Restoring the CompanionLink Backup of Palm Desktop

Every time it syncs, CompanionLink creates a back-up copy of the Palm Desktop databases it is set to sync with in the state they exist when the sync is initiated. These backups are kept for the 10 most recent syncs you have performed, as well as for the database that existed when you originally synced with CompanionLink.

You are able to restore these back-ups using the following steps:

1. Open CompanionLink Setup and press CTRL + SHIFT + D; this should open a File Explorer folder.
2. Open the Palm Backup folder, then the folder that corresponds with the Palm Desktop user name for which you wish to restore the back-up
3. Find the database you wish to restore, right-click on it, then choose copy. To identify the database you wish to restore, it may help to pay attention to the size of the database file, or its modify time; you can also try multiple databases to see which one is best for your purposes. Files with the extension ".orig" are the original Palm Desktop database that existed before the initial CompanionLink sync, and files with numbered extensions are the more recent back-ups (lower numbers are newer, higher numbers are older).
4. Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard then press "R"; in the resulting Run box, type "explorer" and hit enter
5. Navigate to the Palm Desktop data folder. For Palm Desktop 6.x, this should be in your Documents folder under the "Palm OS Desktop" folder. For Palm Desktop 4.x, you are able to identify the proper data folder by going into Palm Desktop > Tools Menu > Options..., then looking at the "data directory".
6. From the data folder, open the folder for the proper user name, then the folder for the database type you are trying to restore (e.g. "Address")
7. Close Palm Desktop if it is open.
8. Move the current Palm Desktop database file you are going to be replacing to a different location or rename it. For Palm Desktop 6.x, this will be be an .mdb file (e.g. "address.mdb"); for Palm Desktop 4.x, this will be a .dat file (e.g. "address.dat").
9. Paste the back-up file you copied from the CompanionLink folder into this folder, the rename the file to match the name of the file from step 8
10. Open Palm Desktop and view the data type for the database you restored. If the data is not acceptable, you can either restore the file from step 8, or repeat all the steps and restore a different CompanionLink back-up.

After you have a database restored that is acceptable to you, it will be best to enable "purge and reload" for the specific conduit type you restored (CompanionLink Setup > Palm Desktop Settings > Applications). If purge and reload is not enabled, and there is similar data on the handheld relative to the Palm Desktop database, there is the potential that duplicates will be created by the next sync you perform.