MobileSyncBrowser (MSB) Manual

The Basics:

How MSB works:

Every time you synch your iPhone or iTouch using iTunes, it not only moves media files back and forth, it also makes a backup of vital settings and preferences.
MSB carefully reviews and interprets these files to give you access to the most commonly sought after data, namely, your Notes, your Call History and your SMS messages. By leveraging these backups, MSB allows all users access to this information without having to jailbreak or otherwise tamper with their devices!

* IMPORTANT: The safety of your data is your sole responsibility; always take steps to backup the contents of your hard drive on a regular basis. Many factors including, but not limited to, physical damage or data corruption may prevent you from accessing your data.

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The steps are as follows: (A nice graphic will added to this text soon)

A- When iTunes detects and synchs your device, it makes a backup of its data.

Because of this, it is important to point out that if you do not synch with iTunes, changes in your phone will not be reflected in MSB! See the Troubleshooting section for a discussion of steps to take if iTunes does not backup properly.

B- When you run MSB, it reads this backup and displays your data.

How often you synch iTunes and MSB is up to you and of course, when circumstances require, such as: you need to transfer information or you are reaching your SMS message limit and wish to archive them before deleting any important conversations.

If MSB is registered:

C- MSB adds any new data to its own archive, separate from iTunes' backup.

At this point, if you confirm your data is viewable in MSB, you can delete it from you device.*

D- You can export data as text files for use in other programs or as an extra level of security for your most important data.*

When registered, MSB archives your device's data automatically every time it is run. You do not have to export data unless you need to process the data further or want an extra copy for safekeeping.*

Downloading and Installation:

Requirements:

As a rule, MSB requires an iPhone-capable version of iTunes (7.3.x and greater) to operate, so the requirements of the latter apply:

MAC DOWNLOAD Requires Mac OS 10.4.10
WINDOWS DOWNLOAD Requires Windows XP SP2

As of version 0.7, MSB for Mac is provided solely as a PPC binary to keep the download size small- testing suggests that running MSB under Rosetta does not impact performance enough to warrant the bigger Universal Binary download.

Navigation and Use:

Conceived as a cross-platform utility, the navigation in MSB is modeled after the iPhone interface to be as intuitive as possible to all users on both Mac and Windows platforms.

When launched, MSB immediately seeks out iTunes' backups and begins scanning through many files to locate the ones it needs and a progress bar is displayed. Normally this process should not take more than a few seconds per device. If you get an error on startup, see the Troubleshooting section.

Once finished; if MSB has found more than one device backup, the names of the devices are shown. If only one device has been backed up, it shows the contents of the device in list view.

To navigate the list view, you can use the arrow (cursor) and return keys or the mouse and scrollwheel to 'drill down' to the information you need. If your prefer to use a scrollbar, it can be enabled in the program's preferences. Moving up through the data is done using the 'back' button in the top-left of the MSB display.

Data display:

Once you are in the Data Display mode you can view the selected data store in your backup. If required, scrollbars are displayed, regardless of the scrollbar setting in the preferences, which applies only to the navigational 'list' view.

If you have a registered copy you can also export the data in different formats. Depending on the complexity of the data, you may opt to copy and paste smaller items such as notes or an individual contact, or use the 'Export' button for long lists, such as call logs and SMS conversations. Some exports may include your device's unique 40-character identifier for future features.

Viewing SMS Conversations:

The Apple iPhone stores 1,000 SMS messages, at which point it will not receive, store or backup any new incoming messages. MSB, when registered, will append any new messages found so you can keep these records on your host computer. This limitation has been set at 75,000 in firmware 1.1.3.

When viewing SMS, rolling over a 'bubble' will display the message time. This method of displaying the time-stamp will change in future versions. See NOTE below.

SMS Conversations are exported as Text documents with Timestamp, Number, Name, Message and Device ID fields. As these are easy to recognize, no column headers (titles) are output. These text documents can be viewed in a text editor or spreadsheet or database application.

