How to Open .OLD file(s) of Blackberry Chat History on the Computer

I noticed something, my Blackberry was only saving the chat history for about a month. Each new month, the previous month's day's chat history would be getting wiped, as the new month's day's history was written. I was a bit concerned.

I opened the BB MicroSD card on the computer to access the history files. I noticed that apart from all the other contacts, this particular contact that I BBM a lot, had two files. One .CSV file and one .OLD file. I got investigating on Google, researching about what does the .OLD file actually means. I found that it is the old chat history and .CSV file is the current chat history being written.

Then I read that one .CSV file can only be of 147 KB and as soon as that file reaches that size, it gets converted to a .OLD file and a new .CSV file is created. When the new .CSV file reaches 147 KB, the previous .OLD file will be deleted and the .CSV file will become an .OLD file and a new .CSV chat history file will be created. This cycle keeps repeating.

I thought fine, I'll start saving the .OLD files on the computer before they are deleted and access the history from the computer but I had no idea about how to open .OLD files of Blackberry chat history and none of the website results Google was coming up with was helping.

Then I found my own way, using my own mind. I thought well the new file is a .CSV file. A .OLD file is a backup or an archive file and this file is an archive or a backup of a .CSV file. If the .CSV file opens in Microsoft Excel then that means that, the .OLD file should be able to open in Excel too.

This is what I did. I had a file called 2234533F.OLD (that is a made up BB pin number for illustration purposes only) and then I copied that .OLD file from the SD card to the computer. After that I renamed that file. I added .CSV after .OLD and now it looked like  2234533F.OLD.csv and I pressed enter. A prompt window came up saying the file may become unusable, but I pressed okay or yes. After that I saw that instead of a blank white image, the .OLD file had the image of the Microsoft Excel software. I clicked on it and yeah surely, the .OLD file opened in Excel displaying all the chat history.

This is for all of those people out there who are having trouble with Blackberry chat history .OLD files. Enjoy reading those memories. Good or bad.

Comments

  1. thanx a lot
    this is very useful

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  2. WOW !! you're smart !!

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  3. incredibly straight forward, exactly what i needed. thanks alot!

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  4. Gracias! Esta información era justo lo que buscaba acerca del historial de BBM :)

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  5. Ur welcome. Usted es bienvenido. :)

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  6. thanks.. it works....

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  7. hey there, i have a question. how do i rename the file so i can add the .csv? because in my desktop my file only shows as 22CA22DD, nothing else. when i click "properties" it does say its a .OLD file i just dont know how to change the name so i can add the .csv... could you help me please!

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  8. thank you very much!!

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  9. its simple. jus rename the file to 22CA22DD.csv.old :) add the csv if it is not there.

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  10. Thank u so much!
    ..i have a habit of keeping my msgs.

    btw r u able to keep ur normal sms' and transfer them the same way to the computer?

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  11. Ur most welcome. To be honest, I have never tried transferring text messages, since they are hardly ever important. Mostly, my BBM chats are the ones that are worth saving. :)

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  12. Thank you so much. I have been looking for the way to open the file but even google have no answer for it! It helps a lot!

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  13. How do I connect my BB MicroSD card to my computer?

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  14. Hi Becca, you should have a pc connector cable for BB. You connect that to your BB and the other end of the cable to your PC to access the card.

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  15. I want to ask..
    I just know that "21digit","sender PIN","receiver PIN","txt".
    Do you know about the 21digit at the 1st before comma..?
    I just know the 6digit in front that must be 'date'.
    Please tell me about this..
    Thankyou so much before.

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  16. Sorry I didn't quite get ur question?

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  17. You are a star!! ive been trying desperately to convert these files for a year! Thank you soo much xx

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  18. Brilliant Thanks!

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  19. waaaw.. I also just realize now that the history is only for a month :(
    thanks for the article, it works!! :D

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  20. Hey. This works only if you selected to save chat history to your SD card, right? If your chat history is saved in the device, this does not apply. Am I correct?

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  21. See, if the chat history is saved on the device, it doesn't matter. U can still connect the cable, access the device files using Blackberry Desktop manager, copy the file to the computer and use the method I have given here. As long as you have access to the .old file, it doesn't matter where you store it.

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  22. What if the previous .OLD file has been deleted too? i chatted a lot with my friends, so there are already .OLD files, i changed the extention like you did to .OLD.CSV , i found out that not all the previous chats was there.

    Maybe there were already .OLD files before the .OLD files i see right now. how can i get that previous .OLD files before the ones i have now?

    coz i need it so badly, thank you for the help!

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  23. I cannot find this .CVS and OLD file anyways . Please help me thanks!

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  24. So if the .old files get replaced by the new .old, it will be deleted and vanish from the world?

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  25. so thank you.. it's very usefull :D

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  26. when i rename it to .CSV.OLD it opens in notepad as junk chinese characters !!! plsss help me aisha asap

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  27. Okay um, is it default? As in when you click on the file, it automatically opens in notepad? Go to Windows Excel (I am sure you have it right?) and or download an excel reader from the internet and go in to that. Then click on open. Open the file from there. See if it opens? Otherwise tell me.

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  28. help mine does the same thing:( its an emergency

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  30. Awww haha! :D glad I could help Adham! :)

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  31. Thank you for this! :) <3 Can I add you on BBM? :)

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  32. Will I be able to see old messages even if they were deleted?

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  33. If you have enabled chat history to store your messages, then even if you delete messages from your 'chat window', they should be there.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, searching on google finally paid off :D.
      But let's say I want to save my chat history again do I overwrite the OLD.CSV file or do I make a 2nd OLD.CSV file?

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  34. how if i've just knew it and i very very need the old chat that had been deleted?

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  35. If you are going to save your chat history again, you'll auto overwrite the old again. Best is to import the file to computer. Save it. Then save it from your phone.

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  36. How do I find csv file on BBM for Android?

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  37. thanks for your tips :D

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