Forum Discussion

Earyamk's avatar
Earyamk
Brass Contributor
Oct 29, 2026

Does SMS Backup and Restore have a PC version for viewing text messages?

Just backed up a few years of text messages from my Android phone using SMS Backup & Restore. The backup was saved as an XML file, and now I'd like to open and read those messages on my Windows 10 PC...
Otissieri's avatar
Otissieri
Iron Contributor
Oct 29, 2026

You might want to try SMS Viewer and Exporter, since you already have an XML backup file. If you're looking for SMS Backup and Restore for PC free download, this tool can read XML backup files created by SMS Backup & Restore and display the messages in a much more readable format.

How to SMS Backup and Restore for PC free download:

Method 1: Open Directly

  1. This is the simplest method and requires no installation.
  2. Download the latest ZIP file from GitHub and extract the entire folder.
  3. Open index.html using a modern browser.
  4. Select the default country/region used by your phone when the backup was created.
  5. Select or drag and drop your SMS Backup & Restore XML file into the viewer.
  6. Open a contact to read messages just as you would in a regular conversation.

 

You can search the backup content and export conversations to PDF format; CSV and JSON formats are also supported.

 

Method 2: Run via localhost

1. If the backup file is very large, or if opening index.html directly causes browser-related issues, you can instead start a local server. Open a terminal in the extracted folder and run:

python3 -m http.server 8000 --bind 127.0.0.1

2. Then open the following URL in your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

This way, the application and messages remain stored on your own computer; the backup is not uploaded to a remote server. Running the application via localhost also provides more reliable storage and handles very large CSV or JSON export files more effectively.