iphone - location of database

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Kruger
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 21:10

iphone - location of database

Post by Kruger »

Hi there,

last year I used my Iphone(3g) with DiveLog. This year got a new Iphone(3gs) and also synced the divelog application via itunes from the old phone to the new one.
Unfortunately it seems to be a complete new installation and all my logs are lost.
As I have not been diving for quite a long time i did not realize this. Now as I'm preparing for next the next dive holiday I realized the missing dives in the new phone. I also checked on the old phone, but it seems they are also lost there for what ever reason. I have been playing arround with my old iphone a lot so and also uninstalled divelog for some time. Now I re-installed it but, still no logs. (yes I must say the old iphone is jailbroken, but divelog always worked great)

I also tried to sync with the database from the iphone to mac and back to new iphone. but it seems its the empty database.

Does anyone know the place in on the iphone where the database is stored in the filesystem. may be there is also something like an backup of old databases when new versions of divelog are installed, because since last year also a new divelog app for the iphone has been released which i have installed.

....pls. help otherwise all my logs are lost :-(

thx,
kruger
divinglog
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Re: iphone - location of database

Post by divinglog »

Hi

Have you synced your iPhone Dive Log with your PC or Mac? This is the only way to keep a save backup (beside the iTunes backup function). As soon as you uninstall the iPhone Dive Log app the logbook database is deleted. The only way to transfer your dives from one iPhone to another is via desktop computer.

I will point Greg to this posting, but when you have no desktop backup I fear all your dives will be lost. On Windows you can sync with Diving Log to the desktop, on the Mac Greg has developed also a sync client:

http://www.moremobilesoftware.com/divelog-sync.html

Kind regards,
Sven
Kruger
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 21:10

Re: iphone - location of database

Post by Kruger »

Hi,

thanks for that information. I was hopping that this is not the case and the logbook keeps stored in some secret places because I have NOT transferred the database to the mac before deleting the app on the old iphone.

....damnit, i hate myself now.

but anyway thanks for the input, at least i can stop now searching for any different ways.

rgds,
kruger
gregm
Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 23:04
Location: Bellingham, WA, USA
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Re: iphone - location of database

Post by gregm »

Hi Kruger,

I'm sorry to hear about your lost Dive Log database. Unfortunately, deleting Dive Log (or any other application) on the iPhone also deletes it's "sandbox" (there is nothing a developer can do about this as it is the behavior of iOS and there is no mechanism to store data outside the sandbox using the official SDK). The logbook used by Dive Log on iPhone is stored in the "Documents" directory of the sandbox and is called "Logbook.sql". There is also a sub-dirctory directory in the Documents directory called "AlternateLogbooks". This directory is used to store additional logbooks in conjunction with the "multiple logbook" feature of Dive Log on iPhone. The files in this directory have names that are generated by the application and the files are "swapped" with the active logbook when you switch between logbooks within Dive Log (this all happens in the Settings tab). One of the main reason that the logbooks are stored in the Documents directory is that the Documents directory is backed up by iTunes when you sync your iPhone. The catch is that iTunes will overwrite this backup with the latest backup each time you sync your iPhone. So, if you delete Dive Log and then reinstall it (effectively what you did) and then backup/sync your iPhone, iTunes will replace the existing backup with the latest data (which now contains the "sample database" ). That said, you may have older checkpoint backups of your iPhone on your system that still contains the logbook from a previous sync with iTunes.

There is an excellent article on iTunes backups available here. You may still have an older backup that was created by iTunes as a checkpoint. You can see the list of available backups on your system by opening iTunes->Preferences and selecting the Devices tab. You may also be able to get an older copy of an iTunes backup from your iPhone 3G if you have a backup of your computer's system drive. It is actually possible to pull the "Logbook.sql" file directly out of a backup (although it is not easy as the backup is not a direct copy of the iPhone's "disk"). Alternately, you could restore your iPhone 3G from the older backup (after making sure that the current data is backed up), recover the Logbook file (by sync it to your computer using Dive Log's Synchronization tab and either Dive Log Manager on a Mac or Diving Log 5.0 on a PC) and then restore your most recent backup again. Then you could sync the logbook file back to the old iPhone, the new iPhone or both using Dive Log's Synchronization tab.

Unfortunately, iTunes' backups are not very flexible and, as a result, we certainly recommend maintaining a direct backup via Dive Log's Synchronization feature.

I hope that helps. Please feel free to contact me off the list (support "@" moremobilesoftware "." com) if I can help with any specific questions at arise.

Cheers,

Greg
rene
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 19:07
Location: France

Re: iphone - location of database

Post by rene »

Hi Kruger,

In case you have the backups on a PC... you can use the program I wrote to explore the iPhone backups : http://code.google.com/p/iphonebackupbrowser/

It runs on Windows only and you'll need to manually install the .NET Framework 4.0 (sorry, I'm too lazy to make an installer).

*Normally* it shows all the backups that are on the PC. On Vista/7, they are at C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Example:
Image


Eventually (in the probable case of Mac), you could search for the backup files, to see if you have an old one. Each file on the iPhone is backup on one or two files (depends on the version of iTunes).
- If you have *.mdinfo files => grep -i "Logbook.sql" *.mdinfo, Logbook.sql will be into the corresponding .mddata file. (iTunes 9.1)
- If you have files without extension (iTunes 9.2, 10), it's more complicated... You'll need my tool or a similar one. See here...


Hope it helps...
René
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