bbb-ipd-vcf

Quick & dirty scripts to convert Address Book (Contacts list) from BlackBerry .bbb/.ipd backup (BB Desktop Software 7.1) to vCard .vcf files (for Android & other civilized phones).

Procedure

1. Install Lua (http://lua.org) and Go (http://golang.org).
2. Rename your BlackBerry Bold 9780 (08-12-2013).bbb to backup.zip.
3. Unpack backup.zip.
4. In file Manifest.xml, find fragment like this: <Database uid="125" recordcount="509">Address Book - All</Database>, then note the uid value (here: 125).
5. Find uid .dat file, e.g. Databases\125.dat (this is actually an .ipd formatted file).
6. Run: lua ipd2xml.lua 125.dat | go run xml2vcf.go > contacts.vcf.

Worked For Me™...

License

Unless otherwise noted, MIT/X11.

Bibliography

• IPD format:
  • http://darkircop.org/bb - "Blackberry IPD and service book editor" by a.bittau@cs.ucl.ac.uk, with C source code
  • https://code.google.com/p/bbipd - some draft docs on the format
  • http://code.google.com/p/ipddump - by , Java source code, New BSD license
  • I seem to recall that there were some rough docs on BB website, but don't remember where as of now.
  • (possibly useful: https://sites.google.com/site/ipdparse/faq - ?? but not tested/verified by me)
  • lot's of fun with a hex editor.
• thanks to Laurent Le Goff for https://bitbucket.org/llg/vcard

Cheers,
/Mateusz Czapliński.