The first time you open the app, a couple of one-time steps get it ready.

1. 1
   Open Textuoso on your phone.
2. 2
   Read and accept the Terms of Service.
3. 3
   Allow the permissions Textuoso asks for. It reads your messages, calls, and contacts to back them up, and uses the camera to scan the pairing QR code when you connect to the web app. Notifications are required for full functionality: backups and restores run in the background as a service Android keeps alive only while its notification is showing, and they report progress and any failures.
4. 4
   If the app offers to speed up this phone, run it. It scans your messages once so loads and backups are faster afterward.

   This can take 5 to 10 minutes, but it only needs to be done once. You can also start it later from the ☰ menu › Misc operations › Speed up this phone.

1. 1
   Open Textuoso on your phone.
2. 2
   Tap the Back up tab.
3. 3
   Tap Create a new vault. A vault is a named backup destination: a folder in your cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox) or a spot on the phone. Each vault holds one backup and every later update to it. You can keep more than one, and each is backed up and restored independently.
4. 4
   Give the vault a name, or accept the default.
5. 5
   Choose where the vault lives: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or Local. We don’t recommend Local unless you’ll also use the web app (textuoso.com/app). A local vault lives only on this phone, so if the phone is lost or reset, the backup goes with it.
6. 6
   You may be offered an encryption option for the vault. Your data is always encrypted in transit (between your phone and computer, and to your cloud provider) no matter what. What this option adds is encrypting the stored files with a password, so the cloud provider can’t read their contents. If you turn it on, remember the password: you’ll need it to restore or browse the vault.
7. 7
   Tap Create.
8. 8
   Under What to back up, use the toggles to include or exclude Media & Attachments, Call logs, and/or Contacts.

   The Contacts toggle supplies the names shown when you browse in the web app; without them you’ll see phone numbers only.

   If you ever turn off the Media toggle on a vault that already holds media, that stretch of time is a permanent gap; turning it back on later won’t backfill what was skipped.

9. 9
   Tap Back up now and confirm. For large message and media histories this can take up to ~15 minutes; cloud vaults also depend on your internet speed.

Open the Advanced panel on the Back up tab to schedule backups or control how backups are stored.

How a backup is stored

The first backup to a vault saves a full copy. Every backup after that saves only the differences since the last one (i.e., a diff) on top of that base. This keeps repeat backups fast and small.

Scheduled backups

Turn on Scheduled backups to have the phone back up on its own.

1. 1
   Switch on Scheduled backups, then tap the schedule summary or Edit.
2. 2
   Set the Time of day and how often to Repeat: every N days, weeks, or months. For weeks, pick a day of the week; for months, pick a day of the month (shorter months run on the last day).
3. 3
   Tap Set. The schedule belongs to this vault, so each vault can run on its own timing.

What gets included

Three switches decide what each backup of this vault captures. All are on to begin with, and they apply to every backup of that vault, scheduled or manual.

• Media & Attachments: photos, videos and other files attached to messages.
• Call logs: your call history.
• Contacts: names and numbers.

Conditions for scheduled runs

Under When a scheduled backup runs are the conditions the phone checks before an automatic run starts. They apply only to scheduled runs: Back up now and Consolidate now are deliberate taps and always run.

• Require Wi-Fi for backup (off by default): wait for Wi-Fi before uploading a backup.
• Require Wi-Fi for consolidation (on by default): consolidation moves far more data than a normal backup.
• Require an unmetered connection (on by default): stay off connections that charge by the gigabyte, including a metered Wi-Fi network.
• Require charging for consolidation (on by default): consolidation is long and heavy, so it waits for the charger.

A vault stored on this phone shows only the charging condition. The others are about reaching a cloud provider, and nothing is transferred when the vault is already on the phone.

One condition has no switch and always applies: a scheduled run is skipped if the battery is below 20% and the phone isn’t charging, so a long backup isn’t cut short by the battery running out. Plugged in, it runs at any level.

Consolidation

Consolidation merges a vault’s base copy and all the diffs stacked on it back into one fresh base file. It only reorganizes the files and never changes your messages.

Consolidate after N backups (a plus/minus stepper) does this automatically every N backups. Consolidate now does it immediately and resets the count.

