Transferring / Saving Mobile Phone Text Messages Onto a PC
Its amazing what mobile phones can do these days. You can have a “video phone chat” with your Aunty across an ocean, receive RSS feeds and even watch TV. But, what’s even more amazing is what you CAN’T do.
Most mobile phones won’t let you save your text messages for any longer than a few months!
LG Shine doesn’t let you transfer SMS messages to a PC
I was about 3 months into a 12 month contract with my shiny new LG KE970 phone, when I stopped being able to receive text messages from my friends. Instead of receiving the message, a little notice popped up saying something like “Memory Exceed!”.
The Obvious Solution
The obvious solution to my little problem was to delete some of my treasured messages. But, I just don’t want to HAVE to do that in order to make my phone function as it should.
Phones that DO Let you Save a Copy of your Text Messages onto a PC
Many mobile phone sales reps will be unable to name a phone that offers this feature.
But I have managed to do it with my new Sony Ericsson W580i phone with the help of a bit of freeware called MyPhoneExplorer (version 1.6.2).
Furthermore, this fantastic software lets you export your text messages into MS Word, MS Excel and even OpenOffice. The publishers say that it is “designed for SonyEricsson K700,K750,K800 - but it works with every SonyEricsson-phone except the Symbian-based phones (P-series, M600, W950)”.
How to transfer SMS messages from a SonyEricsson W580i onto your PC and Export to Excel
This is how I did it, anyway:
(I was connecting my phone to a Windows XP PC using a USB connector)
- Install the “Sony Ericsson PC Suite” software (that comes with the phone) onto your PC and make sure your phone connects to it OK - as per the instructions in the manual.
- Disconnect your phone the safe way - (Right-click the removable disk icon in Windows Explorer > Eject).
- Visit http://www.fjsoft.at/en/ to download and install the “MyPhoneExplorer” software. (The Small Print/Legal Disclaimer: Do so at your own risk - I am not responsible if it blows up your PC - Scan it for Viruses - etc - It didn’t blow up my PC - But I haven’t really looked into it that much - I trust ‘em - my Spyware Doctor didn’t kick up a fuss either)
- Restart your PC
- Connect the phone to the PC again
- Select “Phone Mode” on the phone’s connection options
- Start up the MyPhoneExplorer software
- In that: click “File > Connect”
- If everything goes OK - you should be able to use the software to browse to the messages that are on your phone
- Select the messages you want to export
- Click “Extra > Current List > Open with Microsoft Excel”
- Hey presto! You should see the messages pop up in new Excel file.
Its not perfect, though. I still have not been able to save the ‘date a message has been sent’ with the each ’sent message’. I’m not sure if that’s an issue with the Phone Explorer software or the phone itself.
Why do I want to Save my Text Messages Anyway?
I don’t keep a diary. The nearest thing that I have to a diary is the history of messages in my phone. If I ever wonder what I was doing on a certain date all I have to do is scroll through to my messages that linger from around that date and, ‘hey bingo’, I know exactly what I was up to.
Other Phones I have Tried
I had the same problem with my Nokia 6680. I almost solved it by downloading an application called Nokia LifeBlog onto my phone. The trouble was, by the time I had downloaded the software I did not have enough free memory left on my phone to let it run properly - (it was too full of messages!). I was also a bit annoyed by the fact that I’d have to pay a monthly subscription to a blog site in order to get maximum benefit from it. I should add that I really didn’t spend much time on it, so worth checking it out for yourself if you want to be sure that you know all about it. In the end I did manage to hack away at the 6680 and get the messages onto my PC - but they were not in a format that was easily readable.
Am I paid to promote Ericsson or MyPhoneExplorer?
Nope. First off, my Ericson phone doesn’t really make it easy to save SMS’s onto my PC. Hence, the need for another piece of software to fix it. Secondly, MyPhoneExplorer is free - but they definitely deserve any donations to their cause.
All I’m doing is expressing my opinion in the hope that all phone manufacturers will realise that this simple feature is A SELLING POINT.
Update: 1st December 2007: I noticed that one reader of this blog post resorted to taking photos of the text messages displayed on the screen of her phone!
September 23rd, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I’ve tryed for years to find software or a way to save text messages to my pc. So many times my mobile has stopped receiving messages because it’s full - even the Sony ericsson pda’s P910 /990i which have a huge memory.
It’s such a shame when the texts/messages your kids send you when they are off on their exploits in different parts of the world have to be eventually deleted.
You would think with all the technology now this would be such a simple process.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Hooray! Thanks so, so much for this info… it’s such a breakthrough for me!
