This is a fork of the Android backup tool SMS Backup, where development has stopped a while ago. It uses Gmail to perform SMS, MMS and call log backups over the network.
Main differences / improvements:
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New restore feature. SMS stored on Gmail can be transferred back to the phone. This even works for users who have already created their backups with older versions of SMS Backup. Note: MMS are currently not restored.
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XOAuth: SMS Backup+ will never ask you for your Gmail password. Instead it uses XOAuth to get access to your data. You can revoke the access rights at any time.
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MMS backup support (since 1.1), only available on Android 2.x
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Call log backup (since 1.2)
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Faster backups. SMS Backup+ saves around 30% of data transferred by avoiding Base64 encoding of emails.
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Batch size limits removed.
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Works with any IMAP server (but defaults to Gmail).
Tested with Android 1.5 - 2.2.
Important: Some browsers / handsets which ship with non-standard browsers are currently not fully supported, there appears to be a problem which breaks the authorisation process, so connecting your Gmail account via XOAuth is not possible. You'll see the error message "You do not have permission to open this page".
Some possible workarounds:
- Use the stock Android browser for the authentication (you can switch back afterwards)
- Droid X: install a 3rd party browser (Dolphin HD has been reported to work). Droid X 2.2 seems to work.
- Use plain text authentication (Advanced Settings - Server Settings), use your gmail address as username and supply your password
SMS Backup+ is available for free in the market, there will never be a pro / paid version.
Install via the Android market QR code link or directly from github downloads.
You need to have an IMAP account or a Gmail account with IMAP enabled. See the Enabling IMAP in Gmail help page to learn how to enable IMAP for your Gmail account. If you use Google Apps make sure you select "Sign in with a Google Apps Account" (screenshot). Also note that it does not work when two-step authentication is enabled for a Google Apps account login.
After starting SMS Backup+, tap on the "Connect" check box to start the authorization process. A browser window will open where Gmail either prompts you to log in or (if you were already logged in) a screen asking you to give SMS Backup+ permission to access your emails.
After clicking on "Grant Access" SMS Backup+ will become visible again, the checkbox should now be checked, indicating that the authorization process was successful.
You don't need to uninstall the old version in order to try out SMS Backup+. However make sure that "Auto backup" is disabled in both apps, otherwise you might end up with messages backed up multiple times, resulting in duplicates in Gmail.
If you've used SMS Backup before you should just connect your Gmail account as described above (SMS Backup+ is not able to access login information stored by SMS Backup). Make sure you select "Skip" when asked about the initial sync, otherwise already backed up messages will be backed up again.
It is important that you perform the first backup manually. SMS Backup+ needs to know whether you want to upload messages currently stored on your device or not.
After having connected your Gmail account, SMS Backup+ will ask you to perform a first sync. If you choose "Backup", SMS Backup+ will start backing up all your messages to Gmail.
If you choose "Skip", nothing is sent to Gmail and all messages currently stored on your device are simply marked "backed up". This option is handy if you previously uninstalled SMS Backup+ and do not want to send your messages again to Gmail. Please note that any messages arrived after you last uninstalled SMS Backup and this initial backup won't ever be backed up to Gmail.
After you performed your initial backup, SMS Backup+ is ready to run in the
background and finish uploading all of your current and future messages (check
"Auto Backup"). Make sure that you have Background data enabled in your
Android Accounts & Sync settings
(screenshot).
If you wish to restore messages back to your phone tap "Restore". By default all messages stored on Gmail will be restored (this can be changed in "Advanced Settings"). You can safely restore to a phone which has already message stored on it, SMS Backup+ will skip the restore of already existing messages.
SMS Backup+ can also backup your call logs. It stores all calls using a
separate label (defaults to Calllog, but can be changed in Advanced
Settings). The body of the message contains the number and the duration of the
call in seconds. 0 seconds here means missed call.
##Screenshots
Incoming backup schedule is used for incoming messages. 3 minutes here means that any incoming SMS will trigger a backup after 3 minutes. It is a full backup (including any sent messages). You should set the incoming schedule to a low value if you want to make sure that incoming SMS show up in Gmail shortly after arrival.
Regular schedule is used to perform backups in specific intervals. 2 hours here means that the device will try to backup all messages every 2 hours.
Fewer updates performed by the app means less energy consumed, so there's a trade-off data protection vs. battery life.
This is caused by a bug which has been fixed in 1.1.2. However even older backups have the correct timestamp set, just not in the threading view. You can verify this by selecting Show original in Gmail, and then check the Date header in the email (screenshot).
All SMS backed up with version 1.1.2+ should show the correct time.
If you get this error message and your network connection is active double-check that your time zone settings are correct, and that the local time is displaying correctly. The authentication process won't work otherwise.
It's a known SMS bug in the 2.2 update (details). As a workaround you can try installing SMS Time fix.
$ git clone git://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus.git
$ cd sms-backup-plus
$ echo "sdk.dir=/path/to/android-sdk" > local.properties
$ ant debug
$ adb install bin/sms-backup-plus-debug.apk
I've imported some relevant issues from the original issue list to github issues.
If you want to help translating the UI to other languages: crowdin project page.
- Christoph Studer Original author of SMS Backup
- Ben Dodson - Contacts 2.0 / MMS support
- Felix Knecht - Call log backup code
- k9mail IMAP library, with some modifications (k9mail/sms-backup-plus)
- signpost Signpost OAuth library
- iTweek and ncrow for the Gmail icons
- bbs.goapk.com / Chen - Chinese translation
- skolima - Polish translation
- Roberto Elena Ormad - Spanish translation
- Gabriele Ravanetti - Italian translation
- Harun Sahin - Turkish translation
This application is released under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0.