Backing up SMS/MMS/Call Logs

Moving to WundermentOS can be a straight forward process, but moving your data can be more challenging.

Most of your data is probably stored in one of three places:

  • Applications
  • Photos/Music/etc.
  • SMS, MMS and call logs

Many applications have backup and restore functionality built in to them, and as such are out of scope for this guide.

Standard photo, music, movies and other files can easily be backup to a computer and then copied back over to WundermentOS once installation is complete.

Unfortunately, Android does not have a standard backup method for SMS, MMS and call logs.

Fortunately, there are tools available to help you with this task. There are many available in both F-Droid as well as the Google Play store, but this guide will cover two options, “SMS Import/Export” by Thoomas More (available on F-Droid) and “SMS Backup & Restore” by SyncTech Pty Ltd (available on the Google Play store).

SMS Import/Export (F-Droid)

SMS Import/Export is an open source tool which does exactly what it says it does and a little bit more.

Before you install WundermentOS:

  1. Download and install SMS Import/Export from F-Droid on your phone.
  2. Open SMS Import/Export.
  3. Select “EXPORT MESSAGES”.
  4. Follow the on screen instructions.
  5. Select “EXPORT CALL LOG”.
  6. Follow the on screen instructions.
  7. [OPTIONAL] Select “EXPORT CALL LOG”.
  8. [OPTIONAL] Follow the on screen instructions.
  9. Copy the backup files from your phone to somewhere safe to be restored later.

After you install WundermentOS:

  1. Download and install SMS Import/Export from F-Droid on your phone. .
  2. Copy the backup files from above to your phone.
  3. Select “IMPORT MESSAGES”.
  4. Follow the on screen instructions.
  5. Select “IMPORT CALL LOG”.
  6. Follow the on screen instructions.
  7. [OPTIONAL] Select “IMPORT CALL LOG”.
  8. [OPTIONAL] Follow the on screen instructions.

SMS Backup & Restore (Google Play)

SMS Backup & Restore is a free tool (ad supported, but can be disabled) which does exactly what it says it does and a little bit more 🙂

Before you install WundermentOS:

  1. Download and install SMS Backup & Restore from the Google Play store on your phone.
  2. Open SMS Backup & Restore.
  3. Open the application menu and select “Settings”.
  4. Scroll down and disable “App Analytics” (keep note of where this is as you’ll need to know this for later).
  5. Enable “Remove ads”.
  6. Scroll up and select “Backup Settings”.
  7. Select the various options you want to use for your backup.
  8. Return to the main application screen.
  9. Select “Back Up Now”.
  10. Follow the on screen instructions.

Once complete, if you selected “Local backup” as your storage option, make sure to copy the backup files from your phone to somewhere safe to be restored later.

After you install WundermentOS:

  1. Download and install SMS Backup & Restore from the Google Play store on your phone (you can use Aurora Store from f-droid or an alternate Android store).
  2. Copy the backup files from above to your phone.
  3. Open SMS Backup & Restore.
  4. If SMS Backup & Restore crashes after a few seconds, this is because of the “App Analytics” setting that is enabled by default. To disable this setting, you can start SMS Backup & Restore and then quickly go to the settings and disable it before the application crashes. Once disabled, SMS Backup & Restore will run as expected.
  5. Open the application menu and select “Settings”.
  6. Scroll down and disable “App Analytics” (if you haven’t already).
  7. Enable “Remove ads”.
  8. Scroll up and select “Backup Settings”.
  9. Select the various options you want to use for your backup.
  10. Return to the main application screen.
  11. Open the application menu and select “Restore”.
  12. Follow the on screen instructions.

Scheduled Backups

Both SMS Import/Export and SMS Backup & Restore also support scheduled backups. SMS Backup & Rstore also supprts several cloud provider. While NextCloud is not directly supported in either software, you can can still use it by creating a local backup folder on your phone and then adding that folder to NextCloud as an “Auto upload” folder:

  1. Open the NextCloud client.
  2. Open the app menu and select “Auto upload”.
  3. In the top right corner, select the three vertical dot menu and select “Set up a custom folder”.
  4. Select your options and then tap “Save”.

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