Amending reply: (read all the way down as I think I figured this out) I decided to check some of my own advice. I signed out of YM8.x and then sorted my Messenger folder by Date Modified. I then signed back into YM and sent an IM to zyxwvutsrqp. The only folder modified was the Cache folder so it seems that the history list is somewhere in the Cache folder. For some reason, even though I typed that abstract name (actually the alphabets backwards to "p"... lol), it did not save that name. I wonder if someone needs to reply before it saves the nickname??? I even tried closing YM and reopening it to see if it had saved it then but still not saved. I also wonder if it only saves history of folks in your friends list/address list?
Besides the fictitious name above, I also IM'ed your yahoo email addy and neither of them were saved in my contact list history so I guess I have to wait until either you answer or I IM someone else new and then check. And then add them as a friend and then check. So far, each time I re-start YM, the only folder that is modified is the Cache folder but once again, I do not see any of the new names I've tried IM'ing being added to my contact history list. I guess once you reply, if you do, I will be able to check the Cache folder for the most recently updated actual data file. Inside my Cache folder, there are 5-6 files that are changed each time I sign into YM and I've opened each of those files with Notepad but they are strictly garbled text with no reference to any contact names so I'm not sure if one of them contains the names in computer code. Once I get a reply from you, and if your name then shows up in my contact history list, I'll know better if or which file holds that information. OK. I just did a test using two of my computers and chatting between them on a Yahoo ID that I've never used for IM'ing before. Once I replied to myself, the name was added to my contact history list. When I just IM'ed and did not reply, the name was not added. The ONLY file that I saw that was modified was in the Cache folder, after I replied, started with a series of letters/numbers, along with those same 5-6 other Cache files that get modified each time one signs into YM, but it ended with ".Display.dat" where the other files starting with the same series of letters/numbers ended with other file names. I'm hoping that YM9 works the same as YM8 for this data. If you find that file, which you can by sorting the files by Date Modified, try deleting it and that should do the trick but if you deleted your entire Cache folder already, that should have deleted that file... BUT I DO NOT SUGGEST EVER DELETING JUST THE CACHE FOLDER IN A WORKING YAHOO MESSENGER UNLESS YOU ARE DOING A FULL UNINSTALL AND REINSTALL SINCE THERE ARE MANY OTHER FILES IN THE CACHE FOLDER AND DELETING THEM ALL FROM AN INSTALLED YM COULD CORRUPT THE PROGRAM. When I examined that ".Display.dat" file, using NotePad, there were no actual contact names but rather what looks like computer code for what could be contact names with each "name" actually being a series of letters/symbols, followed by: My_Type=2 My_State=1 My_LastState=1 ForcedClose=1 OtherType=2 Other_State=1 then another probably contact name but in code made up of letters/symbols, followed by the same My_Type, etc. There is a LONG list of these probably contact names made up of letters/symbols so this is probably the file but I'm not certain. Lenny Vasbinder http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com FREE and automatic online remote backup of your documents, photos and files... https://mozy.com/?ref=SY4ZSI Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy remote backup system. Mozy will back up your most important files and folders every day/night while you aren't using your computer. -----Original Message----- From: LNVTM1 [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:12 AM To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: [Y!M] upgraded to IM9 and my archived messages are gone...!!! OK. Since you are also mentioning AVG and it's "vault", then it sounds like it's something that AVG did, rather than the installation of YM-9.x, since I do not know of a "vault" any where in YM but I haven't used YM9 yet so I guess there could be one. I use to use AVG but when they had issues with one of their previous versions, maybe when I upgraded from AVG7 to AVG 8, I quit using it so I do not recall all of the intricacies of AVG but most AV programs have a way of either saving a file into the "virus vault" or it can shred/delete the file. Those are usually user controlled settings so I'm not sure if you had your AVG set up to shred/delete, rather than just save the file. Other security programs, like an anti-spyware, etc., might also have a "vault" for quarantined files so if you have any other security programs running, check their "vaults" as well. Did you check your Recycle Bin to see if all of the Archive/sub-folders were in there? Hopefully, you haven't emptied your Recycle Bin recently. In thinking about this while I was typing the above, what I think might have happened was that the default setting for all previous versions of YM was to NOT have Archiving turned on so when you installed YM9, if you did not immediately go into your preferences to save your archives... and presuming the default setting was to NOT save archives, then if/when you closed YM that first time, it would have deleted all of your archives. I'm still not sure why AVG or any other anti-malware programs would have jumped into the equation. Of course, my firewall always gets involved when I'm installing a new program but if my anti-virus got involved, that would mean there may not be something right with the program. Did you download YM9 from a reputable site like FileHippo.com or other reputable location? Now... the good news is that maybe the files have not been completely shredded/deleted yet so there are free programs to find files that have been accidentally deleted.... as long as you haven't done a defrag on your hard drive. One such program is Recuva, now owned by Piriform, the makers of CCleaner. http://www.piriform.com/ or the direct link to Recuva, http://www.recuva.com/ I haven't had to use this Recuva program before but I've seen it and a couple of others mentioned many times over the years in various forums. I do use other Piriform products such as CCleaner. Here is a Yahoo Group for computer help for issues such as yours, since I don't think it's a Yahoo Messenger issue any longer. