SMS Backup+ removed from Google Play Store

[al-right]

Note added by @kurahaupo 2024-02-13:

As far as we can tell, @jberkel (Jan Berkel, the principal maintainer) has closed his Google PlayStore account (or allowed it to lapse). This has resulted the app being dropped from PlayStore, meaning it is now only available on F-Droid.
Jan has also ceased active development of this project; if you would like to contribute to rejuvenating it, please see #1059.

Original submitted ticket follows:

---

Expected behaviour

Go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1 and you will be able to see SMS Backup+ in Google Play Store and install the app.

Actual behaviour

Go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1 and you will be greeted with the message:

We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.

Also https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Jan+Berkel&hl=en&gl=US does no longer show dev info on Jan.

Reproduce by

No response

Android version

13 (2022)

Phone brand

Samsung

Phone model number

S23

SMS Backup+ version

v1.5.11

Messaging app

No response

Other details

Actually I run android 14 (but not possible to select in github).
Re. SMS Backup+ version I simply select a random version as to be able to fill the bug form.

Is someone able to fix the problem or is there an easy way to install the app through some other trusted channel?

Thanks

[danyfire]

I'm confused the app is discontinued?

[amuagarwal]

It seems that app come under google store policy of non-maintance and security for OAuth issues. Now it will bck only once the app get some update and fix for OAuth issues as per new APIs

[codebuk]

As a workaround I have sideloaded and it works ok.

[kurahaupo]

This pushes up the priority of #1059.

If Jan is no longer contactable, that leaves me as one of the few with write access to this repo, but I still couldn't push to the PlayStore repo even if it still existed.

At least this gives a new project a clean slate with Google.

[kurahaupo]

@al-right thanks for the heads-up.

[cluehaven]

This pushes up the priority of #1059.

I imagine there are a fair few long time freeloaders (aka users) like me who would love to see this working again. My techie skills are modest and stale but I'm happy to be on videoconf/call/chat to review what help would make the task less of a burden and in that there may be something I can do (if only co-ordinating to find others to pitch in as wanted).

[CaTeNdrE]

I miss this app. Not sure what I can do to help but willing.

[BenJewell]

Just wanted to share an update on this effort.

My boyfriend is an Android developer and after the scheduler in this app broke, he tried writing me a new backup app, not realizing that the source code for this one was available.

After many hours of effort, he was unable to read and write RCS messages properly. Although we could modernize this app (probably more like a re-write since it's so old), it would not be worth the time and effort without RCS support, as SMS/MMS are slowly fading away.

Android seems to store RCS messages in its database in some weird way, possibly due to the end-to-end encryption. And there is not a documented method for interfacing with it.

Does anyone know of another open source backup app that DOES support RCS that we might be able to analyze? I don't know of any that are open source unfortunately.

[al-right]

@BenJewell Thanks to you and your boyfriends efforts! :) Very much appreciated. It seems as a larger project to get something going. Maybe some of the links below can be of some sort of help.

1. There seems to be these docs about RCS:

• https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RCC.07-v11.0.pdf
• https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/wp-content/uploads//RCC.14-v8.0-5.pdf
  , from https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/wm18td/stop_telling_people_that_rcs_is_an_open_standard/

2. "The RCS-e stack is an open source implementation of the Rich Communication Suite standards for Google Android platform. This implementation is compliant to GSMA RCS-e Blackbird standards. ...": https://github.com/android-rcs/rcsjta

3. "Messaging in RCS": https://realtimecommunication.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/messaging-in-rcs/

4. "What is RCS messaging? Everything you need to know about the SMS successor": https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-rcs-messaging/

5. Wiki-article on RCS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services

[chadcancode]

For me, this will still backup when manually initiated. I would love to see the scheduler working again. There appears to be a 3rd party approach to triggering the backup by broadcast intents but I don't know how to trigger these.

[kurahaupo]

@BenJewell I spent a long time looking into RCS support options, and (at the time) searching for "RCS API" always took me to pages offering server side support (usually for a fee), intended for companies to send bulk RCS messages without actually using a phone at all.

It became obvious that Google simply don't provide a new API to deal with RCS messages on a phone, but the consensus (among the very few with any technical information) seemed to be RCS messages were accessible using the existing Android API for dealing with SMS and MMS messages.

From the links provided by @al-right it appears that that's only partly correct; we need an interpretation layer over the top; it's not clear whether SMS-Backup actually needs such a layer, since it's not presenting messages, merely storing them.

