Read and extract data from .NBU Nokia Backup Files
If you have a Nokia mobile phone and have ever tried backing up data from your phone on to your PC, you’d have noticed the Nokia PC Suite creating a file called .NBU that contains a backup of your data. These .NBU files can be restored to your phone later using the PC Suite itself but the bottom-line is that you can’t extract pieces of data from that file.
Here’s what I mean: You can create an .NBU backup and restore it completely to your phone afterward. But you just can’t read an individual SMS message, contacts list data, graphic or theme from that backup. That means it’s pretty useless from one point of view. You could even face problems if you try to restore the backup to a phone of a different model.
Is there a way to make these files readable, you ask? Well, there is. Thanks to a third party software called Noki, it’s possible to view individual graphics, messages, drafts, contacts and other data from your backed up .NBU file. What’s more, you could even extract this data into a simple format. For instance, you could convert your contacts into a simple .csv/text/html file. Cool, isn’t it?
Noki, which tags itself as the Explorer for Nokia PC Suite files, can be downloaded from here. It does live up to its name by allowing you to extract all kinds of data from your Nokia mobile phone backup. Good luck!
Related posts:
- How to update the firmware of your Nokia mobile phone?
- “The Operation Could Not Be Completed” Error Message with Nokia Mobile Phones
- How to Backup and Restore Contacts, Files and Other Settings from your Nokia Mobile Phone?
- Six Things You’re Yet To Back Up and How To Back Them Up
- Download Free Nokia 6208c Themes
Unfortunately, such simple software is not free!
Seb
4 Jan 09 at 6:42 pm
oh Gosh..
is it realy not free.
can we have a trail version. somehow.??
bryan Zee
7 Feb 09 at 3:45 am
It could not open *.NBF file Which is in build backup fuction in nokia phone (Nokia 5310 Xpress|v 9.42) It open just nokia pc suit backup file( i think) & it take much time to load msg when massegs in phone memory of msgs more then then some MB (i have stored my msgs 10MB:more then 9535 MSGS +22 MMS included) & it took much time to create backup so it’s fact it’s take much time to load msgs.
Yerik
19 Feb 09 at 12:51 pm
Better solution is to get all your contents exported into a .csv file. wich can be later read easily by many softwares. or even simpl text file.
take back up and export the data same day ..soo all the back would be in csv file as well to review..
please let me know if u have further problems. Bryan.zee.zee@gmail.com
bryan Zee
19 Feb 09 at 6:55 pm
the supported backup file formats are:
1) .nbu file : pc suite v6.82 and later format
2) .nfb / .nfc file: pre pc suite 6.82 format
3) backup.arc file: phone memory backup file on the SD card
4) contacts.cdb file: symbian phonebook database
there’s also a backup file recovery complete guide.
marvin
3 Mar 09 at 3:00 pm
thank you
suicide
28 Jun 09 at 7:02 pm
Dear Sirs,
Just lost my Nokia phone. To get back my phone numbers from PC file file NOKIA E65…nbu used the software NOKI.
The problem is that it extracts the phonebook saying – phonebook (192) but then I only can see 50 persons/numbers. Where are the remaining as indeed I have 192? Anybody know anything to help me?
Much apreciated & Thanks
JONY
30 Jun 09 at 2:12 pm
Hi,
I took a peek inside my nbu file with an hexa editor and extracted successfully whatever file I wanted, the format is actually very straightforward, the “user files” part at least, I didn’t look at the way contacts, messages, etc… were stored but it’s probably as simple as the rest, that’s my first time at file format reverse engineering, and it’s kind of fun. ^^
I don’t know any programming language that are able to manipulate binary files yet but if I find time I’ll probably pick up perl or python and build a (free) parser. (not promising anything, time’s hard to find these days -_-), anyway for user files you better just copy/paste everything from your phone as it’s basically the way nokia pc suite does it (apart from embedding the whole thing in an useless proprietary format (they could at least compress it)).
If you’re worried about privacy (which is partly why the nbu format exist I believe…) just zip or rar your stuff with a key.
Hope I can find time to do this ^^
KY1S
5 Jul 09 at 8:38 am
thanks for this software..
red
23 Jul 09 at 8:05 pm
Great recommendation & it works. Hard time trying to find my “lost” Notes imported to E75 from E61i backup file. Now that I can read all those important notes using Noki..thanks
idabengt
24 Jul 09 at 10:05 pm
.NFB vs .NBF
———–
.nfb is a Nokia PC Suite (pre v6.82) backuped file which can be opened by Noki.
