Backing up your Teddy Ruxpin's data files.

[lachlant1984]

Hey everyone.  Thought I'd quickly discuss backing up the files on your 2017 Teddy Ruxpin, since WCT aren't making them anymore, it would be a good idea to back up the files on your Teddy Ruxpin in case something should happen to the data.  This is how I do things, you may do things differently depending on your computer.  For this procedure you'll need either a desktop or laptop computer, it can be running Windows or Mac OS, I presume you'll also be able to do this with Linux.  Of course your computer must have USB type A ports on it as most do, if you're using a computer that has only USB Type C ports on it, you'll probably need to buy a dongle, unless of course you can get USB Type C to Micro USB cables.  And lastly, you'll need a Micro USB cable.  It's my experience that not all Micro USB cables support data transfer, sone only support power for a device, so you must make sure the Micro USB cable you intend to use does in fact support data transfer, otherwise you will not be able to connect your Teddy Ruxpin to your computer.  Here's what you do.  Turn on your computer and connect the USB cable to your computer, and also to the Micro USB socket located on Teddy Ruxpin's back near the power on indicator light.  Turn Teddy Ruxpin on.  Note: Teddy Ruxpin must be fitted with working batteries.  At this point Teddy Ruxpin should be detected by your computer, and you should be able to access its flash memory, it should appear as a mass storage compatible disk device, which you can access in the same way you'd access data on any other storage media, such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or a USB flash drive.  If you're using Windows, then Windows will assign Teddy Ruxpin a drive letter, in my case, it's drive F.  If you're using a Mac, you'll see and icon appear on your desktop, I believe the same thing happens if you're a Linux user.  Open the icon for Teddy Ruxpin and you'll see a folder called Books.  Inside the Books folder are all the files that make Teddy Ruxpin work, all the files have a .bin file extension, you should see files with names like Idle.bin, Intro,bin, Story01.bin and so on.  Make a copy of the Books folder with all the files inside it, and store it somewhere safe.  Do not delete the files from Teddy Ruxpin's internal memory, if you do, he won't work.  Do not change the files in any way unless you know what you're doing, otherwise you may experience unpredictable results.  When you've finished, use your computer's safely remove hardware/eject storage device option, turn Teddy Ruxpin off and disconnect the cables.  I haven't tested this myself, but I would like to hope that if files on Teddy Ruxpin do get deleted or in some other way corrupt or damaged, you should be able to restore proper functionality by copying the files you backed up onto Teddy Ruxpin again, just make sure they're in the Books folder.  There's no need for any special file transfer software or anything like that, just use the methods you're comfortable with when transferring data on your computer.  Note:  As I understand it, it's not possible to use your phone to copy stories to Teddy Ruxpin, this needs to be done using a computer.  If anyone else can think of anything to add to this topic, please do so, if you've had any experiences with transferring new stories to your Teddy Ruxin, I'd like to hear them.  

Thanks everyone.  

[kaylathehedgehog]

Ooh, I didn't know this was possible. Thanks for the information!

[lachlant1984]

No worries.

[FilthyAnimal]

Thank you for this info!

[richg]

Does anyone have a set of files backed up that they could send me?

I'm not sure if Teddy's memory is corrupt, the files, or both. As soon as we noticed the problem I backed up the existing files. I've tried formating the USB and restoring the media. Unfortunately I'm not sure what format to use. Several stories are now lost, and not all the files left will play.

Thanks for any help,

Rich

[lachlant1984]

hi Rich.

Sorry to hear you've had this problem. What was the initial problem you had? I have to say that last year I too discovered that my Teddy Ruxpin isn't working correctly, but I haven't yet tried to investigate the cause of the problem. Regarding disk formatting, I'd think your best bet is to use FAT16, FAT32 may work, but I doubt formats like XFAT will work. Can you get any of your stories to work? You might be able to unlock them again using the smartphone app, you shouldn't need to pay for them again if you already have paid for them. I hope this helps, as I say, I've not had this experience myself.