Snapshots

A snapshot is a frozen, complete copy of your messages at one moment that is never changed again. It lets you restore the phone to how it was on a past date. Use the Snapshots selector to choose when they’re taken:

• Off: no automatic snapshots.
• Consolidation: take one each time the vault consolidates.
• Every N: take one every N backups (adds a Snapshot after N backups stepper).

Automatic snapshots are on by default (set to Consolidation). Choose Off to stop taking them automatically; you can still capture one anytime with Snapshot now.

Keep last N snapshots sets how many automatic snapshots to keep; older ones drop off. Snapshots you take yourself with Snapshot now are never deleted automatically.

1. 1
   Tap the Restore tab.
2. 2
   In the Restore from dropdown, pick the vault to restore onto your phone. If you only have one vault, it’s probably already selected.
3. 3
   Tap Prepare restore. This downloads the backup from your cloud provider (if applicable) and verifies the file’s integrity.

   Clear staged file discards the prepared copy to save space without modifying your phone's data; you can prepare it again anytime.

4. 4
   Use the toggles to turn off any data types you don’t want to restore.

   Contacts are always restored to the phone’s local storage, not a synced Google or cloud account, so a restore won’t trigger automatic contact syncing or create synced duplicates.

5. 5
   Choose Merge or Wipe. Merge adds the backup to what’s already on your phone, skipping duplicates. Wipe erases only the data types you turned on above, then restores them from scratch; any type left off is left untouched. Contacts are never deleted by a Wipe, whatever the toggles say (they’re only ever added).

   A Wipe is irreversible. Before running one, be certain you want to erase the selected data types on this phone. Once messages are deleted, they can’t be recovered without a working backup.

6. 6
   Tap Restore and confirm. The first time, the phone asks you to set Textuoso as your default SMS app. This is required for any app to write messages to the phone, and you can switch your default SMS app back when you’re done.
7. 7
   Leave the app running until it finishes, and keep the phone charging and switched on. Restores are slow (a limitation of the Android telephony database), so for a large backup we suggest running it overnight. A progress notification keeps you posted while you use other apps.

Restore points

By default a restore uses the Latest restore point: your full backup plus every change up to the most recent backup. If the vault has snapshots (configured under Back up (advanced)), you can restore an earlier one instead to put the phone back the way it was on a past date.

1. 1
   Pick the vault in Restore from, as usual.
2. 2
   Check the Restore point selector. It reads Latest by default. When the vault has snapshots, a dropdown arrow appears next to it.
3. 3
   Tap it and choose a snapshot by its date (ones you took by hand are marked manual).
4. 4
   Then Prepare restore and Restore the same way as a basic restore.

Restore from the web app

You can also drive a restore from the paired web app on a computer, handy when you want to clean up or restore straight from a file.

1. 1
   On the computer, load a backup (or an SMS Backup & Restore .xml file) in the web app, then choose Restore to phone from the Phone menu.
2. 2
   On the phone, open the Restore tab, tap the Restore from dropdown, and pick Textuoso Web.
3. 3
   Then Prepare restore and Restore as usual. Merge vs Wipe works the same way.

The phone app backs up and restores, but it doesn’t browse or edit your data. You decide what to remove in the web app (messages, media, call logs, contacts, or contact groups), push it to the phone, and the phone’s Apply tab carries it out.

1. 1
   In the web app, select what to remove: messages or attachments to delete or strip, and/or call logs, contacts, and contact groups to delete. Then choose Apply to phone from the Phone menu.
2. 2
   On the phone, open the Apply tab. It shows what the push will remove, with a count for each category it includes: messages to delete, messages to strip media from, call logs, contacts, and groups. (Until a push arrives it reads “Waiting for changes from Textuoso Web.”)
3. 3
   Under What to apply, leave on the categories you want (messages, media, call logs, contacts, groups). Each is on by default when the push contains it.
4. 4
   Tap Apply and confirm. The first time, the phone asks you to set Textuoso as your default SMS app, which is required for any app to change messages on the phone. You can switch your default SMS app back afterward. This permanently deletes or strips on the phone and can’t be undone.

Two operations act on the phone itself rather than on a vault, so they need no backup prepared and no destination connected. Both live on the phone, under the ☰ menu › Misc operations.

