Restore SMS messages from a rooted phone with a broken screen to an unrooted phone

I managed to restore my text messages using a borrowed 3rd phone that is rooted!

Using:

• The rooted phone with the broken screen that you want to restore from (Phone A)


• The rooted phone with the intact screen that you borrowed (Phone B)


• The unrooted phone that you want to restore to (Phone C)

Do as follows:

1. On Phone A:

   
   
   
   
   
   • Activate recovery mode and pull the mmssms.db file using adb: adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms-phone-A.db
   
   



2. On Phone B:

   
   
   
   
   
   • Activate recovery mode and do the same: adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms-phone-B.db (use this later to restore the borrowed phone's text messages. Note the different file name)
   
   
   • While still in recovery mode, push the file you pulled from Phone A to the Phone B: adb push mmssms-phone-A.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
   
   
   • Change the file owner and permission of the mmssms.db file: adb shell then chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db and chmod 0660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
   
   
   • Restart to regular mode
   
   
   • Install any SMS backup app (I used SMS Backup & Restore but any app would do)
   
   
   • Run the app to backup the text messages
   
   
   • Copy the backup file to some cloud service that you trust or to your desktop/laptop
   
   



3. On Phone C

   
   
   
   
   
   • Copy the backup file from the cloud service or desktop/laptop
   
   
   • Install the same SMS backups app and use its restore function
   
   

Don't forget to restore the original mmssms.db to the 3rd party phone!

4. On Phone B

   
   
   
   
   
   • Restart the phone to recovery mode
   
   
   • Push the mmssms.db file you pulled from Phone B back to it: adb push mmssms-phone-B.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
   
   
   • Change the file owner and permission of the mmssms.db file: adb shell then chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db and chmod 0660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
   
   



5. Enjoy your restored text messages and return Phone B to the friend you borrowed it from ;)