[Q] Problem with contacts backup restore in 2.1 - XPERIA X10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Before upgrading to 2.1, I used the backup and restore app to backup all contacts.
After upgrading, I chose restore. The process ran smoothly from the beginning, but stayed for a long while at 93%, and then reported "Finished". Checked my phonebook - no contacts.
I have been doing regular backups, so I tried using an older backup file. Same problem - the app does not pass 93%. No contacts.
Does anyone have the same problem? Know how to solve it?
I also have backups as vcard and SE sync, but those do not seem to backup everything.

I was about to post when I found this thread.
Before moving on to 2.1, I would like to backup my messages, contacts, etc. Could anyone of you suggest an application which *WORKED* while moving to 2.1? Which app you used and was the restore done correctly using it?
Thanks in advance.

all msges were deleted, but i got all my contacts back trough gmail, i allways sync it with that, its fast and easy, thanks to that option i recovered my contacts over 20x allready the last months

Actually my gmail has around 1000s of contacts which I dont want to move to my phone. So I would like to use a backup app. Anyone who used a backup app successfully, please suggest.
Thanks.

Testing as we speak...
* SE sync: Too unstable. Some contacts are duplicated, some contacts are not duplicated but their data entries are (2x same phone number etc). Does not treat addresses or middle names well.
* Gmail: You can create groups and sync only those groups (or one group) that you need on your phone. However, with 1.6 I was not able to sync 2-way with gmail. Updates on gmail account would not update on the phone. Also does not treat first name/surname well.
* Standard backup and restore app: Well, as mentioned above... Restore of contacts does not work in my case!
* Export contacts to vcard or similar (from contacts app -> choose backup): Quickest and most accurate so far. Does not maintain links to facebook, twitter, possibly not contact images. But otherwise the most reliable service in my case.

murmeljenta said:
However, with 1.6 I was not able to sync 2-way with gmail. Updates on gmail account would not update on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never had this problem with 1.6, I used to make updates to my contacts and calendar items on my gmail account and it would instantly update on my phone and vice versa.

mith500 said:
Never had this problem with 1.6, I used to make updates to my contacts and calendar items on my gmail account and it would instantly update on my phone and vice versa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here, it works both ways.

mith500 said:
Never had this problem with 1.6, I used to make updates to my contacts and calendar items on my gmail account and it would instantly update on my phone and vice versa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Always worked a treat for me.
The only issue I have is when I create a contact on my phone, it doesn't create it into one of my sync'd groups which then gets removed. I have to then go into gmail to assign it to a group which will then sync back.
Still, Gmail is by far the best thing to use to sort contacts!

Still it wont save my messages. Therefore I want to know if anyone tried a backup app.

Lots of people have had problems with Gmail contact sync working only one way. Could have something to do with combining with SE sync.
Gmail contact sync seems to work perfectly on 2.1 (after 3 hours...)
The-Lord: The built-in backup and restore app had no problems with restoring 7 months of text messages. If you want to be sure you don't loose contents, you could back up your texts to Gmail first, using the free app SMSBackup.

If you need to backup and restore your contacts use MyPhoneExplorer.
It now supports Android and runs over WiFi.

SOLVED
I had this same problem, restore the contacts as normal, if you have favourites check the favourites folder in phone-book or go to text messages and press new message, find or type a contact you have, press on the contact open it and save it this will refresh the phone-book list, exit the application, turn on and off phone all contacts should reappear. BAM Saved. Not easy but worked for me.

asmanthebell said:
I had this same problem, restore the contacts as normal, if you have favourites check the favourites folder in phone-book or go to text messages and press new message, find or type a contact you have, press on the contact open it and save it this will refresh the phone-book list, exit the application, turn on and off phone all contacts should reappear. BAM Saved. Not easy but worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you do this through the stock messaging app? and when u look up the contact in messaging, u say click on it and open it, but do u mean just open it up to where its a new message? and then save the message? thanks for the help ahead of time though.

