Backs up all SMS messages using Termux.

termux-sms-backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo "Termux SMS Backup"
echo "Copyright 2018 Patrick Gaskin"
hash termux-sms-list ||
    pkg install termux-api &&
hash jq ||
    pkg install jq &&
termux-setup-storage &&
termux-sms-list -l 999999 -t all |
    jq 'group_by(.threadid) |
        map({
            "threadid": .[0].threadid,
            "number": .[0].number,
            "date": .[0].received,
            "all_read": all(.read),
            "num_messages": length,
            "messages": map({
                "type": .type,
                "read": .read,
                "received": .received,
                "body": .body
            })
        }) |
        sort_by(.threadid)
    ' |
tee /sdcard/sms.json |
jq . &&
echo "Saved messages to sms.json in Internal Storage"

Greetings

As I have attempted backup the sms over termux, I ge the following error when running at the $HOME:
error (at :3): Cannot index string with string "threadid"

Try running termux-sms-list by itself first.

@geek1011

I tried 😥

"error": "Reading SMS is no longer permitted by Google".

Now I have to find another way to push sms to python. Thank you for your response. 😄

That's unfortunate. I'll guess I'll have to extract them manually for myself (I have a rooted device).

I have a huawei that is not rootable and for it to be rooted I need a code that is received from huawei just to unlock the bootloader.

Huawei backup can save the sms db file but it is locked by a password and I don't know the encryption type to decrypt the DB. What a journey 😄