Droid Transfer allows you to back up SMS and MMS messages from your Android phone to your computer. This is great for a variety of reasons: keeping data safe in case of device fault, getting a new phone, printing messages for legal reasons, or even as a means to retrieve deleted messages.
To back up a text message conversation on your Android device to a PDF, follow these steps...
Droid Transfer displays all messages from your Android device's default messaging app, such as Samsung Messages, Google's Messages app, etc. If you would like to access and back up messages from a different messaging app on your phone, you can do so by changing your default messaging app in the Settings on your device. For example, on a Samsung Galaxy S21, your default messaging app can be changed by going to Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > SMS app.
You can select conversations you wish to save, by clicking on a conversation with a contact, or a group chat in Droid Transfer. Alternatively, choose multiple conversations by holding down the Shift key and clicking to select the conversations you wish to save. To select all your conversations, simply use the Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut.
If you have a lot of messages, the "Search Messages" box in Droid Transfer allows you to quickly find a conversation you wish to back up. Use the Search box to search for a particular contact in your contact list by their name or telephone number, as well as search for words in your text message conversations.
You can also access or backup messages from certain dates, by using the "Filter Dates" function. Simply set a lower and/or higher date boundary, and Droid Transfer will only display messages sent or received between those dates!
Backup Texts Android - You have the option of saving messages as HTML, PDF or text files.
Droid Transfer can access and copy your SMS (plain text messages), and MMS (multimedia messages which can contain photos, video, audio and emojis).
You can backup certain conversations by clicking a contact, or holding down the SHIFT key and clicking multiple contacts from the list of contacts, then selecting the format you wish to save your messages in:
For each of the export formats, a file is created named after the contact with whom you have had a text message conversation. These exported files closely resemble your phone's display with messages displayed chronologically and dates/times of messages sent and received recorded.
To back up all messages, click a "Save" button in Droid Transfer without selecting any of the conversations displayed in the software. You can also select all conversations by pressing CTRL+A on your keyboard and clicking on a "Save" button in Droid Transfer.
You will then be prompted to choose a location on your computer to save to. Once you are happy with the location, hit "OK" to confirm!
Different save options in Droid Transfer have different ways of saving media attached to your messages.
If you choose to save your messages to an HTML file, messages and emojis are embedded in the exported file. By default, media is also embedded in the HTML file, however, you can alter this in Droid Transfer Settings to create a separate folder containing copies of your photos, videos and any other files attached to your messages.
Saving messages to a PDF creates a PDF file containing your messages with images embedded in the conversation thread. Note that videos will not be embedded in PDF files.
If you're having issues with connecting your Android device to your PC or backing up your messages, please see our support pages below:
The articles above provide detailed steps to help you resolve your issue, as well as info on how to get in touch with our support staff if you need further help.
