Hi ParlaBaneAgain,

Thanks for the detailed explanation and technical details to recover messages from DB3 file. However, though I installed the said FF add-on and queried the file, it found no records, which suggests that I had not synchronised data between my phone and the Nokia Ovi Suite, but just backed up data using the Backup option. My sql_db.sqlite file is just 7 kb, while the MDataStore.db3 file is 307 kb which suggests that the db3 file does contain some data. It's just that I can't retrieve it through the methods suggested by you.

[ParlabaneAgain]

Hi Rameshiyer,

that is bad luck. You could use the NbuExplorer.exe, open the nbu backup file and export the messages into VMG files. With ABC Nokia Converter it is possible to convert  the VMG-files into csv files. If this fails as well I am out of options. Good luck.

Always make backups. Especially before installing any Nokia software ...

[sherinf]

Thanks, Marina. I have the same problem. Ovi Suite will not restore my messages, either from the full backup I did, or from any of the synced daily backups. They are all there in Ovi Suite on my PC, though, together with thousands of old messages.

[rameshiyer]

Hi @ParlaBaneAgain,

Thanks, but I did take a backup of my data prior to updating the Nokia Ovi Suite to Nokia Suite. Guess I'll wait for Nokia Suite team to release a fix for this issue as am sure there are many more users who would have this problem, sooner or later. Wonder if uninstalling Nokia Suite 3.2.100 and installing the regular Nokia PC Suite 7.1 would enable me to restore the backup taken in Nokia Ovi Suite 3.1.1.90 !!!

Regards,

Ramesh

[rameshiyer]

Hi @Sherinf,

Guess we all have to wait for Nokia Suite team to release a fix for this issue. I too had backed up through Nokia Ovi Suite 3.1.1.90 just before I updated to Nokia Suite 3.2.100. Pity Nokia Suite team didn't test this out before releasing the new Nokia Suite. The new s/w restores everything else except text messages.

Regards,

Ramesh

[wsku]

Wow ... the title is misleading ... [solved] ....

I need my messages a.s.a.p .... this is bad~~~~~~~! Quickly provide the proper fix and thanks~~

[hunchback]

There are now two different error cases mixed in one thread, but to the original error.

Mdatastore.dp3 file is still used by Photos, Music and Contacts of Suite and msg_dp.sqlite only contains messages. These files don't locate in same folder. The location of the sqlite file changed between 3.1.1 and 3.2, so you may have sqlite file in Nokia Ovi Suite folder in stead of Nokia Suite folder.

[rameshiyer]

@hunchback, in the absence of any response from Nokia Suite team, users are just guessing what may have gone wrong and how best to salvage the data on their own. While Nokia Suite would know best what needs to be done, one can't blame people from getting imaginative trying to find a solution. Pity Nokia team didn't test the Nokia Suite 3.2.100 thoroughly before releasing it. What's worse, I can't even revert to Ovi Suite as it downloads and automatically updates to Nokia Suite 3.2.100. 

Hope Nokia Suite team comes up with a solution to this vexed problem soon.

[hunchback]

What I was trying to say is that if the messages were lost between 3.1.1 and 3.2 update, please check do you have two msg_dp.sqlite files?

[rameshiyer]

Nope. There is a MDataStore.db3 in Nokia Data Store folder in AppData....folder. There is a msg_db.sqlite file in Nokia Suite\Messages\Database folder. Hence, it appeared as though Nokia Ovi Suite used the db3 file, while the newer Nokia Suite uses the sqlite file. Since these are totally different filetypes, guess only Nokia can provide seemless data transfer between the old Ovi Suite and the new Nokia Suite.

If you do know how to get SMSs back from db3 to sqlite format please do share the same.