My attempts to access "Car Minder" app on my iPhone 8 has been rendered useless by the latest update. Is the any assistance available for this message I receive when trying to open the app? "Car minder needs to be updated - The developer of this app needs to update it to work with this version of iOS.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
I've used this app for years and today at the gas station was just as disappointed as everyone else in this thread. I have years of records stored in there which I need.
I was able to access the raw data stored in SQL tables
The next step is to open that sqlite file on your computer. I used the free SQLiteBrowser software ( https://sqlitebrowser.org/ ) to open the file.
It helps to understand SQL and databases, however it's somewhat easy to decipher.
There are database tables and in these tables are rows of data.
table - car = list of your cars and their unique ID. You'll see that unique ID in the other tables
table - fillup = list of all your fill ups including date, gallon and price
table - record = list of service records. You need to match the data here with the "service" table
table - repair = list of repairs with description, date, and mileage
There are two other tables which you can ignore, sqlite_sequence and schema_info
It's worth noting the date fields are numbers. They are stored in the UNIX timestamp format. You can convert them (yes, one-by-one) using this online tool ( https://www.unixtimestamp.com/ )
Bws326, I did not have any experience either. I kept clicking and deciphering until I figured out the data is divided into service records and repairs. Then I had to decode the dates. It probably took me about 12 hours to decipher it all and put it in a spread sheet. 😳. I did a lot of searches on the web for answers as I encountered them. I bet you can decipher it with time as well.
I’m suffering with the same problem. The thing that amazes me is that there are no other similar apps in the App Store. CarMinder is the only one! How can that be? I downloaded an app called something like VMT, but it is solely focused on recording maintenance and costs (you can upload photos of invoices and receipts). That’s nice, but it doesn’t differentiate between maintenance and repairs, and it doesn’t have a means for you to record gas mileage, which means it doesn’t update your current odometer reading, which means it doesn’t warn you when maintenance is due! Helping to keep track of what’s due on which car when is the main reason to have CarMinder. And no other app does what CarMinder used to do. Frustrating!
This is apple problem. Apple exerts extreme control over developers and takes a health chunk of there revenue. Apple knows who the developers is and can give that info. Problems like this cause us to not trust apple apps. Which translate to less purchases. Apple needs to provides a way to track down developer
Thank You for providing the step by step. I followed the steps and can now see the data. The fun now begins in transferring the data to excel or a note book - lol. I feared the data was lost forever.
Lesson learned, last app I will depend on, the way I depended on this one.
Again, Thank You!!
What’s crazy is this app was reviewed in Feb here and was rated the best app for this. And then poof!
Does anyone have a recommendation for a Car Minder replacement (hopefully an app that will import the several years of Car Minder data I have)? All of the ones I've looked at just don't seem to do the job the way Car Minder worked.
morrij6. Thanks for putting the instructions together! Really helped! I got my data and now all I have to do is go sift through all the info for 6 cars....... But I got the info and really appreciate your step by step instructions!
Car Minder, the app, has let me high snd dry. All my automotive information is locked in this app. At least the developer could give us a chance to get our information. This is really disappointing, I trusted this app and feel let down, big time. Help us! JOHN
Thank you for your help. I am almost there, but I have a question.
You say "table - record = list of service records. You need to match the data here with the "service" table"
I see how to sort the fillups by vehicle, but don't understand how to sort service records by vehicle. Can you help?
First caveat - I didnt write the app....but I have had 20+ years in database design so have sort of worked out what its doing :)
Table are as follows:
car - contains information for each vehicle. the ID column is the identifier for the vehicle
service - contains the definition of the service, description, how often etc. the ID column is the identifier of the Service (type), the car_id references the car
Record - this table records a service event. id is the identifier for the event. service_id is the link back to the service table.
example:
Car: Id=1, Name= Volvo
service: id=4,car-Id=1,name=rotate tyres,miles=10000 (means that the volvo needs its tyres rotated every 10000 miles)
record: id=10,service_id=4,date=1366416768,mileage=137600 (means that the volvo had its tyres rotated 20-april-2013 at 137600 miles)
Hope that helps.
If you have it the best thing to do is to import into Access or something similar and define relationships between the tables. Then you dont have to worry about it anymore :)
Good luck.
Thank you very much. I don't think I explained it properly. When I have "service" in the table drop down, it does show all of the repairs, but there is no column for vehicle ID, so it's just a mass of various services performed without any way for me to ID the vehicle. I just found a great app, but I have to enter all of the data from Car Minder manually, and I can't find a way to view repairs/ oil changes/ etc. for individual vehicles.
The "service" table holds a list of services you've defined for each of your cars. For example, an oil change every 4000 miles or 24 months.
The "record" table is associated with the "service" table. Look in the "record" table to see which service was performed and when.
Examples:
Service table
ID=1
Car_id=1
Name=Oil Change
Record table
service_id=1 << this refers to the entry in the Service table
date = date of the service
mileage = mileage of the vehicle
The association between the Service table and Record table will take some time to sort out. But at least you've got the data!
AndyStai, I had some issues with what you suggested. (Even though what you said was right on target!) My problem is two fold. First, I have an older phone with iOS 14.4, but when I wiped it and tried to restore from my current back up (because Car Minder in on that backup), it required me to update my phone to 14.6 because that's what was used from the backup. Second, I tried to use an older iPad with an older iOS version, but I was not able to find where to get and download the app from the app store? Have any suggestions? Also I was able to follow your instructions with using iMazing, I just can't get an older device with Car Minder installed. :(
Sorry that didn’t work for you. I didn’t have to do a full install on the old iPhone. It was just and “app restore” and not a full phone restore (which as you’ve suggested would require updating to the same iOS as the version of the backup. I was worried it wouldn’t be able to download the app as well but it worked for me when I did it last month. Maybe I just got lucky? I still have it on my older iPhone but have since transferred all my data to a spreadsheet. Sorry I’m not much more hello. Hope you get it figured out!!
AndyStai, (sorry just trying to understand) it sounds like you said your old phone already had the Car Minder app on it and you just transfer the data file. Is that correct? You then said you were able to download the app. How did you download the app that is no longer in the app store? I can't find it. :(
Car Minder app compatibility with iOS 14.5
