HowTo: Reset user databases

asked 2014-11-28 13:54:10 +0200

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updated 2017-10-25 10:49:47 +0200

jovirkku gravatar image

If you've had your Jolla for a while, and have been syncing data with different data sources such as Facebook and Exchange, you might find that by now your databases are in a complete mess. Deleting things like contacts using the UI runs the risk of propagating those deletions elsewhere, so sometimes you just want to clear everything out and start from your synced data.

All this data is stored in /home/nemo/.local/share/system/privileged/, and in all my tests so far they all tolerate being deleted (or at least moved to an 'old' subdirectory). You need to be root to access that directory and delete the files. I've been rebooting after deleting, but that might not be necessary.

Note that any data in these databases that is not synced from elsewhere, such as local calendars and contacts you have created on your Jolla but not synched elsewhere, will be lost if you do this. If you're not sure, make a backup of the files before you delete them, or just move them elsewhere.

Stuff I've reset so far:

  • Contacts

    Stored in /home/nemo/.local/share/system/privileged/Contacts/qtcontacts-sqlite/ as an sqlite3 database. Remove and reboot to reset your address book. My original db file was 10MB, with many duplicated phone numbers in some contacts. The new file after sync is 16MB. The People app loads a lot faster now. There are also lots of avatar images cached in the /Contacts folder, but I haven't removed those yet. Exchange won't sync with the new Contacts db until you remove /home/nemo/.activesync/mfestorage.db

  • Calendars

    I found Caldav, Facebook and Google calendars in /home/nemo/.local/share/system/privileged/Calendars/ and another db in /home/nemo/.local/share/system/privileged/Calendar/mkcal. Remove and reboot, and the calendars will be recreated on next sync. If you delete the whole Calendar/mkcal directory, that will be recreated on boot too, and this seems to solve problems with the Jolla Calendar app not having permission to access the calendar files.

  • Social Posts

    I had months old tweets lingering in my Posts from when I recreated my twitter account. I found the db as /home/nemo/.local/share/system/privileged/Posts/twitter.db. After I deleted that and rebooted, the db was recreated and after a while new tweets started appearing. There's a facebook.db in there too.

  • Map Locations

    Located in /nemo/.local/share/system/privileged/Location. I haven't needed to reset this. No iphone/android style tracking data was found :D

  • SMS and MMS

    Located in /home/nemo/.local/share/commhistory/.

  • Sailfish Notes

    Located in /home/nemo/.local/share/jolla-notes/QML/OfflineStorage/Databases/.

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Comments

  • Contacts you may delete all from settings
  • Feed items vanish or should vanish when you delete an account and reboot your device, same for synced calendars
chemist ( 2014-11-28 14:05:12 +0200 )edit

If I delete all my contacts in the UI, will that record the deletions and run the risk of pushing those deletions to the synced accounts?

If calendars and feed items were deleted when I deleted accounts and rebooted, I wouldn't be asking this question. I have multiple orphaned copies of caldav and exchange calendars.

Andy Branson ( 2014-11-28 14:09:20 +0200 )edit

That part is buggy, I still have facebook pictures in my home from when I tested FB picture feed. They never got deleted. Please update your starting post with details what you have tried so far and raise its attention by tagging and naming it as bug. And it sounds you'd be better off with a factory-reset.

chemist ( 2014-11-28 14:15:25 +0200 )edit
1

Those bugs are out of scope for this question, as is factory reset. The bugs that produced these errors may even be long since fixed, but the extra entries may linger on. My question is not asking how I can fix my own databases, but rather how anyone can reset their user databases if they get dirty for whatever reason.

Andy Branson ( 2014-11-28 14:30:50 +0200 )edit

@Andy Branson - thanks for your efforts and for the list of 'how to's', very handy to know.

Regards,

Spam Hunter ( 2014-11-28 18:55:52 +0200 )edit