Restoring Viber messages from one PC to another

Been a while since I logged into my blog. I must say that being in IT and involving in projects keeps me away from the internet. I find it very difficult to spend some quality time writing articles of the troubles that I face in my day-to-day IT activities. Having that said, let me come straight to the point.

Its very simple. I’m an IT professional and I mostly communicate through Viber with my vendors, clients, and more over my company’s directors as they’re travelers. Therefore, the information which I communicate is needed for my later reference. Hence, I would prefer having a copy of Viber messages or transfer it completely whenever I hook myself into a newer PC. Recently, my old PC retired itself leaving me helpless thus the DATA’s were accessible. Therefore, my boss handed over his MacBookPro for my office use. I must say that I’m not much of an Apple fan but I love the engineering of the device and the unique hardware selection to the device. Enough said!!!

I’m more of a Linux user and I prefer using Windows too over a Mac. So, I had to bootcamp my MacBookPro with Windows. Once all my necessary configuration and file migration is done; I looked into Viber and though; “Man!! How am I going to get all these messages knowing that I still have it on my Nexus tab”. Well, it is always easier to respond through a PC than responding through a mobile device which has a sloppy touch keyboard. As I always do, I searched through Google to find if there’s a way and then I ended seeing this video on YouTube. This video really helped me in understanding how Viber stores DATA’s and how we can use it to restore. Along with this video log, I’ve tried some other simpler ways to check whether my tricks works out or not. Well, it did and even the video itself worked as well but I couldn’t see the images on my existing messages, avatars of the users and on contacts too. Further, the video says to export registry and replace it on the new PC which I didn’t really liked. The reason is because, messing up with your PC’s registry is like you messing with a brand-new operational Windows systems. But luckily, I tried one last trick and it worked out perfectly leaving my user, contact avatars, images.. etc as it is.

So, How did I succeed restoring my Viber messages?

Its very simple! Just follow these steps which will be more than enough to see a fully functional Viber in place. Make sure you’ve installed Viber on to your new PC but do not activate it until you finish below steps.

• Log in to your old PC, open your Viber & wait until it retrieve all the messages. Once done close it & check the system tray (taskbar notification panel) to make sure it is completely  closed.
• Once confirmed, simply navigate to your current logged in user’s roaming directory and find “ViberPC” directory. You may have to unhide the Appdata folder under “C:/Users/yourname” or use an environmental variable shortcut to enter directly. Refer to Home Directory, What is the AppData folder? & Special folders for more info on how to access. Mine was under “C:/Users/asker/Appdata/roaming/ViberPC”

• Once located, you’ll see you folder with your number which you’ve used to activate & communicate through Viber. Copy only that folder and paste it on your new PC under the same location as above (Remember, these user directory location may vary if you’re using a Windows earlier than 7).
• Once copied, then start the Viber activation on your new PC. Wait for the code to pop-up on your mobile device, enter it & you should now be able to see your account along with all the existing messages you had so far.

Kudo’s to the author of the video which I’ve linked above. Without it, I would’ve not discovered a way to achieve this. This may not be useful for the most but I would like to keep this as a reference for my use. Let me know your thoughts & issues via comments. I’ll catch you all back with another super-cool trick.