Important Personal Data Locations

Quick Overview

As anyone who has had their WebOS device replaced at least once knows, the Backup app does not backup all the personal data from your device to the Palm Profile. In fact, anything that is not explicitly a part of the Palm Profile is most likely not backed up.

The Palm Profile Backup/Restore covers the following:

• Account Information for Contacts, Email, Calendar, and Messaging
• Calendar
• Email
• Memos
• Tasks
• List of Installed Applications

The Palm Profile Backup/Restore does not cover the following:

• Messaging History and Text Messages
• Calendar View Options
• Application Settings and Data
• Associated Wifi Access Points
• Background Image
• Synergy Links
• Flash Drive Contents (naturally)

Fortunately I had been using rsnapshot from my home server to regularly backup my Pre when it is connected to Wifi, so I have spent some time trying to recover some of this lost data.

Note: See Backing Up via Rsync for instructions on setting up a full backup from the Pre to a linux desktop or mac. I did not feel comfortable performing a full rsync restore, so I installed the basics per Portal:Accessing Linux and incrementally restored files from my previous backup. I did try restoring all of /var, but for some reason much of that did not stick.

Here is a list of files and folders that contain important personal data. Restore all files within a folder at once, and reboot the device for the changes to take effect. Be sure to stop LunaSysMgr when specified.

• PalmDatabase.db3 File is located at /var/luna/data/dbdata. This file contains all text messages sent and received and all IM chats. It also seems to contain Synergy Link information. LunaSysMgr must be stopped before this database is restored, and the device must be rebooted before the data will re-appear.
• Application data is located in /var/palm/data. This entire folder must be restored and the device must be rebooted before the data will re-appear in your favorite applications. This may not apply to Preware applications.
• Wifi system preferences are located in /var/preferences/com.palm.wifi. This folder also contains preferences for other hardware devices.
• IM buddy icons are located in /var/luna/data/im-avatars.
• Facebook and LinkedIn pictures are located at /var/luna/files.
• Sprint Navigation data is located in /var/telenav.

Please feel free to add to this page as others find out more. Hopefully Palm will backup more of the above within the Palm Profile, or at least provide the option to do so.