post upgrade data restore question

[cell9]

I finally got around to upgrading and installed Harmonia yesteday. Looks good.

My question is about data from the contact app. It doesn't seem to be in Titanium backup. So I wondered about getting it back from nandroid backup, but the new IHO recovery doesn't find any files to restore even though the nandroid files are there in the sdcard. I'm probably overlooking something obvious, but could someone give me some pointers on the best way to get my contact data back?

This is the first time I've upgraded since I orginally rooted the phone back in February so I'm not that familiar with the whole process.

Dan

 

[watskyhotsky]

your contacts SHOULD be stored within your google account that you used to sign in. assuming you actually chose to SAVE to that account instead of to the phone.

if they are in your google account, make sure you go to settings>accounts and sync, and click that account and make sure the box for "contacts" is checked.

it may take awhile but all your contacts will be restored over wifi or 3G, depending on what your connected to.

or you can check the box and force a manual sync thru another menu (i dont know where, i dont use that often)


if, however, on your old rom, you chose NOT to save contacts to google, and didnt back them up. your boned.

androids default is to save them to your account, so make sure it knows to sync your contacts and you should be fine.

 

[cell9]

Not synced. I turned that off. I have a recent dump to vcard format if I need that. However, just so I can better understand the way the system works, where exactly are the contacts kept on the phone? Does Titanium Backup back them up? They don't seem to be in the list that it shows.

Related question about nandroid: I made a nandroid backup before the upgrade. Then I installed the IHO recovery and then the new ROM. Now when I boot into recovery I can't find any files to restore. Does IHO recovery use a different backup/restore system? Previously, I had been using the Thunder recovery.

dan

 

[watskyhotsky]

android OS is designed to be synced to your google account.

if you chose not to, your basically boned.

do it next time. it prevents EXACTLY this problem. it exists for a VERY good reason. im sure youve learned that lesson now.

besides, its all push data anyways, no harm done to battery. not like it syncs every 5 minutes or something

 

[watskyhotsky]

IHO recovery is a fork of CWM recovery, which if I recall, really was completely different than the Thunder recovery we used in the first week the OV was being sold.

 

[cell9]

My question was

However, just so I can better understand the way the system works, where exactly are the contacts kept on the phone?

Apparently, no one knows.

 

[ElefantPhace]

Contacts Storage? Listed in tibu in green as CONTACTS/Contacts Storage 2.x.x

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

 

[cell9]

After some more investigation I found that the contact data is in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db

You can back it up and restore it using adb.

There are a couple of other files in the directory as well: contacts2.db-shm, and contacts2.db-wal. When testing a restore I deleted all three files, pushed the new contacts2.db file to the directory and rebooted.

I found this web site helpfull as well: Android - Dan Dascalescu's Wiki

Normally, of course, most people just keep the contacts and everything synced to Google, but I like to know how things work behind the scenes as well.

dan

 

[dandv]

Hey Watsky,

I'm Dan Dascalescu, the guy on whose website cell9 found the answer to his question. I took the pain to register with yet another android forum because I despise ignorance.

android OS is designed to be synced to your google account.

if you chose not to, your basically boned.

No, you're not "boned". Android is based on Linux, and unlike the locked-down Apple iPad, is based on a filesystem. Contacts are stored in a SQLite3 database, which is a file in that filesystem.

do it next time. it prevents EXACTLY this problem. it exists for a VERY good reason.

The reason cloud backup (i.e. synching contacts with your Google account) exists is convenience for superficial users like yourself. Those like cell9 or myself, who care about privacy and don't want to compromise the privacy of others by storing their data with a 3rd party, may choose to NOT use Android's account synch feature.

im sure youve learned that lesson now.

I hope you've learned to stop spreading and showing ignorance, and to stop assuming people have the same requirements and preferences as you do.