Help Are my text messages backed up when I copy my files to a folder on PC?

[jaimetb]

My text messages are taking up way too much space on my phone but I'm afraid to get rid of them unless I know I have a copy of them all somewhere. When I connect my phone to my PC via USB and copy all of my files to a folder as a backup, is this transferring ALL of my data (including text messages)? Is there anything that cannot be backed up when you copy these files to a computer? Once I have created this backup, can I delete away what I have on my phone that I do not currently need with the possibility of restoring/accessing these files later via the backed up files?

Thanks!!!

Also, I would not like to use an SMS Backup tool for the moment. I just want to have the files somewhere and I can deal with the coding of the data later.

 

[Hadron]

No, that will not back up your messages. Your SMS database is stored in a database in the /data/data area of your phone, which you cannot access unless you have rooted the phone (and yes, it is a database, not a set of files). None of your apps' internal data will be saved just by copying files as you describe.

If you want to back up your messages you do need to use an SMS backup tool. Most of those however don't give you the option of selectively restoring, and I would check first whether restoring from backup will add to the existing messages of overwrite them. Basically, proceed with care here, and don't do anything rash.

However, I'm surprised if SMS are a problem with space on your phone. If you use MMS a lot for sending media then yes, they can use a lot of space, but simple text messages do not use much. My last SMS backup was under 11MB, and that's about 10,000 messages (almost all SMS).

 

[jaimetb]

Darn, that's what I was afraid of. In that case, would you recommend investing in an SMS Backup Service? Which one do you use? I just didn't wanna have to pay to have them all backed up but I couldn't find one that lets you back up an unlimited amount of messages so I guess I might have to.

Thanks for the help!

 

[kate]

SMS Backup and Restore is a well known app to back them up:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore

It copies your texts into a data file which you can then copy to your computer for backup. Make sure to include MMS in the app before backing them up. It's free and doesn't mention a message limit.