Awesome
SMS Tools
Multipurpose import / export / merge tool for your text message history. (formally Android-SMS-DB-importer)
Now on PyPi (the python package index) and available using pip!
pip install smstools
puts smstools
in your path, you're ready to roll.
Convert your message history between:
- iOS 5, 6, and 7 databases directly (from backup or from your jailbroken phone directly)
- Android 5.1+ bugle_db database (only from this format, do not create, use SMS Backup & Restore instead)
- Android mmssms.db database (directly from phone)
- Android XML from the SMS Backup & Restore app
- CSV files
- JSON files
- google voice data dump (see more details below)
Get all of your old messages onto your android phone.
Why?
- Leaving Google Voice?
- Getting a new iPhone or Android phone?
- Want a searchable CSV, JSON, or XML file of your conversations?
- Want to move all your messages from your past into a new, date-sorted, database?
##Howto:
Now on PyPi (the python package index) and available using pip!
pip install smstools
puts smstools
in your path, you're ready to roll.
usage: smstools [-h] [--type {xml,json,android,csv,ios5,ios7,ios6}]
infiles [infiles ...] outfile
But pay attention - bugle_db support is still in forked version/pull request, so you may need to take this version manually
##Where do I get my files from?
- iPhone:
- Pull from your iTunes backup: See below!
- If you're jailbroken: pull down
/private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db
- Android:
- mmssms.db pulled from your phone: See below!
- bugle_db pulled from your phone: See below!
- SMS Backup & Restore to get an XML file of your messages.
- Google Voice: Work in progress
####Getting your iPhone messages from iTunes backup
- Open the right folder:
- On Mac OS X open "~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/"
- On Windows 7/Vista open "C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup"
- Open the most recent folder (the most recent backup)
- Get the file named "3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28" and rename it to sms.db
####What is the Android mmssms.db file?
This is the sqlite file where your Android phone stores messages. To read or write it you'll need root. It's located at /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
It may be possible to read it directly using ADB by running the adb pull command as com.android.providers.telephony
. Otherwise use SMS Backup & Restore or something similar.
So why use this option?
- It's orders of magnitude faster. Perfect for load testing mms applications with different databases (why I created this)
- Much better database performance. After importing the output.xml file with SMSBackupRestore.apk my Messaging.apk was left completely unusable. SMSBackupRestore is great, but it doesn't handle tens of thousands of messages.
####What is the Android bugle_db file?
On newer version of Android format of message storage changed, but it's still sqlite database - but with different storage location and structure. To read or write it you'll need root. It's located at /data/data/com.android.messsaging/databases/bugle_db
It may be possible to read it directly using ADB by running the adb pull command as com.android.messsaging
.
Please note that this format is read-only by now, meaning that you can read these files, but you cannot convert any other formats to bugle_db. Use SMS Backup & Restore instead.
##My results When I run this tool on my Google Voice data it processes 6675 messages into 149 conversations in 15 seconds, which is 435 average entries/second. Not bad!