Help Need help backing up my phone. [Convoluted]

[TzarChasm]

My wife purchased an hTc Droid Incredible quite a few months back, mostly for its camera, and we've come to realize that we have little to no legitimate need for a data plan or a smart phone in our family. We've gone through the process of arranging to send the Droid back for a new, more appropriate phone and are trying to back up her text messages on my PC but we're running aground with technological hurdles.

Please forgive me if my questions are stupid. I hate smart phones and have never owned one, so I don't know the first thing about "apps" or platform compatibility, etc. Here's what I can tell you:

She's a Mac owner and apparently her OS isn't fully compatible with her laptop. Ergo she tells me that she's had some difficulty with things like software updates in the past. I'm a PC person but for reasons that I cannot determine, her phone is not detected by my computer. So I can only guess that the way she's got her phone configured to sync to a Mac is preventing it from showing up on my PC. Does anyone know a fix for this?

Secondly, since she canceled her data plan today BEFORE backing up her text messages, she can no longer simply go online with her Droid and download an app like SMS Backup & Restore directly to the phone. I've found the app file itself and have downloaded it to my PC's desktop, but since my computer won't recognize her phone I can't put it on the silly thing from here. Worse, even though we've also saved it to her Mac neither she nor I have any clue WHERE to put the app data within her phone's internal memory in order to use it.

Basically, how do I get this thing to show up on my PC, and where do I cut and paste the .apk file into her phone in order to make the app show up in her Droid's OS? And finally, once we've got all that stuff nailed down, how do we use the app itself to back up her texts and prevent this trash from happening again?

This is all so frustrating. I realize I'm quite the "noob" here, but absolutely any guidance whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. Please help me if you can!

 

[Joe Dirt]

Connect the phone to wifi and download any apps you need from the market. I can't really help in backing up text msgs, I delete them daily.

 

[nkk]

My wife purchased an hTc Droid Incredible quite a few months back, mostly for its camera, and we've come to realize that we have little to no legitimate need for a data plan or a smart phone in our family. We've gone through the process of arranging to send the Droid back for a new, more appropriate phone and are trying to back up her text messages on my PC but we're running aground with technological hurdles.

Please forgive me if my questions are stupid. I hate smart phones and have never owned one, so I don't know the first thing about "apps" or platform compatibility, etc. Here's what I can tell you:

She's a Mac owner and apparently her OS isn't fully compatible with her laptop.
What? Macs come only from Apple so that they are fully compatible with the laptop hardware. Unless she has a hackintosh (OSX on what is usually hp netbook) then this statement means she needs go to to an Apple store and get a warranty replacment.

Ergo she tells me that she's had some difficulty with things like software updates in the past. I'm a PC person but for reasons that I cannot determine, her phone is not detected by my computer.
Did you pull down the notification bar and select disk storage mode? Did you try mounting the sd via a usb-uSD or a uSd to SD converter?

So I can only guess that the way she's got her phone configured to sync to a Mac is preventing it from showing up on my PC. Does anyone know a fix for this?
That is not true. The phone does not sync, it just mounts as any USB storage would. A program on the computer can do syncing if you want, but AFAIK no such program exists other than HTC Connect or whatever the heck it is called.

Secondly, since she canceled her data plan today BEFORE backing up her text messages, she can no longer simply go online with her Droid and download an app like SMS Backup & Restore directly to the phone.
Is there no WIFI access?

I've found the app file itself and have downloaded it to my PC's desktop, but since my computer won't recognize her phone I can't put it on the silly thing from here.
Wifi + Awesome Drop or Dropbox. Wifi. Wifi. Did I mention, try a wifi connection?

Worse, even though we've also saved it to her Mac neither she nor I have any clue WHERE to put the app data within her phone's internal memory in order to use it.

Use Astro file manager or any other file browser to open the apk. Open with the Appliation manager, and select install. Done.

Basically, how do I get this thing to show up on my PC, and where do I cut and paste the .apk file into her phone in order to make the app show up in her Droid's OS? And finally, once we've got all that stuff nailed down, how do we use the app itself to back up her texts and prevent this trash from happening again?

I cannt help you with the app usage, but see above for installation.

This is all so frustrating. I realize I'm quite the "noob" here, but absolutely any guidance whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. Please help me if you can!

My replies and additions in red.

I would ask how you plan to access these sms's once they are backed up. I do not know how the program will save them (my obvious guess would be xml, but that may not be the case). I understand the need to extract info out of SMS conversations, but do you really need the original communications? I am not judging...you may need them. It is just something to honestly ask yourself.

-Nkk