asmanthebell said:
I had this same problem, restore the contacts as normal, if you have favourites check the favourites folder in phone-book or go to text messages and press new message, find or type a contact you have, press on the contact open it and save it this will refresh the phone-book list, exit the application, turn on and off phone all contacts should reappear. BAM Saved. Not easy but worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not working for me. anybody else with a solution? Need help

Prior to upgrading to Nordic, I used MYBACKUP PRO to backup contacts, msgs and call log etc. After completing the upgrade I did a restore and everything was restored apart from my Contacs. I kept trying but with no luck. After an hour or so I tried again and the contacts were restored. I think you have to leave the phone to settle down prior to doing a restore. Hope this is of some help

macr59 said:
Prior to upgrading to Nordic, I used MYBACKUP PRO to backup contacts, msgs and call log etc. After completing the upgrade I did a restore and everything was restored apart from my Contacs. I kept trying but with no luck. After an hour or so I tried again and the contacts were restored. I think you have to leave the phone to settle down prior to doing a restore. Hope this is of some help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already tryed it several times... nothing is working...

minimannb said:
Already tryed it several times... nothing is working...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Solved. Installed 2.1 again and all was fine. also solved laggy issue.

Resolved Issue! Here is HOW!
To backup your contacts before upgrading to 2.1 Nordic, you need to save them from the phonebook app to the memory card BEFORE upgrading.
I had to downgrade my phone to 1.6, run the restore, save them to memory card, then re-upgrade to 2.1 nordic and import them from memory card and it worked very will.
I had to do this 2 times for both mind and my wife's x10 phones!
The restore function does work fine in 2.1 after importing from memory card. I believe the records that are saved for the contacts are different from 1.6 to 2.1. there may be an additional field that we don't know about.
So word to Caution: SAVE TO MEMORY CARD BEFORE upgrading to 2.1.
Cellphone Carrier: Rogers Wireless
Happy X10ing

The restore of the contacts DID work. It just restored to our google account. If you try to add new contacts you'll be notice that the phonebook wil ask you where to add, your phonebook or your google account. You could change the phonebook content by clicking three man pics at the top left of your phonebook. Hope this will help.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

