BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[xenrobia]

Ok, I've been playing around with Backing Up, Wiping, then Restoring the PlayBook and things don't seem to be functioning as smoothly as I would assume they should. My primary concern is that the data from the Contacts and Calendar programs are not getting restored and the setup information for any Email Accounts is also lost. The data from two third party Apps: Groovy Notes and The Vault is being restored no problem. 

ADDED NOTE: The Stock Wallpapers and HD Video Demo have also gone missing.

THE PARTICULARS:

- On a Windows 7 Pro box running BlackBerry Desktop 7.1

- 64 GB Wifi PlayBook running OS 2.0.1.668

- Options set to FULL BACKUP (nothing else)

- using a USB cable and connection

Other behavior that might, or might not be related:

- I did a switch device from 64 GB Wifi to 4G LTE model and the same data was missing

- the BB Desktop 7.1 software can't seem to accommodate more then one PlayBook at a time, meaning that if I Sync or backup one tablet, then attaching the other tablet via the USB cable will cause the device listing of the previous tablet to disappear. It's like it won't allow me to have more then one tablet as a listed device.

Thanks, Rob

[xenrobia]

So does anybody have any idea as to what I might be doing wrong?

Is anyone experiencing the same problem, or has experienced it in the past?

Just curious.

Thanks, Rob

[whabke]

I noticed the same problem. I don't think it will do a backup or restore of the contacts or calender file.. All apps and setting however appear to restore ok. After upgrading os , everyting was reset to factory. Doing a restore brought everthing back with the exception of the contact and calender data. I also did a test where I added entries to both files, did a backup, deleted some entries, did restore, and nothing changed.

[xenrobia]

"nothing changed" as in it didn't restore the deleted entries?

What I'm thinking is that the desktop software is designed more for BB phones and that there is such a difference in the Contacts and Calendar apps from the phone to the PlayBook (the PlayBooks apps being much more complex and interconnected) that the Desktop isn't equipped to properly backup the PlayBook, so it doesn't. If this is the case, then they should:

1) let people know, because many may think they have a nice safe backup of what could potentially be a very large and valuable chunk of data, when they actually don't.

2) Get working on an update of their Desktop software that properly handles the PlayBook - which they probably are, I would hope.

But all of this is just conjecture on my part, since nobody has responded to my query yet, other then you that is.

[jarviser]

Contacts and Calendar on Playbook (forget about phones) are a mirror sync of what you have on the web for email accounts that you choose to sync.  

They can be used standalone but that is not its design function. The master copy of calendar and contacts is intended to be in webmail, the PB is just a copy. Re-syncing to your chosen email account should pull calendar and contacts all back from webmail databases.

(well I have never been able to backup or restore any app data but that may be my fault)

Also I don't think you can backup on one PB and restore on a replacement. Can't even restore from some OS versions to another. It's best to drag and drop, using USB or wifi, all the folders from the old PB then drag onto the new one.  I prefer to use drag and drop for backups anyway. Thay way I can see them for myself as files not a zipped tar file.

[xenrobia]

Well if my making use of the contacts/Calendar/Email applications is predicated on me "having"  to store the information on someone elses computer, then they are pretty much useless to me. I mean everybody knows that Google NEVER spies on it users and we all know that hackers are a myth and no ones systems are ever breached, so yeah, I should just rely on everyone else to store my personal information for me. Doesn't sound very BlackBerry to me.

[wmatt]

I just restored my PlayBook and noticed it didn't save my email account settings, calendars, or contacts. The calendar is pretty much the only thing I actually wanted to backup in the first place. There should be a warning somewhere that the "full" backup doesn't include these things.

[jarviser]

Are you saying that you had entries in Local Playbook calendar, or email based calendar that were not recovered?

[wmatt]

My local calendar entries were not recovered. To be clear, it's not a big deal, my iPhone is currently my main calendar. I'm just surprised there isn't a way to backup the local Playbook PIM apps.

[jarviser]

I confess i have never been able to even backup app data, only media. I only use Hotmail based calendar whichdoes not need recovery.  it just syncs from hotmail.

I also tend to have master data (docs, photos, music) on the computer and drag it to the pb so backup is unnecessary.

I have a mac and Apple really have mastered backup and recovery, streets ahead of anyone else.