[Spankypoo]

Just upgraded from my TMo 8900 to a TMo 9700 -- 483 contacts on my old phone (as displayed in the DM), all 483 copied over (again, in DM), but random contacts are missing on the device itself. No idea why, and no obvious theme between which ones are missing (some I've had for years so it's not like they missed a sync).

Ideas?

[JSanders]

Open your Address Book > Menu > Filters.

Are all filters UNchecked?

[Spankypoo]

Originally Posted by JSanders

Open your Address Book > Menu > Filters.

Are all filters UNchecked?

Yes.

And it gets weirder: In my call log, those individuals have their name displayed, and their number is correctly associated (e.g., "John Doe, Mobile"). Yet they aren't in the address book.

And in Messages, their text messages are showed as being from their number, not from their name, unlike the call log.

[Spankypoo]

Tried exporting to CSV, getting "Unable to read application data".

So, DB's corrupted? This isn't good -- short of going through all the contacts manually, there's no way of knowing all that's missing.

Anyone have any better ideas?

[JSanders]

OK, when you upgraded, it should have made a backup, usually in the My Documents folder of your PC.

Do you have it?

[Spankypoo]

Originally Posted by JSanders

OK, when you upgraded, it should have made a backup, usually in the My Documents folder of your PC.

Do you have it?

Yes -- I upgraded by hand. Backed it up, and restored the DBs I need to the 9700. It restores just fine, and as I said, the record count in the Desktop Manager is correct.

Is there another way to extract that data from the backup file?

[JSanders]

I would do this:

To clear your Address Book on your BlackBerry, delete the entire Address Book database on your BlackBerry, follow the directions below. Make certain you have a good copy of your Contacts elsewhere, as this procedure will complete delete ALL Address Book entries on your BlackBerry.

1. Open Desktop Manager on your PC.
2. Open up Backup/Restore > Advanced.
3. From Advanced you'll see a split pane screen. The left pane is what is going to be backed up from your device and the right is a list of the currently existing databases.
4. Highlight on the right side your Address Book database and click CLEAR.

Now, resync the necessary contact information and you should be set to go.

Or in your case, go over the left pane and click File > Open and find the backup that was made with your upgrade. Click to open it.

Now, scroll down to your Address Book Database and click once on it to highlight it, then click the RIGHT facing arrow to move that data to your device.

Follow the remaining prompts and complete.

See if you got good data now?

[Spankypoo]

That's what I did. Just tried it again for good measure -- no luck.

CSV export doesn't work, Yahoo export crashes. Only transfer that "works" is sending it to the phone.

I'm wondering if I should just create a new GMail account, run Google Sync on the 8900, push 'em all up to it, and then try syncing them back to the 9700. My worry is I'm guessing I'll lose PINs, caller ID icons, etc.

Thoughts?

[Spankypoo]

Just tried Magic Berry to open the IPD. The records that I've noticed that are missing in the transfer aren't in there, either.

But I pick up my 8900, and they're on it. And there's no weirdness -- the records look good.

Edit: I can export it off the 9700 as a CSV...chasing that to see if it's worth anything.
Edit: Nope, it isn't. Records are missing in the CSV.
Edit: Went through and spent an hour finding the gaps, deleted those records off the 8900 (after copying down their info by hand), now things transfer fine to the 9700.

RIM is so lousy sometimes -- I want my day back. Reliable databases aren't a black art. The last time something like this happened, I couldn't back up my old 8320 because one of the profiles was bad in DM's eyes (even tho it worked fine).

/rant

Thanks for the help.

[DaveTheA]

This happened to me too....big gaps in my contact list when I transferred from my 8130 to 9700. Fortunately my contact list wasn't so extensive that it took very long to fill in the gaps.

Something programmers should design into all sorts of apps like this...email apps too...is a way to simply list and print out contact lists on hardcopy for a can"t-fail backup, rather than relying on software tricks.

[sc93]

Originally Posted by JSanders

I would do this:

To clear your Address Book on your BlackBerry, delete the entire Address Book database on your BlackBerry, follow the directions below. Make certain you have a good copy of your Contacts elsewhere, as this procedure will complete delete ALL Address Book entries on your BlackBerry.

1. Open Desktop Manager on your PC.
2. Open up Backup/Restore > Advanced.
3. From Advanced you'll see a split pane screen. The left pane is what is going to be backed up from your device and the right is a list of the currently existing databases.
4. Highlight on the right side your Address Book database and click CLEAR.

Now, resync the necessary contact information and you should be set to go.

Or in your case, go over the left pane and click File > Open and find the backup that was made with your upgrade. Click to open it.

Now, scroll down to your Address Book Database and click once on it to highlight it, then click the RIGHT facing arrow to move that data to your device.

Follow the remaining prompts and complete.

See if you got good data now?

CLEAR Address Book or AddressBook ALL?

[Spankypoo]

Another twist:

Two addresses have disappeared off the phone. Just, gone. Contacts I have in the excel file I was able to export after I deleted the corrupted contacts, so I know they were on the phone for a period post-migration. And again, the names sometimes show up in relation to the phone numbers in parts of the UI, but the address book has no apparent entries for them anymore.

If RIM can't make an address book that'll reliably store a few hundred contacts, that's the kind of thing that quickly becomes a deal breaker.

Anyone have any ideas on how to stop the bleeding?

Edit: The weirdness just doesn't stop. I recreated a record for one of the contacts, and then they both reappeared.

[JSanders]

You probably have a filter set or checked in the Address Book.

[Spankypoo]

Originally Posted by JSanders

You probably have a filter set or checked in the Address Book.

Nope.