[HoosierDaddy]

My father passed away last week and I want to save text conversations and phone logs to a Windows 10 PC before canceling his cell service and retiring his phone. Just moving to Android (S20 5G FE) myself, I have no idea what's the best way to do that.

His phone is on Android 8.1.0, an LG Stylo 4. I installed an app to do it but it only offers backups to One Drive, Drop Box, GMail (iirc) or SD card. He had none of those. So I would prefer not to take any of those paths, particularly without knowing if the saves were even usable on a PC.

How can I do this, preferably via USB to the PC and preferably for free? The saves need to be human readable; I only mention that because I recall from a distant past, extracting text conversations from a Windows phone and the date/time stamps were the seconds from some fixed earliest start date.

[mustang7757]

I'm sorry for your loss

Maybe try sms back up from play store ?

[HoosierDaddy]

I'm sorry for your loss

Maybe try sms back up from play store ?

Thanks.

The one I mentioned that doesn't work with his current phone and accounts was SMS Backup and Restore. I see another with the name you suggest and will try it.

Update: That worked. Thanks again.

Now to figure out phone logs.

[mustang7757]

Thanks.

The one I mentioned that doesn't work with his current phone and accounts was SMS Backup and Restore. I see another with the name you suggest and will try it.

Update: That worked. Thanks again.

Now to figure out phone logs.

Phone logs not sure , Your welcome!

[ManiacJoe]

SMS Backup and Restore does call logs, too.

[HoosierDaddy]

SMS Backup and Restore does call logs, too.

Thanks. Call log was very short so just screen printed. I only wanted them for the almost non-existent chance they might be useful for attorneys working for the estate.

But that was the app I tried first and it did not have a way to save either without going thru Google or some other service that wasn't set up.

[ManiacJoe]

The backup app does allow for saving the files (XML format) to the local phone storage, while it does try hard to have you pick somewhere else.