How to backup SMSs on Linux over Bluetooth (SE W810i)

published Jul 23, 2009 11:22   by admin ( last modified Jul 23, 2009 11:22 )

Summary: Use KMobileTools

Update 2010-11-03:

I have now tried to use a USB data cable. Modus operandi:

Plug in Phone

Type dmesg at command line. Check the last lines. I got:

[35522.052043] usb 6-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
[35522.239108] cdc_acm 6-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[35522.245219] cdc_acm 6-2:1.3: ttyACM1: USB ACM device
[35522.255190] cdc_wdm 6-2:1.7: cdc-wdm0: USB WDM device

Start kmobiletools.

Enter /dev/ttyACMO in Configure->Device

 

Below is how I did it before, with an older version of kmobiletools and over bluetooth

For quite some time, my Sony Ericsson W810i mobile phone has prompted me to delete old SMS text messages when new ones are on the way in. I find this very annoying. I do not want to delete old SMS text messages any more than I want to delete my e-mail inbox.

So how to go about backing up the text messages? Or rather I don't want full backup restore facilities, just a way of saving my messages somewhere in a readable format.

On top of that it should be done over bluetooth (since the cable is forever at "the other place" with different vaues for other palce) and it should work on Linux.

I started KMobilteTools and it led me through the process of connecting to the mobile phone in a very nice way. I had previously paired the phone with another utility (blueman).

I finally got the export of texts to work on Linux with KMobilteTools but with a quirk. There are two export buttons, but only one worked for me, the non obvious one (circled in red below):

It will give you the option to export a CSV file.

The obvious export button is at the lower right of the same window and looks like this:

That button claims to export to ~/Mail/KMobileTools and that you can see them in Kmail. On my system:

  1. There was no Mail dir in my home dir and no files were exported
  2. I created a Mail dir and a KMobileTools dir was magically created there with sub dirs but still no files.
  3. Starting and restarting kmail made no difference

So use the button circled in red in the image higher up in this post. At least that's how it worked for me.

KMobileTools is a nice KDE-based application that allows to control mobile phones with your PC. It handles full SMS control, dialing calls, phonebook, and phone status monitoring. It's also integrated with the KDE environment, so it can be embedd in Kontact, or import/export from and to KAddressBook.

I also tried to send SMS with KMobileTools and that worked fine!

Läs mer: KMobileTools | Open Source meets Mobile Phones