NOTE: At the time of writing, the Windows version displays boxes, not bubbles. Also, all Windows and Unregistered Mac version do not display the message time.

Viewing Call History:

The Apple iPhone normally tracks your 100 most recent calls. MSB, when registered will append any new call records found so you can keep these records on your host computer.

Call logs are exported as text documents with Timestamp, Number, Name and Duration fields. As these are easy to recognize, no column headers (titles) are output.

Viewing Notes:

Notes can be selected and copied or exported as HTML documents. HTML documents can be viewed in a web browser or in the text editor of your choice.

Viewing Contacts:

Contacts as a rule are synched with your Address Book. MSB uses your contact list to display the names associated with Calls and SMS messages.

Preferences:

Customization:

MSB uses HTML in a small browser window to display the device data such as SMS. This method was chosen for its flexibility as it allows to control the appearance and formatting of this data by altering simple text files called 'stylesheets'. MSB creates these stylesheets in its preferences folder, located at:

Mac: /Users/<your user name>/Library/Preferences/MobileSyncBrowser/
Win XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\MobileSyncBrowser\
Vista: C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\MobileSyncBrowser\

There are two stylesheets; one for Windows and one for the Mac. Regardless of platform, both files are placed in the preferences folder and can be identified by their .css (Cascading Style Sheet) filename extensions. MSB under Windows uses the one named 'com.macsupport-pr.vIDT.IE6.css'.

If you are familiar with HTML and CSS you can edit these css files and the snippets.xml to tailor the appearance to your liking. If you wish to revert to the default style, read the next section, Preferences: Resetting.

Resetting:

MSB keeps an internal copy of all its default support files including preferences. If you delete any (or all) of the files in the MSB Preferences Folder (See 'Customization' for location), MSB will create a default version of the deleted file(s) the next time it is launched. NOTE: Deleting the .plist file will also unregister your application.

Ignore Contacts (Use Numbers):

MSB reads the backup of the device's Contact List to assign names to telephone numbers. Sometimes a very large or corrupted contact list can prevent scanning from completing or delay it considerably. Sometimes users prefer to display numbers and not names. In either case, you can disable the displaying of names (and scanning of the contact list) by selecting this option.

Show Scrollbars in Lists:

Optionally displays vertical scrollbar in the navigation list mode when required.

Telephone Format:

Breaking long numbers into small groups makes it easier for us to recognize and interpret numbers we know. Telephone numbers around the world have differing lengths and certain groups of digits within them have different meanings; some are important, others less so.

NEW: In versions 0.8.11 and greater, this field also tells MSB which digits are 'significant,' so dialing prefixes and country codes will not cause the same contact to be misclassified if dialed differently.

MSB is designed to allow you to change the formatting in preferences using a 'format string' for symbol substitution. Its is perhaps best explained with a few simple examples:

Thye symbol # (pound or hash sign) represents a number- if none is available in that position, it is left blank (empty):

Number: 345
Format: #####
Result: 345 (There are only 3 digits for the 5 positions.)

The symbol 0 (zero) also represents a number - if none is available in that position, a zero will be substituted:

Number: 345
Format: 00000
Result: 00345 (There are only 3 digits, so zeros are used to 'pad' the unoccupied positions)

You may add any other character or spaces to format your numbers, provided you place a backslash '\' character before it:

Number: 345
Format: \+\(00\)\ 000
Result: +(00) 345 (Here, we have added literal characters (the parentheses and plus sign) as well as spaces to make the number easier to read)

Troubleshooting:

NilObject and StageCode='' (blank) Errors:

These usually appear immediately upon launching MSB and appear to be very common under Windows Vista and iTunes 7.5, but occur with other versions and on the Mac, too.

