SMS Backup now restores all SMS when you Delete SMS / Flash ROM or Switch Phone

Good news for all Windows Phone users who either keep flashing or switching roms or have accidentally deleted SMS or you are switching to brand new Windows Phone and want to restore back. SMS Backup tool which came out recently and used to backup all your SMS to Skydrive or on your phone can now also restore all your SMS provided your phone is at least Dev / Chevron  unlocked starting from version 0.4.

I have used it restore a deleted SMS , one of the Omnia 7 users confirmed it works when you switch rom. The only place it will not work is because of the latest KK2 Update by Samsung which blocks the hack but if you have unlocked before you will not have issues.

How to use Restore Feature :

SMS Backup App

  • If you have come here directly, Go grab the SMS Backup App from here and read the tutorial from here
  • Go to Settings of SMS Backup and switch to Backup . Select Backup Store.vol and it will take all backup of your SMS.

Backup SMS Contacts WP

Exporting the SMS:

  • Download the Windows Phone Power Tool from here
  • Connect your phone, turn on Zune.
  • Now launch the Windows Phone Power Tool and connect to your phone
  • Switch to File Browser and look for an App with GUID as seen in the image below, Expand it
  • Navigate to BackupVols
  • Select store.vol and use the Get Button to export on your computer.
SMs Backup Export Store vol

PS : Next step if you have switch rom make sure to install SMS backup again.

Importing SMS :

  • Run the Windows Phone Power Tool and navigate to the same App & Navigate to BackupVols
  • This time use the Put File Option which will prompt you to select a file. Point it to the system.vol file you backup earlier.

Restoring SMS :

  • Launch the App and go to Backup Restore Section.
  • Hit the restore button and if your files are placed correctly, it will restore and then ask you to restart your phone.
  • Once you do that, you should see all your SMS in place.

Video Demo

Watch on YouTube

Ashish Mohta
A die-hard fan of Windows, PC Gaming, and Xbox. He is a seasoned content writer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He is a specialist in writing about Windows, software reviews, troubleshooting Windows, and automation.

35 COMMENTS

  1. There’s a Live Connect SDK now. You should take this app and give it Skydrive Upload ability. Would make it infinitely more useful!

  2. Hey Brandon, It already has skydrive integration and allows you to backup all SMS as TXT or XML file. This post is only to show restore to phone.

  3. Hi Ashish,

    When I try to connect my lumia 800 to the Windows Phone Power Tool, I get the following message: “Developer unlock has expired. Lock and re-unlock your phone using the SDK Registration Tool”. Any ideas how to get past this? This is holding me up from installing the SMS Backup application on my phone!

    Thanks in advance!

  4. Its asking for the official unlocking which costs like 99$ per year and still has restriction. Unfortunately lumia doesnt have proper unlocking as of now.

  5. If it has SkyDrive integration then do you really need to do this to restore the sms? Shouldn’t it be able to directly pull the backup file from SkyDrive rather than having to go through the Windows Phone Power Tool?

  6. Looks great. I’m just wondering what you mean by “Deleted Messages”. If I’ve deleted messages from my phone, are they still I’m the “Store.vol” ? Does wp7 keep deleted messages forever ?
    Also if the phone is not jailbroken is it still possible to access manually the “Store.vol”?

  7. Sir,please help me.
    tell me some other way to restore long time deleted message threads.
    Suggest me other way as soo as possible.

  8. Sir,please help me. tell me some other way to restore long time deleted message threads. Suggest me other way as soo as possible.

  9. Hi Ashish,

    I have HTC HD7 T9292 Windows phone. When deploy sms backup XAP file using application deployment i am getting this “Error – 0x81030120” error. Please let me know what is the issues. How to resolve this?

  10. I have paid the $99 fee out of desperation, phone is fully unlocked, but can’t register the phone to skydrive so I need to use the isolated storage option. Unfortunately I have no idea how to actually use isolated storage to view the information/restore the sms in such a way that I can read it. Everything requires more know how than I actually have, although I have downloaded Visual Studio…for what it’s worth. Emulator just shows up blank. I have I can see where the roottools shows me where the file is on the phone, but just can’t seem to restore the files and view them. Any advice? I would greatly appreciate it!!!! Thank you!

  11. Hi Ashish, Do you have any idea how recover contacts, data from my Android dell venue handsets? Please help me.

  12. HI Ashish, how complicated is it, can you please explain? cuz I couldnt take a backup using .vol files and I had to export to .txt file and upload on skydrive. Now, I have all text messages in .txt files. The phone has been reset and the only way I can restore my text messages is using the .txt file exported using SMSBackup.
    Thanks in advance,
    Ashish

  13. Hi Ashish –

    Can you help me to recover deleted text messages from a Nokia 920 phone? I am willing to pay for your time.

    Thank you.

  14. Hi
    I have the nokia 610, i want to restore some texts which i deleted a short while ago. I have read your tutorial but i cant work out how to get to the back up section which you show in your picture? How do i get to that part?

  15. hi ashish – i have accidently deleted important texts from a lumia 720 – i really need to restore these – can you help please – are these texts somewhere in my phone – please say yes

  16. If deleted there is no way to restore it. Also, This method is only applicable for Windows Phone 7.8 users.

  17. Hello Ashish,

    I had a Lumia 920 phone and all my SMS backed up to SkyDrive however, I no longer use the LUMIA, I have a Blackberry Z10 at the moment.

    How can I download my SMS from Skydrive to my new phone? Or is that even possible?

    Many thanks in advance.

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