How do I save Text conversations to my SD card or Google drive

[Angela Burnett]

Help,

I can't figure out how to save my messages to my SIM card, my memory card, my drive etc.. Back up and restore only saves to Samsung cloud and I have no idea how to view my actual text conversation/s from/in there, at&t backup and restore wont work because I'm a prepaid customer. I supposedly have them backed up to my Google account but again can't/don't know how to go and view them. It may be wierd to people that these conversations are so important to me but they are for my reasons. I just want to store/save them away so I can access them whenever if ever.

 

[Member2035261]

Goggle doesn't save your SMS messages. Two popular apps are SMS Backup and Restore, or SMS Backup +.
I have used SMS Backup + from day 1 (6 years ago) when I started with 2 Samsung devices.
More people will recommend the other and I forget it's advantages, but with "+" I can view my SMS in a folder in my Gmail account - or another email account if you don't like Google
see https://www.wikihow.tech/Save-Text-Messages-on-Android
There are some limitations in what those backups display, only known Contacts and not cell numbers iirc.
Have a look at both apps

 

[Hadron]

SMS Backup & Restore saves them to an XML file. That can be read as plain text, but it won't be nicely formatted (in principle you could write a program to view them though). It's really intended to allow you to restore them to a phone, after which you can read them using the message app.

Google actually do back messages up, but I believe that is a Pixel-only feature. Personally I never rely on manufacturer backups, becauseI refuse to be locked in to my next phone coming from the same manufacturer, so do my own backups anyway (and actually have both of the above apps - SMS Backup+ can be set to back up automatically as messages are sent or received, which is good for ensuring that you have everything but will also back up stuff you want to delete. The other one will back up the current message database, which I have it set to do weekly and copy to Google Drive. Remember that a backup that's only on the device is useless if the device is damaged/lost/stolen.

 

[sank23]

SMS backup and restore support exporting whole conversation threads and/or individual messages, usually as XML.

The first step is to set up the connection to your Gmail account. Tap “Connect”. The Account Picker on your Android phone will launch, and you’ll be prompted to choose the Gmail account you want to use for backing up your messages.

Then choose your account and grant the requested permissions. You’ll be prompted to begin a backup immediately or skip the initial backup.

Next,the backup process will start, and depending on how many messages you have, will take anywhere from a minute to a half hour to complete. It clips along at about a message per second.