Related

[Q] Sync/Nandroid Issue

Did a full nandbackup and have checked back with my original eris 2.1 which has my most current google contact list and my stored text messages.
When i check the last time i google sync'd my contacts to the exchange server (on original eris 2.1 setup) it says 9/29/10 (today) but when I flash my new kaosfroyo the contact list does not include any additions ive made since i purchased the phone.
All contacts were always saved in the google contact list in an effort to backup data on a server instead of just the phone.
Would the best bet be to wipe the ROM and flash again and try to let google re-sync? Or is this an issue I will need to take up with Verizon (for the longest time it would say "this service is temp unavailable" in the sync options)?
Also, is it possible to have my text messages imported to my new ROM? Nandbackup apparently would not do this-possibly another sync issue?
Btw if this question has been asked I apologize - tried to search through these forums quite a bit to no avail. Any help for a first poster would be much appreciated.
I would have thought if your contacts are "Google" contacts, re-syncing your Google account would bring them all back in.
As to importing SMS/MMS (i.e. text messages and those with pictures) into a freshly flashed ROM, yes you can import them. I do that all the time. I have Titanium Backup installed and before I flash a new ROM I backup SMS/MMS, browser bookmarks, and email account settings. Once you have TB installed, the item you will be looking for to backup for SMS/MMS is called something like "[SMS/MMS] Dialer Storage". In the old ROM, you open TB and backup this item. Flash the new ROM, install TB. Open TB, restore "Data Only" for Dialer Storage and then reboot your phone. Do not open messaging app before you reboot the phone. After the reboot, all your backed up SMS/MMS should be there. The same process works for me for browser bookmarks and email account settings. However, I am not sure but I think backing up the email account settings only works for those accounts which are configured through the stock mail app vice being configured via Menu --> Accounts & Sync.
A word about Titanium Backup: the paid version of the app is well worth the money.
Can you verify that your contacts were synced properly, perhaps going into Gmail and assuring that all your changes are there. If they aren't go back to 2.1, sync again then reflash KaosFroyo. If your changes are there then you could try re-flashing anyways (you may try to reboot and resync first). As far as text messages, I'm not aware of anyway to back them up directly, but they're are great apps that can backup all SMS to your gmail account. Hope this helps a little, good luck!
Just downloaded Titanium and backed up all sms (after a long struggle w/ the app not recognizing that I DID check the allow foreign apps setting)
Will reflash tonight and hope that Google kept everything in order
Thanks for the replies... ill let you know how it turns out tomorrow
Looks like my "sync contacts" with google never officially worked. When I went back to my original eris setup with my current contacts it reverted back to saying last sync 03/xx/10.
I let the phone attempt to sync for nearly 2 hours and still no data sent... I searched through the forums and came across a post saying to flash a new radio in order to establish the connection with google. Are there any better resolutions to this problem or is this the best option?
I am still working on getting titanium to backup my messages - everytime I create a backup with my original eris setup it gives me full backup (160 data apps including sms and mms) but when i flash my new rom it says all data and apps restored to OS yet I still don't have my old texts.
kpd2003 said:
Looks like my "sync contacts" with google never officially worked. When I went back to my original eris setup with my current contacts it reverted back to saying last sync 03/xx/10.
I let the phone attempt to sync for nearly 2 hours and still no data sent... I searched through the forums and came across a post saying to flash a new radio in order to establish the connection with google. Are there any better resolutions to this problem or is this the best option?
I am still working on getting titanium to backup my messages - everytime I create a backup with my original eris setup it gives me full backup (160 data apps including sms and mms) but when i flash my new rom it says all data and apps restored to OS yet I still don't have my old texts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could always use the contacts app on the phone to export a vcard of your contacts and import it via gmail. I had to do this with my brothers CDMA hero because it just absolutely would not sync with gmail, it would add contacts from gmail to the phone but not the other way around. After we exported as a vcard and imported into gmail manually it has brought down the contacts every time since.
Looked around and found a neat little trick that apparently resets google sync
I used the manage apps and cleared all data for my SMS/MMS dialer storage
Rebooted then reloaded my gmail account and the sync error vanished
f yes
Also downloaded SMS/MMS backup and restore - other than some duplicated messages I now have all my texts.
Yaaaay now I can enjoy my new ROM