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/computer_help_and_discussion Recuva.com also has a user support forum so if you decided to use it, go to their forums first and start a thread to get help from folks who use it and are more knowledgeable about trying to save your files. Last, but not least, and for others reading this post, back in 2007, I wrote up a detailed blog about installing/upgrading Yahoo Messenger and in my blog, I talk about copying and saving your Archive file folder to another folder, like the My Documents folder, prior to doing a clean uninstall and reinstall, etc. While versions have changed, the article is still on point for anyone wanting to do a clean install of YM. http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-i-always-do-clean-instal-ofl- yahoo.html Lenny Vasbinder http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com FREE and automatic online remote backup of your documents, photos and files... https://mozy.com/?ref=SY4ZSI Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy remote backup system. Mozy will back up your most important files and folders every day/night while you aren't using your computer. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeri Zipfel Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 1:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Y!M] upgraded to IM9 and my archived messages are gone...!!! Hi, Thank you for the email back to me.. Yes I upgraded to IM version 9.0.0.2125.(had it given me a warning about the archives, I would have made sure I backed up) The folder is truly empty... I was looking at the archives just the day before. I did get a pop up window telling me to go to the 'vault', pick the file and then click on restore. I can only find one vault... the virus vault with AVG. I did contact their tech department. I got a generic email about no known issues. I just have an encouraging conversation on IM and that is what I lost. My settings are set to archive all conversations..... Take care, Jeri :) --- On Mon, 5/4/09, LNVTM1 <[email protected]> wrote: From: LNVTM1 <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [Y!M] upgraded to IM9 and my archived messages are gone...!!! To: [email protected] Date: Monday, May 4, 2009, 10:33 PM When you say "IM9", do you mean YM9... Yahoo Messenger version 9x? I just want to be sure. Have you actually navigated to your Archive folder to see if the .dat files are still there... or not? Here is the file path for your Archive... C:\Program Files\Yahoo! \Messenger\ Profiles\ (your yahoo ID), then you will see your Archive folder and inside that folder is a folder for Messages and another for Conferences. If you open the Messages folder, you will then see separate folder for every yahoo ID which you've chatted with. Switch the folder view to the "Details" view on the View Menu. Click on the top of the column for "Date Modified" and that will sort your IM's into chronological order. Click again and it will bring the most recent IM folders to the top. Are you really missing them or maybe your install of YM9 was corrupted and just will not open the IM folders or maybe you didn't set your preferences to archive new IM sessions? I'm guessing, like most of us, that you do not back up your computer on a daily basis. Check out Mozy https://mozy. com/?ref= SY4ZSI <https://mozy.com/?ref=SY4ZSI> as a safe and secure and reasonably easy way to back up your most important files. It's FREE for the first 2GB of data which is a lot for family photos, documents, email, your YM archives, etc.... but not for folks that have lots of music, movies, games, etc. Mozy automatically backs up your files on a daily basis or even as you save them if you set up Mozy to do it that way. I have it set to back up twice a day. For those folks, they can buy the unlimited backup Mozy for only $4.95 a month. And in the interest of full disclosure, yes, Mozy has a referral program where if one of your friends or referrals signs up for the FREE service, you get more storage for free. I have the paid version on one of my computers but still use the FREE version on one of my other computers and I'm up to 7GB of FREE online backup with that one now. ;-) I've tried Carbonite, another online backup service, but found it wasn't as easy to use as Mozy and the last time I checked, they didn't have a FREE version. Sorry.. didn't mean to get off topic but everyone should have one or more backup systems in place for their computer's data. While most programs can be reinstalled in the event of disaster, many of the files in the folders for your Documents, Pictures, Music, etc. may not be easily replaced. Lenny Vasbinder http://lennyvasbind er..blogspot. com <http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com> FREE and automatic online remote backup of your documents, photos and files... https://mozy. com/?ref= SY4ZSI <https://mozy.com/?ref=SY4ZSI> Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy remote backup system. Mozy will back up your most important files and folders every day/night while you aren't using your computer. -----Original Message----- From: Yahoo_Messenger@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:Yahoo_Messenger@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Jeri Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 12:13 PM To: Yahoo_Messenger@ yahoogroups. com Subject: [Y!M] upgraded to IM9 and my archived messages are gone...!!! I upgraded to IM9 and without warning to back them up, they are now gone. I did get a pop-up window to go the the 'vault' to restore them. I cannot find the 'vault'. I asked AVG about this and they had 'no known issues' (whatever that means).... I do regularly backup my archives, although I have now lost very valuable information from the last few days. Please help, I am afraid to turn off my computer now in fear of permanently losing the file if it does still exist. Thanks, Jeri :(
