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Looking for a a simple SMS backup solution

A

alarazr

Newbie
Afternoon guys.

I currently have 22,000 messages backed up to my Gmail account, but I would prefer to store them locally in an encrypted volume.

Using SMS Backup+ I can restore them from Gmail onto my phone, but then I need a way to export them into a more manageable format. Something like a text document, organized by time/date/contact name, anything. Something that is easily readable, and can be simply zipped up and encrypted.

Any ideas? I'm sure some of you guys are both suckers for backing up your communication history and privacy
 
Do you want this zipped, encrypted backup on your phone or elsewhere? If on the phone I guess you could use an app that backs messages up in an encrypted format, whereas if elsewhere you want it fairly plain (and do the encryption on a computer).

Personally for local backups (i.e. to SD card) I use Titanium Backup Pro, which saves messages in an xml archive. That might meet your requirements (xml = text), but you do need to be rooted to use that app. And if you restore I would expect it to replace all messages, not just add the backup to any undeleted messages you have (something to watch with any backup app).

There are many other message backup apps, but unfortunately I don't know what formats they use.

If you want the backup on your computer, another approach might just be to copy the SMS folder from your GMail account directly to your computer. No obvious easy way from the webmail, but if you set up Thunderbird on your computer it then offers many options for exporting the messages from your GMail account, including exporting the SMS folder, or exporting all messages in the folder in plain text, html or eml formats (I expect most other mail apps can do that too, but I happen to use Thunderbird). Once on your computer you can encrypt as you like, keep copies in the GMail account and the PC, or clear them from the GMail account and re-import then later if you ever want to.
 
I don't want it storing on my phone, only as .txt or .xml encrypted locally on my own hard drive. I could import the emails to a local mail account (I also use Thunderbird) but the threading of messages backed up to email is very annoying, so I'd prefer to restore them to my phone then re-export as something more manageable
 
I just tried exporting the "SMS" folder from my GMail account (I also use SMS Backup+) using Thunderbird. I selected the option "export all messages in the folder" -> "as single text file". Does what it says on the tin - no threading that way, just one text file with all of my messages in chronological order :)
 
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