(Personally I've been leaving RCS turned off on my phone precisely to ensure that all my messages continue to be backed up until this is sorted.)

I would like to see a wider community effort rather than get stuck again with a single developer who goes silent. We need a new architecture to support a range of related tasks:

• back-up and restoration (note that backing up a phone to a Google account now covers this use case, but that does not suit everyone);
• treating phone logs as "just another message type";
• record phone calls (probably using a separate app, since it would have to be gated by jurisdiction to be legal) and link them to the relevant phone log entries;
• allowing messages to be stored in various ways, including (as now) any IMAP account (including GMail), but as future options, re-enabling XOAuth access to GMail, and building a capability to store messages locally on the phone, or forwarded by SMTP. Also allow messages to be saved into a calendar, selectable by message type.
• allowing a unified archive search of sent and received SMS, MMS, & RCS messages alongside email and perhaps other message types (despite its name, that's actually the principal use-case for many existing users of SMS-Backup+, including myself).

[opello]

FYI, Re: RCS: #1097 -- I haven't tested it, read through it when I saw it and it seemed pretty good though, for whatever that's worth.

[Mibou]

Sad that it's been removed from Google Play, I've been using it for years and discovered it was removed after my phone got stole and that I tried to reinstall the app on a new phone.
Reinstalled the app from F-droid, works perfectly, thanks for the tip.

[BacchusFLT]

Never paying for the app, never submitting any relevant change requests, and still using it, I am fully aware that I am in no position to request anything. Just humbly ask.

It's just that I have given up only using my corporate SIM in my private phone whereas using an eSIM for my private subscription in my corporate phone works fine. With the catch that the corporate phone is device managed where a policy blocks side loading. So SMS Backup+ not being on Google Play is a brick wall type of problem for me.

Any hope that anyone would make the effort to remove the obstructing parts and repost it?

[tamarw]

The primary issue here is that on September 30th, which is 22 days away, app passwords will not longer work. And therefore we have no choice but to use oauth.

However, Jan is gone and it seems that nobody is able to replicate the code. I know I can't and I know I'd be willing to pay for it because I am highly dependent upon searching my emails for communications and use the search to find call and MMS logs more often than not.

So we could all be sideloading the app, but we have less than 4 weeks before this app will no longer work for any of us.

I really hope somebody can realize how important this is and hopefully come up with an application that does the same thing leveraging oAuth. I honestly do not understand why Jan stopped supporting oauth and became dependent on app passwords, but that was a frustration in itself many years ago. (I've been a user forever.)

Let's hope we can get something soon, I am going to be completely lost without this app. It is among my top apps that I'm completely dependent upon.

[sshaikh]

Do you have a source for that? My understanding is that account username and password access will cease to function via third party apps. But generated "app passwords" will still work. Would appreciate a confirmation!

[tamarw]

I'm not sure what the difference is? Wouldn't that be basically the same thing?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2024/09/05/new-gmail-app-access-password-deadline-you-have-4-weeks-to-comply/.

[chadcancode]

Do you have a source for that? My understanding is that account username and password access will cease to function via third party apps. But generated "app passwords" will still work. Would appreciate a confirmation!

This is my understanding as well. Some article I read even suggested app passwords as a workaround. I'm hoping Google doesn't remove that support as well.

[sshaikh]

I'm not sure what the difference is? Wouldn't that be basically the same thing?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2024/09/05/new-gmail-app-access-password-deadline-you-have-4-weeks-to-comply/.

No, what's going away is being able to use your name@gmail.com and password123 credentials to access your Gmail via an email client.

Going into your security settings and generating a unique password for an app to use Gmail is not going away (and how you should be using smsb+ already).

[tamarw]

Got it, thanks. I know it's a matter of time though. We need an oAuth alternative sooner rather than later.

[gunamoi1]

As I understand, the requirement for OAuth is only for Gmail email accounts. Until recently I was still able to use SMSBackup with my personal server email address, which still accepts username/password and SSL.
My problem is that my old phone finally crashed on Sunday, and since the app is no longer available on Play Store or Fdroid, I have no way to reinstall on my new phone.
Can anyone tell me where I can find an apk of the most recent SMSBackup version, that I can manually install on the new phone?
regards,

[opello]

@gunamoi1 Did you check the releases for this project?

https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/releases/tag/1.5.11

The version number matches that which I still have installed.

