How to transfer SMS and MMS from Pixel 2 to a Windows compputer?

[ilyaz73]

Hello Everyone,

What's the best way to transfer all SMS and MMS messages to my Windows computer? Want to preserve all attached pix and any other non-textual content in the transfer. Also, prefer to have separate file (say as a part of a large ZIP) for each conversation rather than one gigantic XML file. TIA!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You actually need to save them as a file, or do you just want to access them just as you would on your phone? If the latter, and if you're using Google Messages, use Messages for Web: https://support.google.com/messages/answer/7611075?hl=en

 

[ilyaz73]

Welcome to Android Central! You actually need to save them as a file, or do you just want to access them just as you would on your phone? If the latter, and if you're using Google Messages, use Messages for Web: https://support.google.com/messages/answer/7611075?hl=en

Dual purpose: (i) transfer some of those chats to someone's iPhone 7 (they lost all their messages and could not restore them from their backups; and (ii) being able to view them as documents in a way similar to how you would want to view an email thread. For example, I might want to "pretty-print" a conversation in some way and keep it as a record of my exchange with someone.

 

[B. Diddy]

It sounds like the picture backup might be hit or miss with this app, but I'm not sure if that's a universal experience: SMS Backup & Restore

 

[ilyaz73]

It sounds like the picture backup might be hit or miss with this app, but I'm not sure if that's a universal experience: SMS Backup & Restore

Also, in what folder does Pixel 2 store its SMS and MMS messages internally? I connected my phone to my PC and poked around "Internal Storage" but could not find them anywhere.

 

[B. Diddy]

The actual messages would be stored in a system database that the user doesn't have direct access to. I think it's an SQLite datbase.