How to back up SMS text messages on your Android phone

How to back up SMS text messages on your Android phone

A quick tutorial on how you can back up all the SMS text messages from your Android phone to a safe location on the cloud, your memory card or your PC

February 1, 2012 rajesh

Since the Google Android platform does not come with a desktop client, backing up important data can become a little difficult. Thankfully, there are enough apps to help you get the job done, be it on a cloud server or on your phone or computer’s memory. Here’s how you can back up your SMSes easily…

On The Cloud

By using SMS Backup+, users can automatically backup all their SMSes on their Gmail account. It’s an easy process and you can even schedule the app to automatically do the needful after your initial setup.

Step 1 – Download SMS Backup+ for free from the Android Market.

Step 2 – Start the app and select the ‘Connect’ option. A new browser window will open asking you the credentials of your Gmail account. Enter your credentials, and then press the ‘Grant Access’ option.

Step 3 – The app will then automatically start backing up all your SMSes to your Gmail account under the ‘SMS’ label. If it does not start automatically, hit the ‘Backup’ button to do so.

Step 4 – Make sure the ‘Auto backup’ option is checked as well to automatically back up SMSes. You can set how frequently you want a backup to be carried out in the ‘Auto backup settings’.

On SD card or Hard drive

If you simply want to backup your apps on your phone’s memory card, we recommend a different app –SMS Backup & Restore. The app will back up all your messages in an XML or a .dat file on your phone’s mass memory.

Step 1 – Download SMS Backup & Restore for free from the Android Market.

Step 2 – Start the app, and then simply select the ‘Backup’ option. The app will then automatically backup and store all your messages in an XML file on your phone’s SD card.

Step 3 – You can now transfer the backup to your PC. Connect the phone to your computer, select “USB Storage Mode” and find the file. Simply copy-paste it to your hard drive and you are done.

Step 4 – Users can also enable the scheduling feature of the app, which will backup all their SMSes at a specified time every day. Enable it by selecting it from the Preferences menu (2nd button on the top).