[BenJewell]

SMS Backup+ With RCS Fix.zip

This is the one I use... Someone added RCS backup support a while back.

[opello]

It looks like that's the SMS backup plus with RCS fix v2.apk.zip from #1097?

[BenJewell]

Yeah. I guess it would have been easier to just find that and link to it than to pull the APK off my phone.

[gunamoi1]

@opello : Thanks for that link. I saw the source code but somehow missed the APK link. It's been over 10 years since I did an android app, and I wasn't sure I've still got the capability to do my own APK from source. But I've downloaded the 1.5.11 APK and installed on the new phone and it works exactly as it did on the old phone. Many thanks.

@BenJewell: Thanks for that. I don't currently need RCS, so I won't install that one. But I've downloaded and archived just in case. regards.

[chadcancode]

I didn't realize there was a newer, RCS version. I'm still running 1.5.11 and have had issues where my messages aren't grouped in the same threaded backup as the person I'm talking to. I'm curious now if this will fix it.

What's the upgrade path? If I just remove the old app and sideload the new apk, will it re-backup all my old messages or only new messages going forward? I prefer to not create a whole bunch of duplicates in GMail.

Also, I'm curious if there will be issues in the GMail login. I can't recall but I think I'm using a GMail app password combo with IMAP b/c iirc, OAuth in the app wasn't working. Is that still the workable route for new installs?

[opello]

I'm still running 1.5.11 and have had issues where my messages aren't grouped in the same threaded backup as the person I'm talking to.

My understanding is that the threading is fixed in the RCS version too, but I never made the jump to it to see. It was mentioned in d9ef19f in a review comment.

I'm not sure what the upgrade path is beyond the signing issue mentioned in the pull request--since the APK is signed by a different key the OS won't let you "upgrade" as a security measure, so that seems more like uninstall/reinstall.

As I understand the login issue, it's not a problem because "app passwords" can still be used. It's been discussed in this issue along with the misunderstanding that app passwords might go away. If that affects new setup I'm not sure, it'd be worth trying in an emulator or something before abandoning an existing install. I just haven't gone down that path just yet. I'm just a fan/user here so all I have is what I've gleaned from these issues and pull requests.

[locofocos]

I'm the author of #1097. Honestly it's working great for me 😀 I have perfect backups across SMS, MMS, group MMS, RCS, etc. I compiled the latest code in that PR and attached a zip file here, but honestly you're trusting me, an internet stranger, a lot 🤷

The scheduling still works for me, on my pixel 3a running Android 10. Maybe it's broken in newer versions of Android, I don't know. Perhaps it will work if you keep your phone plugged in and connected to wifi.

Regarding app passwords vs oauth, I've been using this workaround for years: https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/08/12/sms-backup-is-now-broken-due-to-gmails-api-changes-but-theres-a-workaround/ and it's still working today. I hope that helps!

[flyoffacliff]

For what it's worth, the scheduling was broken for me in Android 13 and 14 in the last official release, but it's fixed in the version with the RCS fix. Been working flawlessly on Android 14 for months. :)

Thank you to whoever fixed it, lol.

[diinrel]

I have a comment and a question...

• First the comment, more like praise. I was on iPhone for many years before a brief flirtation with Android about 5 years ago. I was able move my messages over to my Android ok, but later when I found this app, I loved the idea of having regular backups, to my email no less (which has better ability to search than any text app). Then I moved back to iPhone about a year later and during that process Apple's migration tool messed it all up. Almost every message send date was rewritten with the date I migrated, and in many cases, my own texts were missing entirely. But thanks the SMS Backup + I still had all the original texts! Thanks for that!!!
• The question... I have since moved back to Android and while the migration process worked ok this time, all the corruption introduced by Apple has persisted. I had been using SMS backup + to continue to backup my new texts and was planning to try to reimport everything using SMS Backup + hopefully fixing all the issues and missing texts. BUT since Android 15, changes in the permission structure no longer allow me to give SMS permissions to this app. Not only do I no longer have the backup option, but I also don't have any hope of getting my old data back (that SMS backup + saved!). So, is this project still being worked on and is there hope of it being continued? I did notice there was a commit a few weeks back so that was a good sign. Hopefully it's not dead!

In sum, thanks a ton to those who have worked on this, and please don't abandon the project!

[BenJewell]

It's been pretty dead for years. Looks like they just made a couple changes to get it to compile. Someone made a patch a while back to fix RCS messages and fix the automatic scheduler, which both work great in Android 14.