Speed up this phone

This one is entirely about loading your history into the web app. Two details are needed for every multimedia message: who it was with, and how big each attachment is. Android has both, but on most phones it will only hand them over one message at a time, with no way to ask for them in bulk. Those lookups are the bulk of the wait on a first load.

Speed up this phone does all of those lookups in one pass and remembers the answers, so every load afterward skips them. It changes nothing about your messages and makes no difference to the phone itself — backing up, restoring and using your phone are exactly as fast either way.

It takes a few minutes on a large history and only needs to be done once. The app offers it the first time you open it; you can also start it later from the menu. It runs in the background, so you can leave Textuoso while it finishes, and cancelling loses nothing: what it has already worked out is kept, and the rest is picked up next time.

Erase content

Erase content deletes data from the phone without restoring anything. Choose any combination of Messages and media, Call log, and Contacts saved on this phone, then type ERASE to confirm. Anything you leave switched off is untouched.

Erasing messages asks you to make Textuoso your default SMS app, because Android only lets the default SMS app delete messages. You can switch back when it’s done. Erasing only the call log or contacts does not ask.

1. 1
   On your computer, open textuoso.com/app and click Pair with phone. A QR code appears.
2. 2
   On your phone, open Textuoso and tap Pair, then scan the QR code with the phone’s camera.
3. 3
   Once paired, you can load or back up the phone from the Getting Started modal, or communicate to/from the phone using any of the operations on the Phone menu. The connection is encrypted end to end, directly between your two devices.

Everything you browse and edit starts by loading a backup into the app. There are a few ways in:

• Open a file: drag one onto the Getting Started screen, or use File › Open backup file. Works with SMS Backup & Restore .xml files and Textuoso .tjson backups.
• Try the demo: load sample data to explore with no file of your own (File › Open demo).
• Pull from a paired phone: with a phone paired, Phone › Load messages from phone pulls its current messages straight into the app, no file needed. Or Phone › Back up phone to file saves a full backup to the computer that you can then open.

Each view has a Search box and a Filters button. What you can narrow by depends on the view:

Conversations

• Search by message content, or by contact name / number.
• Filters: date range, has attachments, and likely spam.

Messages (inside a conversation)

• Search the conversation’s text and jump between matches.
• Filters: date range, SMS vs. MMS, sent vs. received, and sort oldest- or newest-first.

Media

• Filters: type (images, videos, audio, other), date range, and sent vs. received.
• Sort by date or size. Largest-first is handy for finding what’s eating space.

Calls

• Search by contact name / number.
• Filters: type (incoming, outgoing, missed, voicemail), date range, and unknown numbers only.

Contacts

• Search by name, number, or email.

Removing things is always the same motion: select what you want, then press Delete (or Backspace).

Selecting

• A single item: click a message or an attachment, or tick a conversation’s checkbox.
• A range: click the first, then Shift+click the last (or hold Shift and press ↑/↓).
• Several at once: Ctrl+click to add or remove individual items, or Ctrl+Shift+click to add another range.
• All of them: Ctrl+A. Escape clears the selection.

Touch gestures and the full list are in Controls.

Delete vs. strip

• In the Conversations list, deleting removes every message in the selected threads.
• In the Messages view, deleting removes the selected messages entirely, attachments and all.
• In the Media view, deleting an attachment strips it: the message stays but its photo, video, or file is dropped, so you reclaim space without losing the conversation. (If the message is media-only, with no text, the whole message is deleted, since nothing would be left.)

When you’re done, get your data back out one of these ways:

• Export as Textuoso backup: Textuoso’s own backup format, smaller than XML with no base64 bloat (File › Export as Textuoso backup).
• Export as XML: a cleaned SMS Backup & Restore file you can restore with SBR (File › Export as XML).
• Export media: a ZIP of the attachments from the selected conversations (File › Export media).
• Push to a paired phone: send changes straight to the phone from the Phone menu. Restore to phone pushes the loaded backup, Apply to phone pushes your deletions and media strips, and Transfer backup file to phone directly transfers a backup file onto the phone without loading in the GUI first. Each is committed in the phone app.

Actions live in the menu bar at the top left: File, Phone, Edit, and Help. Items that act on a selection, or that need a phone or a loaded backup, stay greyed out until they apply.