Contacts problem after 2.1

I backed up my contacts and text messages just before I did my 2.1 update. I tried restoring the contacts and nothing shows up in my phonebook. So I tried it a few times and still nothing.
But when I go into my messages and add recipient it shows my contacts and in fact shows them a few times because I tried the restore 4 times.
So 2 questions:
1. How do I get contacts to show in phonebook (yes I removed the battery and rebooted many times)
2. How do I clear the multiple entries?
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Jamolah said:
I backed up my contacts and text messages just before I did my 2.1 update. I tried restoring the contacts and nothing shows up in my phonebook. So I tried it a few times and still nothing.
But when I go into my messages and add recipient it shows my contacts and in fact shows them a few times because I tried the restore 4 times.
So 2 questions:
1. How do I get contacts to show in phonebook (yes I removed the battery and rebooted many times)
2. How do I clear the multiple entries?
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SE released an update to the backup and restore app but they failed to let anyone know that it just might be needed as after the update the default 2.1 app often fails to retrieve backups from 1.6. Lucky for me I caught the update before I moved to 2.1 generic. No big deal, but now I am unable to switch back to Rogers firmware (nothing lost really, but...)
As for the multiple entries - yeah, you get one for each synch account (google, SE, backup) and for each type (email, phone, ...) A little of a PITA but you can merge them.
rogem_kk said:
SE released an update to the backup and restore app but they failed to let anyone know that it just might be needed as after the update the default 2.1 app often fails to retrieve backups from 1.6. Lucky for me I caught the update before I moved to 2.1 generic. No big deal, but now I am unable to switch back to Rogers firmware (nothing lost really, but...)
As for the multiple entries - yeah, you get one for each synch account (google, SE, backup) and for each type (email, phone, ...) A little of a PITA but you can merge them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I had the latest backup and restore. How do I know if I have the latest backup and restore?
So what you're telling me is there is no fix for this. And I will have to it manually. OH GAWD....
How do I get my contacts that show up in the messaging app to show up in the phonebook. Without having to enter each one?
Perhaps you can do like this:
1. Make backup of your contacts in the Address book to a VCF file
2. Delete all contacts in the address book (open address book, press menu and select delete contacts (select all)
3. If you have a windows computer, import the VCF to outlook
4. Manually delete duplicates in outlook OR export to CSV (Comma separated Values) file
5. Import CSV to excel, delete duplicates and save as CSV again.
6. Import CSV to Outlook again OR just copy the CSV file to your phones memory card and the import it from Address Book again.
You can do more or less the same on Mac too.
Helpful ?
mattiL said:
Perhaps you can do like this:
1. Make backup of your contacts in the Address book to a VCF file
2. Delete all contacts in the address book (open address book, press menu and select delete contacts (select all)
3. If you have a windows computer, import the VCF to outlook
4. Manually delete duplicates in outlook OR export to CSV (Comma separated Values) file
5. Import CSV to excel, delete duplicates and save as CSV again.
6. Import CSV to Outlook again OR just copy the CSV file to your phones memory card and the import it from Address Book again.
You can do more or less the same on Mac too.
Helpful ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is, no contact actually show up when I press the phonebook icon.
BUT
if I go into Text Messaging and I press new message then press add recipient all my contacts show up.
How come it doesn't show up when I press the phonebook icon?
Somebody wrote the following, might be worth a try: (he did not say what the problem was)
Contacts: I had a problem restoring my contacts using Backup & Restore (the natural option you'd think) but after hours of futile attempts it turned out that you need to restore them from within the contacts (go to Contacts, Menu, Import Contacts), not Backup & Restore.
I found this in another thread, did you try it ?
Originally Posted by Jamolah View Post
"Same thing happened to me. I did a backup just before the install. After the install I do a restore and I don't get my contacts. But if you go into your messaging and do new messages / add recipient. The contacts are actually there. But they don't show up in phonebook."
