How to Back Up Android Text Messages (and Print Them When Needed)

There are many reasons you may want to save or print out your Android messages. Perhaps you want a keepsake of precious memories with a loved one. Or you might be in charge of monitoring communications from multiple devices in an office. It’s also common for people to need to provide evidence in the form of written messages in a legal situation.

Whatever your reasons for saving or printing your texts, you’ll need a solution that is reliable, effortless, easy to use, and doesn’t take up all your time.

The problem: The native methods for managing messages are all lacking on Android when it comes to creating readable exports or easy-to-read printouts.

Device backups: When you back up your Android data with Google One, your messages and other data are saved, allowing you to restore them to another device in the future. The trouble is, you can’t access the files inside a backup to view, extract, or print content like text messages.
Messaging apps: It’s not possible to export or print conversations directly from most Android messaging apps. These apps don’t have such a feature.
Screenshots: Many people end up taking screenshots of their messages. This may do the trick, only if you need a simple copy of a few messages for future reference. However, saving a complete conversation (let alone multiple conversations) would take considerable time and effort, and leave you with a whole mess of images to sort through, align, and print.

Introducing the Solution: Droid Transfer

Created by Wide Angle Software, Droid Transfer is a popular Windows app for Android users that lets you transfer messages, photos, music, call logs, and more between Android and PC devices effortlessly. This is an easy way to back up or print your messages, with no technical skills or Android rooting required.

Droid Transfer can save both SMS and MMS messages, along with their attachments, such as photos, videos, and emojis. Each message is exported with full date and time stamps as well as the contact names and numbers for clear, accurate records.

You can conveniently connect your Android device to the PC using Wi-Fi or USB, and everything you save stays securely and locally on your computer. It remains personal. Nothing is uploaded online, stored in the cloud, or shared with anyone else.

You can try Droid Transfer for free, which allows you to save the first five messages of any of your conversations. You can also explore other features, including the ability to copy unlimited calendars and clipboard content, transfer up to 100 photos and music tracks, and more. To unlock the full feature set across unlimited Android devices, licenses start at just $30.

Getting Started with Droid Transfer

To start backing up and printing your Android messages, you’ll need two components:

You can download Droid Transfer on your PC from Wide Angle Software or from the Microsoft Store.
The Transfer Companion app for Android is available for free from the Google Play Store. This is needed to connect your phone and computer wirelessly.

You can connect your Android phone with Droid Transfer via Wi-Fi or a USB cable.

Wi-Fi connection: The easiest way to connect is with Wi-Fi. This can be done by tapping “Scan Droid Transfer App QR Code” in the Transfer Companion app and then using the phone to scan the QR code shown in Droid Transfer on the PC.

USB connection: First, enable “Developer Options” and “USB Debugging” in your Android device’s settings. You can then connect your phone to your PC with a USB cable to access its contents in Droid Transfer.

Backing up Android Text Messages with Droid Transfer

Follow the steps below to save your messages in a format that you can view or print whenever you need them.

Launch Droid Transfer on your PC.
Connect your Android device using Wi-Fi or a USB cable.
Click to open the “Messages” section.
Select a conversation to view its messages.
Choose to save as PDF, HTML, CSV, or Plain Text.
Select a folder on your PC to save the export.

Bulk Back Ups: If you want to back up all your conversations, you can save them all at once to save time. Select all conversations in the list by using Ctrl+A on your keyboard or holding Ctrl while clicking multiple discussions to select a few at a time.

Printing Text Messages with Droid Transfer

There may be occasions where a digital backup of your messages doesn’t cut it. You can easily create a professional-quality printout of a conversation using Droid Transfer.

Connect your Android device to Droid Transfer using Wi-Fi or a USB cable.
Click to open the “Messages” section.
Select a conversation to view its messages.
Click “Print”.
Choose your desired printing settings to start printing the conversation.

Below is an example of what a conversation looks like when printed with Droid Transfer:

What Information is Included in the Backup or Printout?

Droid Transfer is designed to back up all the important information in your text message conversations. This makes for complete, accurate, and professional records.

Let’s see what data can be included when you save or print a conversation in Droid Transfer:

Message content including text, images, stickers, video, emojis, links, etc.
Sender’s name, contact image, and phone number.
Time and date of when each message was sent.

Inclusion of some content types depends on your chosen output medium. For example, videos will obviously not be included in a physical printout, and visual media like images are not included in text-only formats like CSV or Plain Text.

Modifying your Message Exports or Printouts

You can take advantage of a variety of options in Droid Transfer so that your message exports or printouts most closely match your requirements.

A variety of export formats: PDF is recommended for easy sharing, HTML supports video playback, CSV is ideal for managing messages in spreadsheets, and Plain Text is a simple text-only export with a small file size.
Filtering: View and save messages only between the dates you set.
Extract media: Use the Images tab to view only the photos sent in a selected conversation, then save them to your PC.
Hide or show information like contact images and phone numbers.
Fine-tune your printing options: Choose a font size for accessibility, and use Droid Transfer’s Compact Layout to reduce white space and save paper!

Concluding Thoughts

Saving and printing Android text messages can be difficult if you don’t know where to start. Droid Transfer addresses these difficulties by providing an easy way to back up and print your conversations on your PC reliably.

So, whether you need to manage communications in a spreadsheet at work, take a professional printout to court, or want to keep a precious memory safe, you’ll have the tools you need for the task.