Nokia N900: How To Backup your SMS messages
The new PR 1.2 firmware release for the N900 was just released and it’s time to upgrade. Then you bump into your first challenge: how to backup your SMS messages on the N900? Nokia’s PC Suite only backs up Contacts etc. but not your SMS messages. And Ovi Suite still does not support the N900 (what’s up with that Nokia?!).
So how do you backup your SMS messages (and Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Bookmarks and Settings)?
Here is how:
1) make sure your N900 has a full battery or is plugged into the charger
2) on your N900 start the Backup application
3) select “New Backup”, fill in a name like N900_Backup_<date> and press “Proceed”
4) in the next screen make your selection or leave all enabled and press “Select”. Make sure at least “Communication and Calendar” is selected as that one contains your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes and SMS messages
5) wait for the Backup to finish after which you are returned to the main Backup screen where you see your shiny new backup
6) copy the backup (directory + contents) from your N900 to your PC
7) upgrade the N900 to PR 1.2
8) copy the backup (directory + contents) on your PC to your N900. The location on the N900 is /home/user/MyDocs/backups
9) start the Backup application. yuo should now see your backup listed
10) press “Restore”, select your backup and voila all your data should be restored
Disclaimer: no guarantees, this is how it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.
I want to save my SMS messages from Nokia N900 on my computer and also I want them to be available to read. I’ve tried with “glogarchive” but it only made a Microsoft Office Excel document with about 100 messages all mixed up (and I have to save about 3000 messages). Is there a way to save them properly? Please, help! Thank you.
Sorry, I am not aware of a way to save them in another format than as used by the N900. Gloarchive did not work for me but that was a while ago and maybe it works now. As far as I know Nokia still has not added support for the N900 to their latest Windows application so that is also not a solution. Perhaps you could ask on the Maemo forum or on irc.freenode.net in the #maemo channel. Nokia really made a mess with killing of Maemo and not providing proper tools to make backups. As a result my next phone will be not be a Nokia.
My nokia N900 jumbles up long txt messages when I go back to correct a mistake. It makes me appear to be drunk.
I think I have seen something like that in the past. It happened when switching between the real and the virtual keyboard while going through text, possibly correcting it. But I have not seen anything like that recently. Have you tried updating your N900 to the latest and greatest?
Yes I totally agree with Jay.
In fact, here’s the bug as well:
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11444
The reproduce the error, try this:
1. Create a New SMS
2. Type in the Virtual Keyboard: the quick brown fox jumped over
3. Now close VK, edit the text, highlight “brown” – and remove it.
4. Exit VK, what you have is the quick browfox jumped over
Isn’t that a drunken man?
@Live
I’m glad someone else has experienced that problem. I can now legitimately say I was sober when my txts mix themselves up after a correction was made. Just to clarify that this only happens on long txts not shorter more average sized ones.