"I had the same problem, but then when i was at the phonebook, i just clicked the top left button [3 heads] and in the show contacts section, under phone contacts, click starred in Android and All other contacts and that should give you all the contacts."
mattiL said:
I found this in another thread, did you try it ?
Originally Posted by Jamolah View Post
"Same thing happened to me. I did a backup just before the install. After the install I do a restore and I don't get my contacts. But if you go into your messaging and do new messages / add recipient. The contacts are actually there. But they don't show up in phonebook."
"I had the same problem, but then when i was at the phonebook, i just clicked the top left button [3 heads] and in the show contacts section, under phone contacts, click starred in Android and All other contacts and that should give you all the contacts."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually this worked. But I had an option called 'ping chat' I clicked on that and my contacts showed up.
Thanks a lot man.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Thanks for reporting the success, someone else might find it useful.
Click on d left upper corner button in phonebook n select d rite contact provider i.e. Gmail or phone contacts etc. It will show u all contacts.
Thanks
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Jamolah said:
The problem is, no contact actually show up when I press the phonebook icon.
BUT
if I go into Text Messaging and I press new message then press add recipient all my contacts show up.
How come it doesn't show up when I press the phonebook icon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem with my X10 mini pro. At last, I delete all my contact and manually write again 1 by 1. So sad. Fortunately I still have backup in my X10i. If there is a solution. Next time it will help.
Gunawan-GN Multimedia-X10i
mattiL said:
I found this in another thread, did you try it ?
Originally Posted by Jamolah View Post
"Same thing happened to me. I did a backup just before the install. After the install I do a restore and I don't get my contacts. But if you go into your messaging and do new messages / add recipient. The contacts are actually there. But they don't show up in phonebook."
"I had the same problem, but then when i was at the phonebook, i just clicked the top left button [3 heads] and in the show contacts section, under phone contacts, click starred in Android and All other contacts and that should give you all the contacts."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had Exactly the same problem and after a lot of fruitless searching and messing with the phone settings i ended up with the same solution as above.
Just posting to confirm the above works.
I'm gonna post the solution as a separate thread for others.
I had a similar problem so I went back to my backup and restored the contacts again. Problem is, now every contact has every number email, address, address, etc twice!
How can I fix that?
I had a similar problem so I went back to my backup and restored the contacts again. Problem is, now every contact has every number email, address, address, etc twice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ran into this problem, did restore from Backup and restore several times, got some contacts back, not all, with many duplicate numbers.
This is what I did, I was the one who posted this in another thread, btw:
Contacts: I had a problem restoring my contacts using Backup & Restore (the natural option you'd think) but after hours of futile attempts it turned out that you need to restore them from within the contacts (go to Contacts, Menu, Import Contacts), not Backup & Restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are sure you have the backup on your SD card (it should be under sdcard/system/PIM/PIMXXXXX.vcf where X is the number ie 00001.vcf, etc)
Go to phonebook, contacts, menu, delete contacts.
After that:
Menu, Import contacts, Memory Card, Phone contact, then choose the backup if you have more than one backup made.
That's what I did and all my backups were restored.
different take on problem
I have my phonebook contacts working totaly fine.
my problem is when I go to add contacts when making a sms message the contacts there are not only what is in my phonebook but MANY WEBSITES (craigslist, email contacts and the like). I cannot seem to find an option for doing multiple deletion's.
cleaned sd card (as in deleted crap folders) - looked for file or folder where this information would be stored - no luck
am on xperia x10a - droid 2.1

