How to create a backup file

Textive reads the export produced by SMS Backup & Restore, an Android app. If you’ve never created one before, here’s the whole process, start to finish.

1. Install SMS Backup & Restore

On the Android phone with the texts you want to archive, install “SMS Backup & Restore” from the Google Play Store.

2. Start a backup

Open the app and choose to back up. It’ll ask what to include: texts (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS) are what Textive reads, so make sure those are selected.

Got years of texts, especially with a lot of photos and videos? Consider breaking the backup into smaller pieces instead of one giant file. SMS Backup & Restore’s Advanced options, on the same screen you start a backup from, let you set a date range, so you could do one year at a time, for example.

A smaller backup is less likely to fail partway through, whether that’s during this backup or a future restore, and if something does go wrong you only have to redo that one range instead of everything. You can upload each piece to Textive separately too. It folds them all into one continuous archive automatically, with no duplicates, however many pieces you upload.

3. Choose where to save it

The app offers a few places to save to: locally on the device, or to a cloud account like Google Drive. Either works. Just keep in mind Textive needs the actual .xml file, so if you save to the cloud, you’ll need to download that file onto whatever device you’ll use to upload it here before moving on.

4. Let it finish

Depending on how many years of texts you have, this can take a while, especially if you’ve sent or received a lot of photos and videos. Leave the app open until it says it’s done.

5. Find the file it created

SMS Backup & Restore shows you the file location when it finishes, typically a folder named SMSBackupRestore, with a filename like sms-20260101120000.xml.

6. Get it onto whatever device you’ll upload from

If you’re uploading from the same phone, you’re already set. Otherwise, transfer the file however’s easiest: email it to yourself, connect the phone with a USB cable, or save it to Google Drive (or similar) and download it from there on the device you’ll use.