Not sure what changes might be needed to get it running on Android 15. Might be a simple matter of tweaking a few parameters and compiling it. I'll probably get a new phone with A15 sometime within the next 6 months or so, and I may try to fix it if it's an issue. Or someone else may do it.

Another thing you could do is restore your messages onto an older Android device first and then migrate it to your current phone with a different method.

Messages are backed up automatically to Google accounts but I think that just covers the past two years. There's an app called SMS Backup and Restore that stores them as XML files and you could move them with that.

[sshaikh]

Backup works on a15 here, not tried restore.

[diinrel]

Not sure what changes might be needed to get it running on Android 15. Might be a simple matter of tweaking a few parameters and compiling it.

I think it's just that the SMS permission need to be updated to account for changes in Android 15. I can install and launch the app, but when I try to set SMS priveldges, the option is greyed out.

Backup works on a15 here, not tried restore.

I suspect it's because I am installing the app anew after upgrading to Android 15, rather than upgrading with the app already in place and permissions granted on 14 (I upgraded my phone in the last few weeks and hadn't gotten around to installing SMS backup + while still on 14).

This happened with another SMS app (QUIK). In that case, the app continued to work fine through the upgrade to Android 15, but only when I tried to reinstalling it after temporarily deleting it did I run into this same problem.

This is all just conjecture based on behaviour as I don't have any info about if/what changes to permissions may have been included with Android 15.

Another thing you could do is restore your messages onto an older Android device first and then migrate it to your current phone with a different method.

Messages are backed up automatically to Google accounts but I think that just covers the past two years. There's an app called SMS Backup and Restore that stores them as XML files and you could move them with that.

That's true, I still have my old phone on Android 14. I suppose I could export everything with SMS Backup and Restore (which does work well), import on the old phone, set up SMS Backup + and export everything to email, re-import everything via email, export with SMS Backup and Restore, and then import on my new phone. Convoluted, but it would work... Hopefully I can just install it again on Android 15 again before too long!

Update 2025-01-10.

So I was correct about the permission issue on Android 15, but missed that there was a solution at hand. As you can see above, there is a "Learn how to allow access" link on the popup. But I could never actually click the link.

Well the other day I found via another search that there is a "Allow restricted settings" option hidden away in an overflow menu of the particular app in Settings. I checked that, and was able to give SMS permission and proceed.

Over the course of a day or so, all ~80,000 SMS/MMS/RCS messages were backed up to IMAP. Thanks to the excellent work by @locofocos in #1097, not only are all RCS/MMS messages backed up properly -- with all media! -- but group message threading is all retained. I actually had just assumed all along that media and message threading just weren't possible since they weren't there in previous versions of the app that I had used. What a pleasant surprise that was to find all those features present.

I did my best to leave the phone alone, with external power, this app in the foreground, and display on as much as possible, to encourage proper backing up. The only hitch I ran into was that the process got stalled several times and I had to press "stop" and start again. Otherwise, this all went flawlessly. Automatic backups have been working great for the past few days.

BTW this is a Pixel 9 Pro on Android 15 QPR1 (as served up by GrapheneOS).

[Jestengel]

I've used this on Pixels 4-8 and up to A15 on the P8. Then I transferred my data to a Pixel 9 and it disappeared. I see now that with the good work of others here, I should be able to get it back. THANK YOU ALL. Meanwhile, I am trying SMS backup & Restore from Synctech. Free version for now. If the Synctech works well I'll have no problem chipping in $5 USD for the Pro version. If not, then I'll give this old SMS Backup+ another shot.

[pmruzicka]

SMS Backup & Restore - I backed up to Google drive and it works. Restored to phone from Google Drive and that works. However, not quite the same as it saves xml file in the zip. Not quite the same as saving to SMS folder on email account where you could actually read the original messages like an email. So in that respect, it is not what I want - only next best thing, unfortunately.

[kurahaupo]

@diinrel any chance you could take a look at the Manifest and see what needs to be changed?

[diinrel]

@diinrel any chance you could take a look at the Manifest and see what needs to be changed?

I'm not a developer so don't know if I can help with that, though maybe I don't understand what you're asking. Let me know if there's anything in particular. And I'm happy to help test.

@kurahaupo see my updated comment above. After finding a hidden setting, everything appears to be working for me now. I'm still happy to help test with anything within my capacity, though.

[kurahaupo]

@diinrel Thanks for the update; that's really helpful!