Re: Moto X Factory Reset
Here is how SMS Backup + works:
It uses an IMAP connection to Gmail to store SMS. When you download the app, give it permission to connect to your google account. When you are ready to backup, select the button and the App will ask permission to be the default SMS app for you phone. Select yes. At this point it will start uploading the texts. It will create a sub folder in your Gmail for SMS. The upshot of that is your texts are now searchable in gmail!. Depending on the number of texts you have on your phone, I recommend you be connected to WIFI when you do this. If the number is large, this can take quite a bit of time. When backup+ is done, you will get a notification asking whether you want to your default SMS app to revert to whatever you used before (hangouts, messenger, textra, etc.) select yes.
Do you system restore, wipe or whatever.
Once you are logged back in, re download the backup + app. open it and reconnect it to your google account. At that point restoring the texts is essentially the same procedure as backing them. One difference, under advanced settings, the app gives you the ability to choose whether to to restore the most recent texts (100, 200, 500 are the options) or you can restore them all. I have several thousand texts saved that i have no immediate need for so when I restore, I generally only restore the most recent 200. But that's up to you. If you are doing a full restore of several thousand texts, I recommend using wifi and being patient. After the restore is complete, re-select your SMS app of choice and the texts will appear.
There is one big gotcha, however, SMS backup + will NOT back up MMS pictures you have received, so you will need to find a different way to back those up.