No worries if you need to send a text but don’t have your phone on you. You can send a text from your computer. Tap or click here for five ways to send a text from your PC. Your text message databank may be full of memes and obligatory responses, but there are probably some messages that you don’t want to lose. You can back them up using your phone’s native apps and features or go with a third party. We’ll show you some options below.

SMS Backup and Restore

If you’re on an Android, you’re in luck. Google’s mobile operating system is more forgiving than Apple’s iOS, so you have more options for apps that can access your text messages. SMS Backup & Restore is one such app and you can find it in the Google Play Store. The app backs up (creates a copy of) SMS & MMS messages and call logs that are on your phone at the time you run it. It can also restore these messages from existing backups. This includes group messages and messages containing pictures, music and videos. The app creates a local backup to your phone, and you can back up to the cloud, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive. You can create backups whenever you wish, or you can schedule automatically recurring backups. The recovery feature only works if you have a backup created by the app. It cannot recover deleted messages otherwise. Backups are created in XML format. The Play Store description reads that the app has been tested on Android 5.0 and higher. Here’s how to use SMS Backup & Restore:

Launch SMS Backup & Restore and grant the necessary permissions.Tap Set Up a Backup. Turn off Call logs if you just want to back up your messages. Then tap Next.Select your cloud storage and Log in.When you’re ready, tap Save. Select your upload options: Over Wi-Fi and/or While Charging and tap Next. Choose a backup frequency, then tap Back Up Now.

iCloud

Your iPhone can back up all sorts of data to your iCloud account. Photos, mail, contacts, notes, passwords and game saves can all be backed up. You can also back up your messages. Messages in iCloud are updated automatically so that you can see them across all your devices. When you delete a message or conversation from one device, the same happens to all others connected to your iCloud.
To turn on Messages in iCloud, ensure that you’ve set up iCloud and signed in with your Apple ID. You’ll need to use two-factor authentication with your Apple ID and turn on the iCloud Keychain. Once you’ve completed the above process, go to Settings and tap your name. Then tap iCloud and toggle Messages on. RELATED: Want to stop junk and spam text messages for good? Tap or click here to learn how.

iExplorer

While you have many backup choices for Android, the same can’t be said for Apple devices. iExplorer lets you access, view and transfer music, messages, photos and files from any iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod) to any Mac or PC. The iExplorer SMS client works with text messages, including groups and messages containing media such as videos and images. iExplorer lets you access and save your iPhone’s messages to your Mac or PC as a .PDF, .TXT, or .CSV document. You’ll need to be running Windows 7, 8, 10 or later and have an iTunes account. Here’s how to transfer text messages from your iOS device to your computer:

Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer and open iExplorer.Click on the Data tab and then the Messages button.If you haven’t created an iTunes backup on this computer, you’ll be asked if you’d like to. Choose Yes. If you already have an iTunes backup and it’s more than 24 hours old, iExplorer will ask whether you’d like to Use Last Backup or Refresh.When iExplorer is finished loading your messages, choose a conversation in the left panel. Use the icons to filter by date range, show attachments, or simply export the entire conversation.

Best way to back up everything

Text messages aren’t the only files you should back up. All of your important documents, files and photos need to be backed up with a service you can trust. We recommend our sponsor, IDrive. IDrive protects all your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android devices with just one account. Its versatile and user-friendly platform has made saving and recovering data simple for small businesses and individual use. Kim has negotiated a killer deal for you. Tap or click here to save 90% on 5 TB of cloud backup today with IDrive!

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