These are almost all caused because MSB could not find a backup (and admittedly, fails to state the problem correctly); in turn, this is because iTunes never made the backup! In theory, iTunes updates this backup everytime it synchs, but sometimes doesn't. No simple explanation for this behaviour is known. Yet.

Screenshot of Syncing Preferences Pane in iTunes 7.5

To verify if this is the issue, go to iTunes' Preferences and select the 'iPhone' (or 'Syncing,' depending on your version) as see if it lists your device as having been backed up. If it is not, modify your synch settings (i.e. Switch the 'Sync Contacts' checkbox on or off or anything you feel is appropriate), apply and manually Sync. Once your device is listed as backed up, you should not get this error.

Performance Issues (Scanning Speed):

Some users have reported very slow scanning. If you experience very long (more than a minute) scans, please write giving as much detail about your system as you can. Also try 'Ignore Contact List' in the Preferences section to see if performance improves.

MAC: As of version 0.7, MSB is provided as a PPC binary to keep the download size small- testing suggests that running MSB under Rosetta does not impact performance enough to warrant the bigger download.

Registration Issues:

MAC: Some users report that some versions of MSB do not register/remain registered. This seems to happen exclusively under Mac OS X Leopard. Please use versions 0.8 and above if you are having this issue.

NOTE: All versions require re-registering if you download and install a new version. This is normal, so keep your registration email handy when upgrading.

Frequently-Asked Questions:

I registered version 0.8.11 but the 'Export' button still reads 'Register'

This is a cosmetic bug that appears on some systems; the button still behaves appropriately when clicked. Since it does not change realiably, versions 0.8.15 simply display 'Export' but will take you to the registration pane... I hope this will be less confusing.

Can I edit and send my Notes back to my device?

This is not currently possible, although it is expected that future versions of iTunes (not MSB) will synch notes much as it does contacts and other information.

My non-Roman text (Chinese, Cyrillic) is displaying funny characters or question marks in the text export. Why is this?

Note: This issue was corrected; in versions 0.8.15 and above, MSB now outputs a properly flagged UTF-8 tet file. (When registered)

MSB should be saving text in UTF-8 encoding. However your text editor/word processing program has no way of knowing this, this will cause funny characters where you expect accented or non-Roman characters. Most editors have a method of selecting the encoding, consult your text editor's manual.

Some languages simply display question marks; I will be addressing this issue very soon. These languages should export properly using the HTML option. Option/Alt-click on Export and MSB will prompt you to save as HTML.

How can I save/print SMS conversations the way they are displayed in MSB?

Note: Thise issue has been corrected; in versions 0.8.15 and above, MSB now performs the step below and hands over the HTML to your default application. (When registered)

MSB normally exports as text for use in other programs, but can export SMS conversations as HTML. Use the following process and you can view and print your conversations using your web browser:

1) Option/Alt-click on Export and it will prompt you to save as HTML.

2) You should then save/move the HTML in a folder with the bubble images and stylesheets (either by saving directly in MSB's Preferences folder or creating a copy of this folder). See the 'Preferences' section of this manual for the name and location of the MSB Preferences folder on your system.

3) You can then open the exported HTML file in your web browser.

4) You can now:
a) save as a web archive or
b) print/save as a PDF.

As you can see, a little effort is required. I am studying ways to automate this process. Update: I have settled on a way to streamline the process and it will be in the next release.

Why do SMS messages 'to' and 'from' the same contact appear as TWO 'conversations'?

Note: Still working on correcting this.

This is due to minor difference in phone number formatting when an SMS message is received- using US phone numbers as an example, if you send a message to '(999) 123-4567' (as it appears in your contacts) and the reply is tagged by your phone company as '1 (999) 123-4567', any difference in prefixes or country codes can cause a mis-match.

Because of differences from country to country and from one phone company to the next, you must alter MSB's behaviour to suit your circumstances.

To do this, MSB must know how many digits are truly 'significant' and which numbers are not relevant. You can change this in the telephone number formatting option in Preferences, click here for more details.