.nbf is a phone side backup file of Nokia – it’s a .zip file format. You an rename it to .zip and open it by any zip tool. Of course, the unzipped symbian contact database – Contacts.cdb still needs Noki to read and extract.
marvin
28 Jul 09 at 6:40 pm
Sir,
how 2 transfer or move my messages from nokia 3230 to nokia n73. Plz help me. Send ur reply on my mail id.
Dev
11 Sep 09 at 11:30 am
Text messages can only be restored via Nokia backup file (.nbu or backup.arc in sd card). Otherwise, you can convert them as readable format (.txt, .html etc) and read on the phone via proper readers.
marvin
27 Sep 09 at 6:58 pm
If you are looking for free alternative to this softeare try to find project “nbuexplorer” at sourceforge.
petrusek
3 Oct 09 at 3:21 am
I tried nbuexplorer but unable to get contacts. it’s showing photos, msgs but not contacts..any help will be appreciated..
Uttamraj
17 Nov 09 at 12:38 pm
Try to ask author (me) wia project’s web at sourceforge. It’s difficult to help without any contact.
petrusek
17 Nov 09 at 3:20 pm
You can use NbuExplorer guys…It’s freeware and portable..
Virus
24 Dec 09 at 8:07 am
i have bought blackberry 8900 curve.
the problem is that i am unable to syncro. my total contact from my nokia e61i to outlook or adress. i am loosing my muultiple mobile numbers saved in one name
pls help me out
HAIDERALI
4 Jan 10 at 12:45 am
You’d better copy out the contacts as vCard via PC Suite (or you can backup the content of the phone via PC Suite and extract contacts as vCard from the .nbu file using Noki (www.nokisoft.com)). vCard can keep multi-numbers of a contact and can be copied to your blackberry.
al_lea
6 Jan 10 at 6:54 am
I m a user of N70 nd while trying to backup my phone i had to stop dat process before it completed nd during this I hav lost all my data frm my sd card nd phone memory is absolutely fine. While trying to restore dat mmc card data in my phone i am not able to get dat back…… Can any1 pls help me in this regards?
Shahbaz
17 Jan 10 at 2:33 am
I m a user of N70 nd while trying to backup my phone, unfortunately i had to stop dat process before it got completed nd during this I hav lost all my data frm my sd card but the phone memory is absolutely fine.MMC card shows dat there are data in it but i cant see dat in my phone. While trying to restore dat mmc card data in my phone i am not able to get dat back. I have also tried noki but it cant read dat particular nbu file of (mmc card data). Can u pls help me in this regards? Hoping to get your reply asap.
Shahbaz
18 Jan 10 at 4:52 pm
> I have also tried noki but it cant read dat particular nbu file of (mmc card data)
Try the latest fix at http://www.nokisoft.com/support/noki-v2.1-setup-boy.zip. It’s fixed the issue reported by a customer with similar issue.
al_lea
21 Jan 10 at 4:21 am
NBU Explorer works, and how.I was stuck, as after losing my phone, the Nokia PC suite would not read my older back-up file, SourceForge’s NBUExplorer [http://sourceforge.net/projects/nbuexplorer/files/Releases/v113/NbuExplorer_v1.13.zip/download] did the job easily. Thanks KY1S
Kelly
26 Mar 10 at 6:40 pm
Try Noki Gems the NBU merger for SMS at http://www.nokisoft.com/nokigems
al_lea
3 Apr 10 at 7:21 am
Used NbuExplorer. Worked for me. Thanks virus.
Shabbir
3 May 10 at 8:14 pm
hi, is there a way to see what backups have been done in the past and where they are saved? I know I’ve done one, and now I want to find the file but am not sure where it is. All it says when I click on backup is “no phones are connected, connect your phone now”. I’ve lost my phone, so can’t connect anything, but just want to find the file. thanks
ollie
8 Jun 10 at 6:25 pm
@ ollie:
it’s usually in c:\document and settings\application data\Nokia with .nbu extension.
The “application data” folder is hidden by default. You need to set it to visible.
You can also search for *.nbu to find it.
al_lea
3 Jul 10 at 2:14 pm
Hi,
I am able to extract the nbu file. But phonebook contact shows 437 contact but am able to view only 50 of those. How can i get the remaining contacts. pls help
Anas Usman
2 Aug 10 at 7:35 am
Hi, same problem: only 50 contacts shown (this problem was also reported June 30th 2009. No solution found in this thread, or did I overlook?)
What to do?
Lou
27 Aug 10 at 12:33 pm
Hi, I can able to see only 50 contacts. Please help me to see all the contacts… Appreciate your Help!!!
Dev
1 Sep 10 at 9:21 am