How to view or edit the SMS and Call Logs backup files on a computer

Jan 19

Although the files created by SMS Backup & Restore and Call Logs Backup & Restore are XML files, they can be easily viewed in any Web browser (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) and can also be opened in MS Excel.

View the backup data using a Web Browser:

To be able to view the files on a computer, the first thing to do is to make sure that the preferences for “Add XSL Tag” and “Add Readable Date” in the Preferences of the app are checked before taking a backup.

Copy the backup file to a folder on the computer.
Download (right click on the link and select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” or equivalent on your browser) the SMS.xsl (SMS Backup & Restore) or Calls.xsl (for Call Logs Backup & Restore) file and store it in the same folder as the xml file.
Open the xml file in the browser. The browser will now display it in a friendly HTML format.

Threaded view for SMS Messages:

BlueChip has put together a nice stylesheet to display the SMS Messages in a threaded view. Currently it only works on Opera and Mozilla Firefox.

Make sure that the preferences for “Add XSL Tag” and “Add Readable Date” in the Preferences of the app are checked before taking a backup.
Copy the backup file to a folder on the computer.
Click here to download the ZIP file containing the scripts and style sheets required.
Once downloaded, extract the files from the ZIP file into the same folder as the backup XML file.
Open the XML file in the browser. The browser will now display it in a friendly HTML format with a threaded view.
You can also change the style/theme by changing the option in the drop down.

View/Edit messages using MS Excel:

MS Excel can also be used to edit these files if you are not comfortable in editing them in a text editor. Here are the steps involved to do that:

Open Excel and select File -> Open and then select XML Files (*.xml) in the file type dropdown.
Press OK.
Press OK.
To view the date in a human understandable format, enter the following value in a new column and then copy it to all the rows: =([@date]/86400000)+25569
Format the new column as a date/time.
Done.

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Comments

droid8

September 1st, 2010 at 11:39 AM


call log doesnt work but sms back up does. … Odd. It could be b/c I just now enabled add tag and make readable?
PO

August 26th, 2010 at 2:21 AM


Works great. But I noticed that when saving the sms.xls and calls.xls files, Windows happily changes the suffix to .xml instead of .xls. Be sure to set the suffix to .xls and it should work.

Great job Ritesh!
Thx
// PO
arielle

August 24th, 2010 at 8:17 AM


okay, so i’ve emailed myself a copy of the backed up file because the app had that option. i downloaded mozilla firefox just so i could view it nicely. i recieved it in my email and attempted to open the downloaded file on mozilla firefox. it didnt open anything just a blank white page. i tried to go back to the e-mail and right click the download link to “save link as” but then got lost from there, if anyone could help me that would be great.
misja

July 17th, 2010 at 7:23 AM


great to be able to save a copy of the messages on a pc and i do not understand why ben is not able to get the display right. i did exactly what is written and have a nice screen with all the messages displayed in ie8. for me it is very clear and it defenitely works.

arielle

August 24th, 2010 at 8:21 AM


hi, if you don’t mind coud you help me through the steps of viewing it? and also after viewing the texts does that link work forever;if i keep the e-mail with the download link of the file i could open it on any computer and view the texts..?

Artificiere

July 14th, 2010 at 4:07 AM


Hi, I’ve download the zip archive…extract it in same folder of my backup file and in a xml file add ” (call style of page) than open backup.xml with firefox, and it show first the sent sms and last the received…
I hope in a help of someone

Thanks,
Artificiere

PS: excuse for my english !!!!
Andy

July 11th, 2010 at 1:27 PM


I’m still getting errors trying to read the XML files with the threaded view. I have the right settings set on the application, it still won’t load correctly in the browser when I try to open it in either Firefox or IE8.

I get this in Firefox: “XML Parsing Error: reference to invalid character number
“

Ritesh

July 13th, 2010 at 10:34 PM


Can you try the non-threaded xsl and see if you still get the same error?

chariy

July 10th, 2010 at 7:29 AM


Hey Ritesh,

first really really nice App, works pretty great and i allready thougth i would never find an offline app to backup my short messages,

but, could you integrate an operation to the *.xml export, that converts special german character like ” ä ö ü ß é è ” and so on in the usual way to ” ae oe ue ss e e ” and so on ? I think thats the fault why the *.xsl File doesnt work for Jessica. I converted the letters in the xml-File with an editor, but it would be much easier if your app would do that automatically.

Thanx a lot
chariy
Jessica

June 23rd, 2010 at 4:01 PM


All I get when trying to do the threaded in Firefox part is this

“This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.”

I followed what it said to do…and its not working for me…what am I doing wrong?

Ritesh

June 23rd, 2010 at 4:37 PM


Have you checked the “Add XSL Tag” in the Preferences of the App? I’ve updated the post to make it more clearer.

Jessica

June 27th, 2010 at 8:10 PM


Ok…nope didn’t have those checked;; Thanks for the clarification!!

BlueChip

June 13th, 2010 at 8:50 AM


Dave,

You can create and XSLT file which describes the XML.
This page has a tutorial:
http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=3490
…but it’s not a 2 minute job

Alternatively, a bit further down that page, there is an example of how to do it in OOo BASIC – which looks FAR simpler

Don’t forget to post your solution here so others may share in your success

BC
Ben

June 3rd, 2010 at 4:05 AM


Just to recap. I have now followed each and everyone of your instructions above, and they have no bearing on reality whatsoever. They produce various effects, none of which is to be able to view backed up SMS messages in any kind of functional format. I strongly suggest that you write some instructions which actually conform to reality if you’re really trying to attract paying customers.

Ritesh

June 2nd, 2010 at 6:10 PM


Ben, may I ask which browser and operating system are you using? I had tested it on IE8 and firefox when I had created the files. I can’t test it for the next few hours but will test it again as soon as i can. I’ve updated the saving part a bit, hoping to make it a bit more obvious.

Ben

June 3rd, 2010 at 4:03 AM


OK, so I save the so-called style sheet. (FYI, your instruction should read “click and open, then save as” not “download.” Regardless, when I try to view my SMS, I get the error message below. I love the concept of this app. If you ever actually create a working version of it, please let me know and I’ll happily try again, and donate if it works. Also, FYI, if a person doesn’t enter the captcha correctly, it erases the whole message and you have to start over. That’s kinda dumb too, don’t you think?

The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.

——————————————————————————–

System error: -2146697211. Error processing resource
Ben

June 3rd, 2010 at 4:03 AM


WTF is this?

−

−

−

−

body
{
font-family:arial,sans-serif;
color:#000;
font-size:13px;
color:#333;
}
table
{
font-size:1em;
margin:0 0 1em;
border-collapse:collapse;
border-width:0;
empty-cells:show;
}
td,th
{
border:1px solid #ccc;
padding:6px 12px;
text-align:left;
vertical-align:top;
background-color:inherit;
}
th
{
background-color:#dee8f1;
}

−

SMS Messages
−

−

Type
Number
Contact
Date
Message

−

−

−

Received

Sent

−

−

−

−
Ben

June 3rd, 2010 at 4:03 AM


Unfortunately, your instructions make no sense. You write:

“Then, download the SMS.xsl or Calls.xsl file and store it in the same folder as the xml file.”

But when one clicks on either of these hyperlinks to download the file, it simply brings up an html page.

Please write some English directions to enable people to view SMS messages.
Dave

January 27th, 2010 at 2:36 AM


Does anyone know how to pull the XML data into an Open Office application like Calc or Database?

I found a way toimport the tXML using an SQL script but not cannot find the link.

Thanks,
Dave