HOWTO: Importing SMS messages from Nokia phones to N900

[rmoravcik]

Hello guys,

I wrote a simple command line tool for importing SMS messages in csv format to N900. Using that tool I was able to import ~500 received and ~100 sent SMS messages from my old E66.

Here are few step how I did that:

1. I exported all messages to csv files using "Nokia Communication Centre" from Nokia PC Suite
2. merged together exported received and sent messages to one file. eg. sms.csv
3. copied sms.csv to device to home directory together with smsimporter binary
4. and then entered these commands from terminal:

chmod +x smsimporter

run-standalone.sh ./smsimporter sms.csv

5. done, now you should have your old SMS messages imported.

Code of that tool is little bit ugly, because I didn't wanted to spend all work day writing it. So, if someone want to improve it, write simple GUI for it, you are welcome.

PLEASE MAKE BACKUP OF YOUR MESSAGES IN THE DEVICE USING BACKUP APPLICATION BEFORE IMPORTING/EXPORTING YOUR OLD SMS MESSAGES!!!

EDIT:
- Added updated version of smsimporter. This version should automatically detect delimiter.
- Added smsexporter tool.

[zb88]

thanks for the effort, i'm a noob, so I have a question, how did you do the 3rd step? do i have to download the attached files to somewhere ? I want to copy my sms messages from N82 to N900... plz help.

[zb88]

hmm nobody interested to import their messages from a symbian phone to maemo??? =/

[airjordan17]

First, great job putting something like this together! I was definitely looking for a way to transfer my 1000+ SMS messages from my old E61 to my N900. After using the tool I have a couple of observations:

• The instructions mention exporting the SMS messages as a CSV. Upon inspecting the code, I realized that the program is expecting a semicolon ( ; ) as the delimiter. Just as a heads up to people who might be trying this out with a true CSV file (delimited by commas), you'll get a Segmentation Fault. Use semicolon delimiters instead.
• After I ran the program, I checked the Conversations app to make sure the messages had been imported. They had, of course. The only weird thing is that, despite having the correct dates from when I sent/received them, they showed up at the top of the Conversations list, despite being much older than messages I sent on the N900 recently. I rebooted the device, but that didn't change anything. This is only an issue for those like me who have already been using the N900 prior to running this import. Not a huge deal, but slightly annoying.

In any case, if you take the above into consideration, this is a great tool for those migrating from other devices and who want to retain their SMS communication history.

[rmoravcik]

Originally Posted by airjordan17

[*]The instructions mention exporting the SMS messages as a CSV. Upon inspecting the code, I realized that the program is expecting a semicolon ( ; ) as the delimiter. Just as a heads up to people who might be trying this out with a true CSV file (delimited by commas), you'll get a Segmentation Fault. Use semicolon delimiters instead.

I wrote it in ~5 hours and I'm sure it can crash in some unexpected situations. CSV files exported from Nokia PC suite is using semicolon as delimiter.

Originally Posted by airjordan17

[*]After I ran the program, I checked the Conversations app to make sure the messages had been imported. They had, of course. The only weird thing is that, despite having the correct dates from when I sent/received them, they showed up at the top of the Conversations list, despite being much older than messages I sent on the N900 recently. I rebooted the device, but that didn't change anything. This is only an issue for those like me who have already been using the N900 prior to running this import. Not a huge deal, but slightly annoying.

I was importing my old SMS messages to the empty device, so I have all my conversations in the correct order. The most recent messages are on the bottom. smsimporter is filling storage_time, start_time, end_time fields, but for some unknown reason storage_time was always set to current date. So, maybe this is the problem, but I'm not sure.

[rmoravcik]

Originally Posted by zb88

hmm nobody interested to import their messages from a symbian phone to maemo??? =/

1. download smsimporter-bin.tar.gz from attachment and unpack it on your PC
2. connect your N900 using USB cable in "Mass storage mode"
3. copy extracted smsimporter and your sms messages directly to device
4. disconnect USB cable
5. open X terminal
6. enter these commands:

cd /home/user

cp MyDocs/smsimporter MyDocs/sms.csv .

chmod +x smsimporter

run-standalone.sh ./smsimporter sms.csv

Please make backup of your messages in N900 before importing your old SMS messages.

[airjordan17]

Originally Posted by rmoravcik

I wrote it in ~5 hours and I'm sure it can crash in some unexpected situations. CSV files exported from Nokia PC suite is using semicolon as delimiter.

No problem. Again, I think it's great considering the amount of time invested so far. I think the default delimiter may depend on OS/configuration. I'm using PC Suite on Windows XP and the default delimiter is a comma. However, there is a way to change it to something else:

Control Panel > Regional and Language Settings > Regional Options (tab) > Customize... (button) > "List separator"

Change "List separator" to a semi-colon and it's good to go. May need to restart PC Suite if it was running when this change is made.

[zb88]

Originally Posted by rmoravcik;430075}[B

Please make backup of your messages in N900 before importing your old SMS messages.[/B]

how do I make a backup of my messages on n900? cause on PC Suite there is no way to get to sms .. it'll be appreciated if you tell me how to get from n900... thanks

[rmoravcik]

Originally Posted by zb88

how do I make a backup of my messages on n900? cause on PC Suite there is no way to get to sms .. it'll be appreciated if you tell me how to get from n900... thanks

Use "Backup" application installed on device.

[zb88]

ok when i type chmod +x smsimporter in X, it gives no such directory or file exists... however this works "cp MyDocs/smsimporter MyDocs/sms.csv" before chmod command

what is the problem here?