Gmail and phonebook contacts issue

Hi,
Ill try to explain everything properly.
Basically I reflashed my phone.
I made a backup of my contacts via memory card, and was hoping everything in gmail would be ok and that it would sync everything back the way it wad before reflashing. BUT
I reflashed and it did sync, but I found I had many contacts missing.
The missing ones I found where all my new contacts that had been saved since 2.1 update- hence I realised that when I saved a new contact I should NOT have selected "phone contact" and I should have been selecting "gmail contact." these options were never available in 1.6
So now basically what happened was I imported contacts from sd card and ended up with double copies and everything was screwed. So I spent ages going through phonebook and edited over 200 contacts individually but I deleted gmail section and now every contact is under "phone contact" and won't sync with gmail and I can't find an option to change it to gmail contact.
Basically. Help please!
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
well i dunno if you first download the b&r update and make a backup, cause i havent a problem, a psible solution if you sync wiht gmail, checkit on a pc, if u have a older bakup just restore contacts or use facebook sync or cry cause i dunno if recurva works to recover that info
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

Need a Backup-Restore program 4 Contacts...

Hi Friends,
I am having a serious problem with contacts syncing, backup-restore...
I like trying new build android OSs & therefore I need a backup-restore application for contacts, but I can not get a perfect solution up to now...
Even gmail syncing is a disaster for me.. I don't know which way is main, phone or gmail contacts? Sometimes it is bullshitting, syncing but not all groups, no sync for photos of contacts...
My experiences:
1- MyBackupPro-v3.8: Sometimes not restoring groups, & very very slow restore
2- SpriteBackup-v2.5.0.188: Sometimes not restoring groups, & very very slow restore
3- ContactsBackupPro-v2.5.4: Restoring groups but adding " character on contacts which are not having anything on Notes section & put themon a new group "
4- Some others are having problem as restoring contact numbers; ie, I am saving my contacts as a +XX YYY ZZZ ZZZZ format, but they are restoring contacts with +XXYYYZZZZZZZ format... & some of them are not restoring saved photos for contacts.
5- PC based backup-restore: Wondershare MobileGo-v1.1.0.111 is backing up, but with destroying the number format as I've just told...
Anyway, is there any contacts backup-restore program that allows you to (correctly) do restore groups + number format + without adding anything?
Finally, I met with android with MIUI, & I miss the Backup program of MIUI's own backup application, it was very perfect.
No advice at all!!
You might want to try manually doing my making a .csv file and importing and exporting to the phone.
In my opinion, people that say that GMail conmtact sync is not working they haven't set it up right...
lostcausenjtown said:
You might want to try manually doing my making a .csv file and importing and exporting to the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you but I tried that also, photos are not backed up that way.
Have you tried the actual contacts app import/export? I'm not sure what info is saved by this method but I was assume it'd be a full backup.
Also, this is somewhat related so I just want to mention...
on Wednesday the Google server went wacky and I lost about 3/4 of my contacts from the cloud. I went crazy trying to find a fix but nothing... then I got onto Gmail from the desktop. There is a contacts restore feature, to any time from the past 30 days. I just went to restore to Tuesday, and everything was back. Saved me!
Like amnigo said try the built in import/export function. You can find it from the contacts app menu.
Also the problem you stated about '+XX YYY ZZZ ZZZZ format, but they are restoring contacts with +XXYYYZZZZZZZ format' you should be able to use this Contacts Clean-up (I can't liunk it since I'm a new user so search for it in the android market) I had the same type of problem too and managed to fix it with this.
Try this
Am using this and works well
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idea.backup.smscontacts&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5pZGVhLmJhY2t1cC5zbXNjb250YWN0cyJd
Hey, can anyone tell me any app that makes contacts backup with all the high quality images in the ics contacts, i tried a lotta apps and import/export and the gmail sync but the picture quality is reduced in those
jawadkho said:
Like amnigo said try the built in import/export function. You can find it from the contacts app menu.
Also the problem you stated about '+XX YYY ZZZ ZZZZ format, but they are restoring contacts with +XXYYYZZZZZZZ format' you should be able to use this Contacts Clean-up (I can't liunk it since I'm a new user so search for it in the android market) I had the same type of problem too and managed to fix it with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this & tried as well, but as you said, it changes the format & contacts clean-up sometimes does not work (may be some interfere with the rom build, I don't know!)
vndkmr97 said:
Am using this and works well
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idea.backup.smscontacts&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5pZGVhLmJhY2t1cC5zbXNjb250YWN0cyJd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have tested this also but this does not restore groups...

Backing up contacts to Google

Hey XDA!
I have a rooted Samung Infuse with AT&T and am currently running ZEUS with few problems. I love this ROM but I am going to switch up and flash a newer ROM within the next few days. However, (back in January) before I got ZEUS, I went from the Stock ROM to MIUI and I used Titanium Backup to transfer all of my data. When I backed up contacts in the Stock ROM through Titanium and tried to restore them once I had MIUI, I kept getting force close messages that made the phone unusable because they were so frequent. I isolated the problem to be related with contacts and just deleted my saved contacts. The problem went away, but I ended up switching to ZEUS later, now with no contacts.
Anyway, I don't know if that was a random occurrence that happened only to me in my flashing process, but to avoid anything like that again, I'd like to be able to backup my contacts to Google. I've seen it mentioned several times here and on Google's site, but never did I find a how to or any sort of procedure. Can someone explain to me (as comprehensively as possible) how to backup my contacts to Google?
Any guidance or redirection would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Actually, you only need to activate the sync option on Settings >Sync (or account settings, I dunno). All your contacts will be uploaded to your GMail account, and downloaded to your phone the next time
You can also make a manual backup, doing this:
Go to Phone >Contacts >press Menu key >Import/export >export contacts to SD. So, when you need your contacts, follow the same procedure, choosing now Import contacts from SD.
RoberGalarga said:
Actually, you only need to activate the sync option on Settings >Sync (or account settings, I dunno). All your contacts will be uploaded to your GMail account, and downloaded to your phone the next time
You can also make a manual backup, doing this:
Go to Phone >Contacts >press Menu key >Import/export >export contacts to SD. So, when you need your contacts, follow the same procedure, choosing now Import contacts from SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot! I tried every manner of playing with the settings possible. I had the account sync multiple times, but none of the contacts actually stored when I checked on a computer. I'm just gonna settle with the backups from Titanium, my SD card, and my Sim. No worries!

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