[Q] Issue restoring SMS/MMS with Titanium Backup

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Bane99

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2009
206
35
Went through about 16 pages in this section and couldn't find a similar question so here goes.
I'm having a problem restoring my SMS/MMS with Titanium backup on my N5.
This is what I've done so far to my N5

1) Rooted/Unlocked (CF-Autoroot)
2) Flashed TWRP in fastboot

Now I installed Hangouts 2.0 via an apk leak on my Samsung Captivate running CM 10.1.3. I also backed up my SMS/MMS with titanium backup to .xml.

On the N5, I have chosen to restore SMS/MMS from xml, and unfortunately nothing shows up in hangouts.

Is there a way to remedy this? Would it be better to restore from Hangouts to get the MMS/SMS back? Thanks all.
 

jmelan

Senior Member
Jul 2, 2007
67
40
Tried the same and failed. Seems to be a problem going from a touchwiz ROM to the N5 with TiBu.

The most recent beta of my backup pro was able to restore SMS and MMS media files but not group messages.

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=47182271&postcount=27

Someone posted that the handcent backup feature works as well, but no one has confirmed group messages are restored.

http://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!searchin/hangouts/mms/hangouts/LFnU4ieifzM


Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
 
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Bane99

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2009
206
35
Tried the same and failed. Seems to be a problem going from a touchwiz ROM to the N5 with TiBu.

The most recent beta of my backup pro was able to restore SMS and MMS media files but not group messages.

Someone posted that the handcent backup feature works as well, but no one has confirmed group messages are restored.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

Do you mean samsung device? I was running CM 10.1.3 on my captivate. Gonna read that other thread, thanks for the info!
Hmm, looking at my hangouts on Tibu.... the backup data says package version 1.2.018 (849105-30) (12018130)
However I know I installed 2.0 on my phone.... guess I'll be trying with another backup again?
 
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jmelan

Senior Member
Jul 2, 2007
67
40
Sorry, missed that. I guess it is not just touchwiz.

I updated my last post with the links with more info on the other options.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
 

Bane99

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2009
206
35
Update:
So I did another backup, getting the version to 2.0.122. Restored data on my N5 which prompted a reboot due to updating system data.
Upon reboot, all my SMS are now present in Hangouts! Even my "group" SMS. Not really keen on restoring system info to be honest due to possible issues, but it seemed to work. MMS, however aren't really working well... I see three bouncing dots for every picture.

Update2:
This time I tried to do what someone in the other post said. I backed up Hangouts, uninstalled hangouts, and tried to restore the app only. Unfortunately this led to a Titanium Backup hang. Upon forced restart, the Hangout app is back, but all the SMS/MMS are gone. Re-uninstalling and re-installing Hangouts with data this time and also getting another hang in Tibu... this is highly annoying. I guess I can always just get the SMS and save the pics on my other phone.
 
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Bane99

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2009
206
35
Are you kidding me? Tried to install Hangouts from the Play Store and it gives me version 1.2?
Either way, Titanium Backup isn't playing nice with restoring Hangouts as all it does is hang on me, even with indirect selected.
At least after I force a restart, the correct Hangout app is installed and perhaps I can work from there.

Might as well restore SMS from SMS Backup and Restore and then just save the pics on my old phone and transfer them over to the N5.
 

nisha86ge

Member
Oct 2, 2013
18
0
try not use hangout for text messages

I suggest you to try to not use hangout for the text messages and try another app, try now with the restore, it should work
 

electric0ant

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2011
529
104
has titanium backup been updated to support 4.4?
if you try restoring and it does not ask about setting the default SMS app to titanium backup then its not going to work.
4.4 only allows one app at a time to have access to the SMS database.

you can try sms backup and restore it has been updated to support 4.4
 

jmelan

Senior Member
Jul 2, 2007
67
40
has titanium backup been updated to support 4.4?
if you try restoring and it does not ask about setting the default SMS app to titanium backup then its not going to work.
4.4 only allows one app at a time to have access to the SMS database.

you can try sms backup and restore it has been updated to support 4.4

I contacted titanium support a few days ago to ask this exact question but have not heard a response yet

TiBu definitely does NOT ask to be the default SMS app

Both handcent and my backup pro have been documented to work for SMS and MMS except for group messages but require paying for additional features.

-handcent may work for group messages but is untested, while my backup pro does not work

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
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electric0ant

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2011
529
104
I contacted titanium support a few days ago to ask this exact question but have not heard a response yet

TiBu definitely does NOT ask to be the default SMS app

Both handcent and my backup pro have been documented to work for SMS and MMS except for group messages but require paying for additional features.

-handcent may work for group messages but is untested, while my backup pro does not work

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

you should use SMS Backup & Restore. that works for sure as it has been updated to support SMS for 4.4:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore

this will also help:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=47104611#post47104611
 

nfaust01

Senior Member
Jan 28, 2009
162
19
Clinton Township, MI
+1 for SMS back up and restore. I would always have problems using titanium restoring if the ROM was slightly different. With SMS backup you dont have to worry about version unless it is brand new OS version but they are quick to support. Hence they already support 4.4.
 

hotleadsingerguy

Senior Member
Jan 12, 2010
925
173
you should use SMS Backup & Restore. that works for sure as it has been updated to support SMS for 4.4:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore

this will also help:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=47104611#post47104611

This.

