Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 December 3

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December 3[edit]

IPhone Text Message History to PC[edit]

I'm looking for an easy and (if possible, but not necessarily) free way to convert my Iphone v5.x.xx SMS message history from my IPhone to a PC format. I'm thinking Excel or something similar.

How do I move my text messages from my IPhone to my PC?24.80.172.160 (talk) 07:35, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are several paid software solutions (1, 2) to do this, and one Free website that claims to do what you seek. TheGrimme (talk) 03:50, 5 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Lost file[edit]

This is Ray sending this from New Zealand. After spending weeks on trying to write a book sprinkled with tables and photos (scanned)' the best version of the document has just disappeared from my laptop, and I'm left with one of the earlier versions that is very untidy and bits are in all the wrong places. It is not in the recycle bin. It must be somewhere in the laptop. Could anyone please advise me on how to look in all sorts of odd places? I will be very grateful. I would not like losing a month's work — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.60.52.163 (talk) 11:29, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do a file search and ask the system to show all files (and arrange them by last change date or creation date) or all files aged a week or less, two weeks or less, etc. Make sure that you cover all the space you use (so all local hard drives under WIn or the entire directory structure under Linux). Make sure to enable showing hidden files as well, just in case.
Other than that, did someone else have access to your machine? Maybe you saved the file onto a USB drive that time? Retrace your steps. Good luck! --Ouro (blah blah) 14:16, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You don't say what software you were using to edit your book, but you will probably want to set an autosave option with backup (if this is available), and to implement some regular file backup routine, so that you don't risk losing a month's work in future. For example, in Microsoft Word, an autosave every ten minutes means that a power failure will no lose more than ten minutes of work, and a daily backup means that a more serious disaster is unlikely to lose more than a day's work. I know that advice isn't helpful in your present circumstances. Is it possible that you have two different logon identities, and that your good file is hidden in the documents folder of a different identity that is hidden from your current logon? Dbfirs 14:36, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]