Free preview before you pay

Turn your Android text messages into a PDF

SMS Backup and Restore saves your texts as an XML file. Upload it and get your texts back as one dated transcript you can print or hand to someone.

Drop your SMS backup XML here The .xml backup file SMS Backup and Restore made, or a zip with it inside.

How it works.

A lot of tools in this space are built for iPhone. This one reads the Android backup file from SMS Backup and Restore. That app can print one conversation at a time itself, and its developer says the online viewer can struggle with very large backups full of MMS media. This turns the whole backup into one dated document.

Step 1

Back up with SMS Backup and Restore

It is an Android app, free with ads. Run a backup of your messages and it saves an XML file on your phone or to a cloud account like Google Drive. If you use the paid version with encryption turned on, make an unencrypted backup for this.

Step 2

Upload the XML

Drop the file here. If it is very large, that is normal when MMS media is stored inside it.

Step 3

Check it, then download

You see your messages parsed first, for free. The PDF shows sent and received on opposite sides, with dates. MMS pictures can be included too, which is an optional extra priced before you pay.

Four ways to print it.

Every sample below is page one of a real PDF, made from the same sample as the one above by the same code that makes your file. Pick a style when you preview, and change it as often as you like.

A page of the sample transcript in the Text message look style — **Text message look**Light blue bubbles for what was sent and grey for what came in, like Android’s Messages app.

A page of the sample transcript in the Clean document style — **Clean document**Plain and readable, made for paper. The safe choice if you are not sure.

A page of the sample transcript in the Formal / legal style — **Formal / legal**Numbered entries and full timestamps, for a hearing or a claim. No colour, so it photocopies.

A page of the sample transcript in the Book style — **Book**Set like a printed book, for binding or keeping. Warm paper, wide margins.

People also use this for

Guides on this

Trust, with receipts.

No invented review scores, no badges, no “trusted by thousands”. Here is what is actually true, and you can check every line of it.

You see the result before you payUpload, look at your own parsed file, then decide. No account, no card, no email required to get that far.
Files are deleted within 7 daysYour upload, anything extracted from it, and the finished download. Automatically, on a schedule.
A person answers the emailOne Time Tool is a small independent studio in Johannesburg, South Africa. Questions go to hello@onetimetool.com and a person replies, not a bot.
Your card never touches this siteCheckout is hosted by Dodo Payments. We never see your card number.
One payment, for this one jobThere is no subscription, no plan and nothing to cancel. Depending on where you are, checkout may show the price in your currency and add local VAT or sales tax.
7-day money backIf the output is not what you needed, email us and we refund it. No form to fill in.

Questions, answered.

Will it know which messages I sent?

Yes. The backup records whether each message was sent or received, and the PDF shows yours on one side and theirs on the other. Drafts and failed messages are not told apart from received ones yet.

Do MMS pictures come through?

Yes, if you choose to include them on the preview, which is an optional extra priced before you pay. SMS Backup and Restore stores each picture inside the XML itself, and that is where this reads it from. A single picture over 2 MB is listed by filename instead of printed, and a video or voice note attached to an MMS always shows by filename only, never inlined.

My emoji show up as numbers in other converters.

If your file writes emoji as numeric XML codes, those get decoded here rather than printed as-is.

The file is over the size limit.

Back up again with less in it. SMS Backup and Restore can back up selected conversations only, or only messages within a date range. Or email us and we will handle the big one by hand.

I only want one conversation.

Every conversation in the backup goes into one timeline in date order, labelled by contact. If you want a single conversation, set the app to back up only that one first, then upload that backup.

What happens to my file?

It is deleted within 7 days, along with the finished PDF. It is used to make your file and nothing else. Nobody reads it.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no signup, no subscription and no password. You upload, you see the result, you pay once if you want it.