N900 SMS pending / not saving - Page 2 - maemo.org

LondonBenji | # 11 | 2011-01-28, 02:02 | Report

Eeek, sorry.

Okay so I told my friend my conversations were acting funny, we did a little research and it's an sqlite3 database file. Databases being databases they can get fragmented and corrupted, this being no exception.

My friend isn't a SQL expert but a little trick they use when he works on databases in a similar situation is to use the SQL tools to read out the entire contents of the database and write it to a new file.

So we tried it and it worked in so much that the database seems to be stable now although certain texts/messages show as unsent and also one text conversation (admittedly one that was getting heavily corrupted) has a red exclamation on it in the conversations window (I have no idea what that means).

Anyway, here is what we did, note that these instructions may not be 100% accurate which you should not do unless you know what you are doing and if they are wrong could well make you loose all your data! DO NOT BLAME ME, YOU PERFORM THE BELOW AT YOUR OWN RISK! IF YOU GET STUCK AT ANY STAGE, IF ANY OF THE COMMANDS ARE WRONG, IF YOU LOOSE ALL YOUR DATA OR YOU COMPLETELY BRICK YOUR PHONE I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE!

1. First of all make sure ALL conversations are closed including the Conversations window itself and then preferably go into Offline/Airplane/Tablet mode so it's not possible you'll receive any new messages of any kind.

2. Open a terminal and change to root:

Code:

sudo gainroot

3. Change to the directory where the database is stored:

Code:

cd /home/user/.rtcomm-eventlogger

4. Read the contents out the database and write it to a new file (NOTE: The filename is for the newer version of the database file introduced in PR1.2 I believe!!):

Code:

echo .dump | sqlite3 el-v1.db | sqlite3 el-v1-new.db

5. Move the existing file to another file to back it up:

Code:

mv el-v1.db el-v1-old.db

6. Move the newly created file to the proper name:

Code:

mv el-v1-new.db el-v1.db

7. You might need change the permissions on the file:

Code:

chown user el-v1.db
chgrp users el-v1.db

8. For completeness, why not reboot the phone:

Code:

init 6

9. Whilst it's rebooting it should ask 'Exit offline mode?', select 'Yes' and you should be back up and running, open Conversations and check to see if everything is there and if it is now more stable.

I think this post is doing the same thing but in a slightly different way.

Hope this helps.

Benji

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shallimus | # 12 | 2011-03-29, 19:46 | Report

A console-based solution to a very irritating issue! Definitely appreciate the time you took to write this up. Worked for me.

bandora | # 13 | 2011-03-29, 21:23 | Report

Btw for me I typed this in the beginning (small help for noobs like me).

Code:

cd /home/user/.rtcom-eventlogger

Because typing

Code:

cd /home/user/.rtcomm-eventlogger

resulted in no such directory error.

goonercraig | # 14 | 2011-04-14, 01:44 | Report

Originally Posted by LondonBenji View Post

Eeek, sorry.

Okay so I told my friend my conversations were acting funny, we did a little research and it's an sqlite3 database file. Databases being databases they can get fragmented and corrupted, this being no exception.

My friend isn't a SQL expert but a little trick they use when he works on databases in a similar situation is to use the SQL tools to read out the entire contents of the database and write it to a new file.

So we tried it and it worked in so much that the database seems to be stable now although certain texts/messages show as unsent and also one text conversation (admittedly one that was getting heavily corrupted) has a red exclamation on it in the conversations window (I have no idea what that means).

Anyway, here is what we did, note that these instructions may not be 100% accurate which you should not do unless you know what you are doing and if they are wrong could well make you loose all your data! DO NOT BLAME ME, YOU PERFORM THE BELOW AT YOUR OWN RISK! IF YOU GET STUCK AT ANY STAGE, IF ANY OF THE COMMANDS ARE WRONG, IF YOU LOOSE ALL YOUR DATA OR YOU COMPLETELY BRICK YOUR PHONE I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE!

1. First of all make sure ALL conversations are closed including the Conversations window itself and then preferably go into Offline/Airplane/Tablet mode so it's not possible you'll receive any new messages of any kind.

2. Open a terminal and change to root:

Code:

sudo gainroot

3. Change to the directory where the database is stored:

Code:

cd /home/user/.rtcomm-eventlogger

4. Read the contents out the database and write it to a new file (NOTE: The filename is for the newer version of the database file introduced in PR1.2 I believe!!):

Code:

echo .dump | sqlite3 el-v1.db | sqlite3 el-v1-new.db

5. Move the existing file to another file to back it up:

Code:

mv el-v1.db el-v1-old.db

6. Move the newly created file to the proper name:

Code:

mv el-v1-new.db el-v1.db

7. You might need change the permissions on the file:

Code:

chown user el-v1.db
chgrp users el-v1.db

8. For completeness, why not reboot the phone:

Code:

init 6

9. Whilst it's rebooting it should ask 'Exit offline mode?', select 'Yes' and you should be back up and running, open Conversations and check to see if everything is there and if it is now more stable.

I think this post is doing the same thing but in a slightly different way.

Hope this helps.

Benji

what do i do if i havent got PR1.2?? I just tried this and i got an error saying "al-vl.db no such file or directory

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figaro | # 15 | 2011-04-14, 02:35 | Report

Originally Posted by goonercraig View Post

what do i do if i havent got PR1.2?? I just tried this and i got an error saying "al-vl.db no such file or directory

actually it's el-v1.db (it's digit 1, not letter l) not al-vl.db
for PR pre-1.2 it's simply el.db

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goonercraig | # 16 | 2011-04-14, 12:48 | Report

Originally Posted by figaro View Post

actually it's el-v1.db (it's digit 1, not letter l) not al-vl.db
for PR pre-1.2 it's simply el.db

Thankyou for reply. Yes typo. I have been typing el-v1.db but if its not recognising the file it must mean i am PR pre 1.2 and therefore i type
el.db instead of el-v1.db?

goonercraig | # 17 | 2011-04-14, 13:56 | Report

echo .dump | sqlite3 el-v1.db | sqlite3 el-v1-new.db
how do i type this bit in to xterm? I havent got them symbols on my keypad

figaro | # 18 | 2011-04-14, 13:58 | Report

yes, that's right
if you're a little unsure, just try backup your phone using the stock Backup apps, and if anything goes wrong you can just simply restore it (it will make a backup of el.db and el-v1.db as well if exists)

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yaso1608 | # 19 | 2011-05-17, 13:01 | Report

hello. sorry i dont understand. my phone is giving me the same problem. i don want to delete my messages. so is there other way? pls reply asap.

stayloa | # 20 | 2011-05-21, 11:21 | Report

Originally Posted by bandora View Post

Btw for me I typed this in the beginning (small help for noobs like me).

Code:

cd /home/user/.rtcom-eventlogger

Because typing

Code:

cd /home/user/.rtcomm-eventlogger

resulted in no such directory error.

I was following the instructions blindly... I had similar problems under PR1.1 and 1.2 and can't recall if there was an eventlogger directory, but the files you need on 1.3 are just in /home/user/

The rest of the commands worked perfectly and I'm back up and running again. Lost loads of conversations with one person but restored those via a backup I made last night (which was lucky!)