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Posted By Azker

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.

viber-pc-geeklk

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”

viber-pc1-geeklk

  • 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.

viber-pc2-geeklk

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.


An IT professional living far away from the pearl of Indian ocean. A Telecom nomad moved towards networking & hospitality IT building elegant resort in the romantic island of Maldives. An open-source fanatic, a geek and yes! a minion fan. I prefer football & popcorn ^_^

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  • Uchi

    hi. i was wondering if anyone can help me.

    I’ve changed phones a couple of times without backing up. It was ok, I thought, since I have the viber app installed on my PC so all my previous chat history could be found there. But now my problem is, I am changing PCs and have just realized what a big mistake I made by not backing up my Viber messages on my phones.

    Anyway, is there a way to use the Viber app on my PC as the main source for the back-up and not my new mobile (which only has 2 weeks worth of messages). I am scared to back-up the Viber on my mobile, for fear that when it syncs to my PC , all the couple of years worth of data will be lost and reverted into the pidly 2 weeks on my mobile.

    Hope someone could help.

    Thank you.


  • dave

    Hi m4t3y!
    I try you SQL query but when I try to execute I git this error:

    Unrecognized token “:” :

    HOW TO FIX THIS
    Thanks!!


  • m4t3y

    The method described will work (including images in messages) ONLY IF your old username is the same as the new username (the windows account username)

    If they are not the same then you need to edit the viber.db file, no way around that (actually you will see some pictures, think the one received, but not the one sent)

    download http://sqlitebrowser.org/
    edit the viber.db file in your phonenumber folder

    execute this SQL:

    update Messages
    set ThumbnailPath = replace (ThumbnailPath , ‘C:/Users/oldusername/AppData/Roaming’ ,’C:/Users/newusername/AppData/Roaming’) where ThumbnailPath like ‘C:/Users/oldusername/AppData/Roaming%’

    of course replace oldusername and newusername as you need

    click on write changes


    • m4t3y

      correction:
      the above will only fix the thumbnails, but when you click on it will say it’s not available and just show you a zoom of the thumbnail, not the actual full size picture

      so you need to do these 2:

      update Messages
      set ThumbnailPath = replace (ThumbnailPath , ‘C:/Users/oldusername/’ ,’C:/Users/newusername/’) where ThumbnailPath like ‘C:/Users/oldusername/%’

      update Messages
      set PayloadPath = replace (ThumbnailPath , ‘C:/Users/oldusername/’ ,’C:/Users/newusername/’) where PayloadPath like ‘C:/Users/oldusername/%’

      changed it so it will also update the full-size picture path pointing to the ViberDownloads

      BUT there is a catch – the full size picture will ONLY show if the file is still in the same location where it was at the time when you were sending it.

      I am not sure how it works when you have the desktop client running on multiple PCs (like I have, one on work laptop and one on my home pc). Maybe they are automatically downloaded to other devices and put to ViberDownloads. Will have to look into how that works, but still it will mean lot of messing with the paths and maybe even not worth the hassle.

      But still this is better then nothing ;o]


      • m4t3y

        lol had a stupid mistake in the second update – forgot to change the column in the the replace parameters

        update Messages
        set ThumbnailPath = replace (ThumbnailPath , ‘C:/Users/oldusername/’ ,’C:/Users/newusername/’) where ThumbnailPath like ‘C:/Users/oldusername/%’

        update Messages
        set PayloadPath = replace (PayloadPath , ‘C:/Users/oldusername/’ ,’C:/Users/newusername/’) where PayloadPath like ‘C:/Users/oldusername/%’


        • Azker

          Hi There,

          Thank you so much for taking time and updating such frutiful information. I shall test it on a virtual environment and post the results back with your trick.

          Thanks


        • dave

          Hi m4t3y!
          I try you SQL query but when I try to execute I git this error:

          Unrecognized token “:” :

          HOW TO FIX THIS
          Thanks!!


  • priya

    Wow thanks so much, i thought i will loose all my messages but tadaaaa all are there.. so happy !!!


    • Azker

      Hi There,

      Glad it worked. Do keep visiting and sharing. 🙂


  • Krim

    Hi there, I’m having a ‘this photos is not available’ error on my new pc. I did all the steps posted. Messages were restored fine but my viber(PC) can’t ‘download’ the media files (photos). I backed up ViberDownloads folder but that didn’t do it(I actually thought it might have messed it up so I deleted it). So, I reinstalled viber – did the all the steps posted again (without copying viberdownloads folder) – I noticed it didn’t create “Viberdownloads” folder when I tried sending files from phone (normally, it will automatically create that folder for the first media file received). So I tried this: – installed viber, activated viber, sent a photo from my phone (viber then created “ViberDownloads” folder in the document file, transferred files from “phone number” folder to new ViberPC folder overwriting everything = same issue. Any fixes? If someone can post step by step process in editing database file (if that what needs to be done) i’ll appreciate it. Thank you!


  • Mirko

    Where is database file for viber on windows XP.


    • Azker

      Technically XP’s user data location is bit different than the later versions. Just go to START -> search for “run” and open the “RUN” dialg box, then type “%appdata%” and enter. This should take you to roaming profile whereby you’ll see the “ViberPC” if I’m correct.

      Cheers! 😉


  • SaapeXD

    If your images are not appearing, make sure you copy ViberDownloads folder in your old windows installation to youe new windows installation! Thats where all the images, videos and files are stored!

    Hope this helps! 😀


    • Azker

      Hi There!

      Yes, it is indeed helpful. I might have missed that out when composing this article. However, thank you for the contribution, and I shall update this accordingly.

      Cheers! 😉


  • Misako

    Hey! I solved the problem. I edited the database file. 🙂 Thanks for the help!!!


    • Anthony

      @Misako. How exactly did you edit the database file? What program did you use to edit it, what did you have to modify specifically, etc? Can you give a brief summary, please?


      • Azker M

        You need not. I’ve recently tried it on both Win7 & 8 which worked fine. Refer the instructions properly. It should work.

        Cheers!


      • Herve

        Hello,
        I had the same issue : viber datas migration from w7 to w10 and lost thumbnails if I retrieve my old (w7) viber.db.
        In fact, several paths are stored in the viber.db.
        For me :
        – Installed viber and enabled
        – Recovered phonenumber foler
        – Edit viber.db (sqlite) with sqlitebrowser.exe
        Be careful : several tables to change several fields

        Else another solution I guess :
        – Export old viber.db to sql file
        – Open this file and replace the old path by the new path (for me replaced my username)

        Only happyness 🙂
        Hervé


        • Azker M

          Hi There,

          Thank you for the share. I’m not sure what’s causing the issue and I’ve not tested to Win10 (so I cannot comment). Nevertheless, I’ve done this to several PC’s including W7 to W8 which worked very well without any dramas.

          Further, if you’re an advance users who knows what’s happening when editing the db files.. etc, well then play with it; otherwise, leave as is. Never ran across any issues so far as I’ve done these to more than 10+ PC’s now.

          Thanks 😉


  • Misako

    Hi. This works with saving the message logs, but contact photos nor thumbnails of photos do not appear. Is it because I’m transferring from Windows 7 to Windows 8? Please help ASAP. Thanks!


    • Azker M

      Hi There!

      Are you using Windows 8 native Viber app from store or the app downloaded from official site? My trick will work for the downloaded app and native app I’m not sure of. I’ve never tested it too.

      Thanks


      • Misako

        I’m using the app downloaded from the site. The only problem is that no images appear at all. 🙁


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