[Kde-pim] Moving pim data to new kde install

[Anne Wilson]

On Thursday 03 Nov 2011 Denny Beyer wrote:
> Hi Anne,
> thanks for joining in the discussion, see comments below
> 
> On 3 November 2011 12:36, Anne Wilson <annew at kde.org> wrote:
> > On Thursday 03 Nov 2011 Denny Beyer wrote:
> > > Dear all,
> > > after a new installation, I started moving my existing data to the new
> > > machine.
> > 
> > It's hard to help without knowing what version of KDE and Kontact are on
> > the
> > new machine.
> 
> Ah, sorry, you're right:
> KDE 4.7.2 in both cases. The old machine just had some history in trying to
> keep my personal data together from version to version, which is quite some
> task for kde users.
> 
In many respects that makes it easier - no version dissimilarities.  If you 
got Kontact working before it should be easy to get it working  again.  Can I 
take it that you are using KMail 1, not the new KMail 2?  Most distros are 
playing safe and staying with the older version as there are some serious 
problems still with KMail 2.

> > > Here is the status of what I found out and got working so far.
> > > 
> > > eMail
> > > - not tried yet and not sure how to do it
> > 
> > Common places for mail are ~/Mail and ~/Maildir - can you see messages in
> > either of those places, if so, copy them to the new machine.
> 
> I will look into this later, but just moving those directories won't give
> me a working kmail2 on the new machine, right? There are more config files
> for kontact/kmail etc. Which seems not really documented somewhere.
> 
Yes it is :-)  Try 
http://userbase.kde.org/KMail/FAQs_Hints_and_Tips#Transfer_mail_and_settings_to_another_computer_.28or_another_user_account_on_the_same_machine.29
(I wrote much of that :-) )  There is also the matter of making your resources 
point to the correct places but if you are, as I believe from what you have 
written, on the old-style Kontact only the addressbook is Akonadi enabled.

> > > contacts
> > > - all data is stored as single vcf files (one file per contact) under
> > > .local/share/contacts/private/
> > > - copying those files to the new machine to the same location and the
> > > adding a new address - source in KAddressbook pointing to this
> > > directory makes akonadi to crash
> > 
> > Maybe when adding the resource you chose the wrong type?  It needs to be
> > of the type Folder.
> 
> I expected that and therefore tried all available types - no luck. I'm not
> even sure, which is the recommended file format.
> 
When you add a resource that is to point to that location, the type should be 
Folder - as it is a folder containing many separate files.

> > > calendar
> > > - all calendar data is stored in .local/share/calendar/private which is
> > 
> > an
> > 
> > > vcs/ics - file
> > > - copying those files to same location on the new machine
> > > - adding a new calendar resource in KOrganizer (Kontact) and pointing
> > > to the file (added as iCal file)
> > > => Success: Calendar entries are shown as expected.
> > 
> > Good.
> 
> Yes, still the warning of not touching data in this directory is a bit
> confusing.
> 
I haven't seen that, but probably means that you shouldn't attempt to directly 
change data there (in a file manage, that is).  If you have checked that you 
can write a new entry you should be fine.  The problem most often met is if the 
new distro gives you a different UID, so that you don't own the old files.  (Ask 
if you are not sure what this means.)

> > > notes
> > > - still trying, no success yet. Lost all data several times already in
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > > past.
> > 
> > Not sure - I think that is KNotes.
> 
> Yes, it's knotes
> 
> >  Have you checked that KNotes is installed?
> 
> Is installed an running. Would it appear in Kontact, if it wasn't
> installed?
> 
That I don't know.  In some cases stubs are mounted in a container program 
like Kontact - but probably not in this case.

If I were in your situation I'd try writing a new note, of no importance, and 
then checking where it is written to disk.  Are other notes visible in the 
same directory (in Dolphin)?  If your old notes are in the same directory on 
the old system, copy them across, making sure that you do have read/write 
permissions to them.

> > Probably you need to look for something like ~/.knotes on your old
> > machine.
> 
> I also tried to keep all files under .local/share/notes/ for ease of backup
> personal data. But the folders are very confusing. There are 3 folders
> inside, some of them are named with some random Letter/Number series.
> 
It's difficult to advise without seeing them.  If there is nothing on the screen 
to identify you or your system, please post a screenshot on imagebin.org or if 
you would rather not do that, send one to me off-list and I'll try to explain 
what you are seeing.
> 
> We had the discussion of how migrating my data here serveral times here.
> Mostly because of a failing migration assistant, this is just another
> attempt to get a clean cut from old desktop settings but still taking all
> personal data across to the new version.
> 
Hmm - if you are migrating to the new version, then each part has moved to 
Akonadi, and the most likely thing is that the resources are not correct.  
It's going to be difficult for me to advise you, as I had so much problem with 
KMail2 that in the end I was forced to downgrade, waiting to try again later.  
Inevitably that means that I can't use my own system to try to find what's 
happening on yours.  Sorry.

Anne
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