As others have said, only one application can have access to the SMS database at a time. If Titanium doesn't ask to be set to default when you try to restore, then it's not yet been updated to work with 4.4. Being rooted and giving Titanium root access might be why you don't see an error at the time (because it's probably trying to overwrite data), but it still probably won't work the way it should.

Just use SMS Backup & Restore. It works flawlessly with 4.4, it's a super small footprint, the dev publishes the source so you can tell there's nothing going on with it that shouldn't be, and it does its job perfectly. I've used it for years, even on handsets that were rooted and where I used TB heavily.
 

BKPhil

Member
Aug 19, 2011
20
7
This.

As others have said, only one application can have access to the SMS database at a time. If Titanium doesn't ask to be set to default when you try to restore, then it's not yet been updated to work with 4.4. Being rooted and giving Titanium root access might be why you don't see an error at the time (because it's probably trying to overwrite data), but it still probably won't work the way it should.

Just use SMS Backup & Restore. It works flawlessly with 4.4, it's a super small footprint, the dev publishes the source so you can tell there's nothing going on with it that shouldn't be, and it does its job perfectly. I've used it for years, even on handsets that were rooted and where I used TB heavily.

SMS Backup and Restore worked flawlessly for me. Unfortunately it only does SMS, not MMS (eg messages with pictures attached). But that's OK, it does the SMS part brilliantly.

In trying to preserve my handful of MMS, I also tried MyBackup Pro. That worked strangely - it does all the default app stuff, but all restored threads had, and sometimes the oldest message was 'on top' of the thread. That was fixable by selecting a thread and deleting any single message from the thread - suddenly the thread showed the correct dates and order.

So in the end, I did SMS Backup and Restore to move over my SMS (99% of what I had) and MyBackup Pro for only the MMS messages, which I then fixed by tweaking the threads as above.

[Regardless of above, I also decided not to use Hangouts for SMS/MMS (Hangouts introduced too many inter-dependencies and integrations for my tastes). Loaded 8SMS (a port of the non-Nexus KitKat Messaging app) instead, seems solid]
 

Forcelord50

Member
Apr 17, 2011
9
4
Just adding my two cents here. I was able to use SMS Backup + to back up both my SMS and MMS to my Gmail and then restore them. I then did what the previous poster said and went into the Settings > Apps > All > Hangouts menu and cleared all data. This brought all my messages up after I relaunched Hangouts.
 

Bane99

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2009
206
35
Thanks everyone,
So I discovered that I had 3 total pictures in MMS that I wanted saved... So I went ahead and downloaded them on my cappy.
Then I just used SMS Backup and Restore, and all is good. Definitely not something I want to go about doing again. And for the love of all, do not uninstall Hangouts with TiBu. Play Store will just give you version 1.2, and Tibu hangs on restoring. Shutting off the phone and starting it up should show hangouts after and it's been working pretty well so far.
 

Coweri

Member
Nov 13, 2013
15
1
SMS Backup and Restore worked flawlessly for me. Unfortunately it only does SMS, not MMS (eg messages with pictures attached). But that's OK, it does the SMS part brilliantly.

In trying to preserve my handful of MMS, I also tried MyBackup Pro. That worked strangely - it does all the default app stuff, but all restored threads had, and sometimes the oldest message was 'on top' of the thread. That was fixable by selecting a thread and deleting any single message from the thread - suddenly the thread showed the correct dates and order.

So in the end, I did SMS Backup and Restore to move over my SMS (99% of what I had) and MyBackup Pro for only the MMS messages, which I then fixed by tweaking the threads as above.

[Regardless of above, I also decided not to use Hangouts for SMS/MMS (Hangouts introduced too many inter-dependencies and integrations for my tastes). Loaded 8SMS (a port of the non-Nexus KitKat Messaging app) instead, seems solid]

I use a PC program named Android SMS + MMS Transfer. Both SMS/MMS messages are supported.

Hope it helps.
 
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ldubs

Senior Member
Dec 25, 2012
827
88
Brooklyn, NY
Just had this same issue. I loaded a ROM and didn't like it. So I restored a Nandroid and attempted to restore my SMS/MMS (Messaging, XML), have a recent backup from 1/22, it asked me to make Titanium the default SMS app, restored, completed, made Hangouts the default app again, but when I go into Hangouts the last text I have is from end of December. I rebooted, cleared cache and data in Hangouts but no luck.

Not sure why this isn't working now. I had no issues bringing in my texts and MMS messages when I switched from my Moto Bionic to Nexus.

Would love to hear some other ideas.
 

ldubs

Senior Member
Dec 25, 2012
827
88
Brooklyn, NY
Semi solved by selecting all hangouts, deleting them, and restoring my backup. Still feel there should be a better way. Anyone know if there's a db file I can delete in root explorer if I need to do this again? Or better yet there should be a way to merge the current and backed up msgs ...

sent from my hammerhead
 

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    Go and clear data for Hangouts and it should show your text messages from TB. That is what I had to do.

    Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk