restoring SMS backup in oreo

[zero_gravity]

so i'm trying to restore my SMS backup after upgrading my OS to android 8.1 (oreo).

some background: this is an HTC one M8. yes its an old phone now. there is no official upgrade to oreo. i rooted this phone and installed a modified ROM. resurrection remix to be exact. install went great, and have to say it runs amazing now. far faster than it ever was in the past. so far oreo is a real winner for me. previous version was marshmallow.

i do keep a lot of local backups. i've had to do factory reset numerous times in the past, so i just came prepared. one thing though....

with marshmallow i was able to backup my SMS to a file, and save it on the external SD card. normally, i'd be able to just go into the android SMS app and restore it no problem. with oreo, i now realize that it doesn't have this option as everything is backed up to cloud....but coming from marshmallow i have no way to get the phone to see the file.

i've tried a couple SMS backup programs with no success. SMS backup and restore and SMS backup+. neither will see the file.

any ideas?

 

[svim]

...
with marshmallow i was able to backup my SMS to a file, and save it on the external SD card. normally, i'd be able to just go into the android SMS app and restore it no problem. with oreo, i now realize that it doesn't have this option as everything is backed up to cloud....but coming from marshmallow i have no way to get the phone to see the file.
i've tried a couple SMS backup programs with no success. SMS backup and restore and SMS backup+. neither will see the file.
any ideas?

Just how did you backup your SMS messages? Did you use an Export option in whichever texting app you used to do the backup? If so which texting/messaging app was it and what kind of file (file type) was the backup file?
Apps like SMS Backup & Restore probably can't see that backup file you made because you should have been using one of those apps on your previous phone to do the Export, and then install that same app on your new phone to do the Import.

 

[zero_gravity]

Just how did you backup your SMS messages? Did you use an Export option in whichever texting app you used to do the backup? If so which texting/messaging app was it and what kind of file (file type) was the backup file?
Apps like SMS Backup & Restore probably can't see that backup file you made because you should have been using one of those apps on your previous phone to do the Export, and then install that same app on your new phone to do the Import.

This would be the SMS app that comes with the phone. I would assume that this is the standard app built into marshmallow. If HTC did their own thing with it, I honestly don't know.

This app has an export option that lets you backup the messages to a file. So thinking that this was the standard android SMS app, I assumed that Oreo would be able to read it. Turns out it won't read any files at all....

This backup file does not have any extension, so I am not sure what it might be.

 

[svim]

So this is an extreme long-shot of a suggestion, just on a very loose assumption that perhaps the file name (specifically it's identifying extension suffix) didn't get saved properly during whichever backup procedure you initially used. I doubt it will work but try making a copy of that mystery backup file, rename it with a .xml extension (i.e. test_file.xml ), and see if an app like SMS Backup & Restore detects it. It should, but you should also use the app to make a backup of your current messages as a precaution if you try to use that renamed backup file to do a restore. That way if messes things up at least you can then just restore things back to normal.

 

[Hadron]

This would be the SMS app that comes with the phone. I would assume that this is the standard app built into marshmallow. If HTC did their own thing with it, I honestly don't know.

There isn't a "standard SMS app" any more, or not in any meaningful sense. The old AOSP message app hasn't been updated for years, and all of the significant manufacturers use their own message app anyway.

So 100% certainly that will have been the HTC message app, and with your current ROM not being based on htc's Sense software you certainly do not have that app in your current ROM. So try the suggestions above, but to be honest I think you'll be lucky.

So first question, do you have Titanium Backup Pro be did you use it before changing ROMs? If so you are fine: Titanium Pro backs up messages to an XML file which can be restored on a different ROM, so just do that (from memory the free version only makes a binary backup of the message storage app's internal database and that's unlikely to be portable between ROMs).

If not it's still doable, but will require more faffing. Did you take a nandroid backup (a backup made using your custom recovery) before flashing the new ROM? If not, you really should. If you did, then you may be able to extract the messages from that with Titanium Pro (can't remember what it can and cannot extract from nandroid). Or you can restore the backup, which will return you to your old ROM with the messages restored, then use a more portable backup (SMS Backup and Restore, Titanium Pro, whatever) to back them up, reload Resurrection and then install whatever backup app you chose and restore the messages. To save fuss I would take a second nandroid of your current setup first: then you can restore the old ROM, back up your messages, restore the new ROM then restore the backup, which is easier than setting the new ROM up from scratch again.

If you didn't take a nandroid, then take one now. Then reinstall your old ROM (or install a Sense-based ROM using the same OS version you had previously), restore your backup in that (since you will now have the HTC message app back), then make a more portable backup of them, then restore the nandroid (putting your current setup back), then install the backup app you used to make the new message backup and use it to restore your messages.

I did say it was a faff, but this is doable (I've done it in the past when I've installed a new ROM then realised I'd forgotten to back something up - I never flashed a ROM without taking a nandroid first though.

 

[zero_gravity]

It does so happen that I did indeed take a nandroid backup before flashing. Its sitting on my SD card still.

I wasn't aware that the SMS app isn't a Google standard, good to know.

I used titanium backup for several apps but neglected the SMS since I thought I already had a suitable backup. I only have the free version though. If the pro will solve this I might just get it...I'll have to look into it, thanks.

One thought I had was to use an emulator. I'm not sure if this is possible, but I could use the nandroid backup in an emulator, use a proper SMS backup app, and then transfer file to my phone. Seems like that might save me some time.

This is still a learning curve for me. My only slightly related experience was a single Unix class back in college. That was Solaris and it was 15 years ago....pretty well irrelevant now.

 

[Hadron]

You'd need an HTC emulator rather than an android emulator. The HTC message app will rely on the HTC framework to run. Otherwise you could just get a copy of the APK from somewhere and install that on your current ROM and restore the messages that way (but I'm pretty sure that won't work).