I really hate deleting messages, and have ended up writing the important ones by hand into a book so that they don’t get lost… very time consuming!
Downloading my 150 messages today was really fantastic… am so delighted that the software is out there and that you have been kind enough to indicate how to use it to export into Microsoft Excel. Had been searching for this functionality but couldn’t figure out where it was located on My Phone Explorer.
Many, many thanks. That’s your good deed done for today!!
October 18th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
This is by far the best thing i have ever come across!!!!
Thank you very much for this information I’m glad I got hold of your site and not some junk websites that proclaim they know what they are doing!!! I saved ALL 350 sms’ on my phone to my pc and now my phone can breath again and when i need to return to a old sms I can do so on my PC!!!! Great Stuff!!!!
Thank you very much!!!! You are a real life saver!! What a great contribution indeed!!
Regards, Wayne
November 1st, 2007 at 4:22 am
hello, i’ve been using myphone explorer for aaaaaages. but i’ve just recently updated, as i’m onto my 3rd sony ericsson, but i’ve just realised, when i’m typing messages from my computer, its not saving my sent messages?? neither in the computer or on my phone…anyone have any suggestions?? i’ve tried all the menus…
November 20th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Thanks for this - I was dreading deleting my texts as some of them are very sentimental so this is fantastic. Thank you!
P,S. - When exporting in excel some lines are just full of ######## but when I click inside I can read it - any ideas?
November 26th, 2007 at 2:41 am
Hi all those who have commented to say thanks. Thanks for the thanks.
Bernie: I never really use my phone explorer to type in messagesvia the computer, so i cannot help on that one.
Vee: Yes, I’ve seen the “#### thing”in Excel too. Its a bit annoying when it happens. I think it is just a ‘presentation thing’ rather than the actual data getting affected. By increasing the width of these numeric columns, the hashes turn to numbers.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 am
Thank you for the info. Doesn’t help me now with my Verizon Krzr, but it’s good to know that it’s possible somehow. I wish they’d make this feature available as a default.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
Thank you very much, it worked with my sony ericsson P1I, my screen is smashed so i could not use the touch scren features even though its still visialbe to see what on screen, like yourself my text messages is a way of keeping a diary & as this phone is to be replaced via my insurance it was good to finally find this software to trasfer my data, i haven’t played around with it much yet to see if it will backup & then restore to my new phone when i get it but the fact that i haven’t lost my info is the more important. Thanks again
February 24th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
i hav gt a sony ericsson w580i n it turned off on its own n a cnt get it bak on wat do i do
February 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
It is really easy on Nokia phones ones you know what to do:
- Install Nokia PC Suite and connect your phone
- Go to My Computer and open Nokia Phone Browser
- Double click on the phone icon and on the message icon
- Select Export from the ‘Messaeges’ menu
The messages are exported to a ; seperated text file and can be imported into whatever you like…
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
MyPhoneExplorer is a VERY good program. i have a Sony Ericsson K800i for those interested. very easy to use program. you can call and txt with it. you can back up any messages, contacts, files (on phone or memory card), etc to ur computer so easily (and visa versa)
April 10th, 2008 at 11:32 am
So excited to find this info - haven’t tried it out yet, but have Sony Ericsson800i and feel confident from all the other responses that it will work for me.
I often get texts from clients that would be great to archive and use as testimonials.
I also have the last 6 texts that a good friend sent me before loosing her battle against cancer, that I just can’t bring myself to delete from my phone but, I know can’t stay there. Now I get to save them.
Thanks so much!
April 14th, 2008 at 9:19 am
i have an LG shine (ke970) and i’ve been trying to look for a software to help me save my texts to my comp for ages now!!! the “Memory Exceed” message is killing me!!!!
after reading this, i think i should just give up and get a new phone…
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I have the lg shine and am also annoyed that I can’t save text messages. What seems stupid to me is that previous lg phones and software suites, allowed the easy transfer of messages. I had the lg u880 which used the lg phone manager to transfer text messages to the pc. Saving texts is important. Some can be great to read again, even years later.
Many network contracts give monthly texting that exceed the phone’s memory. That means deleting numerous texts every month. Copying them all to the pc for sorting, deleting or saving is a hell of a lot easier than sorting or deleting them one by one on the phone. LG and other mobile companies should stop working backwards and get this simple option installed in their pc/phone transfer software.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
thank you so much like. I Have a load of txts from my boyfriend who was tragically killed in a car accident 2 months ago and i just cant delete them. Thank you thank you thank you.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
[…] Losing a phone is a nightmare. But, luckily, I had backed up all my text messages onto my PC […]
September 14th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
myphone explorer was working fine since a month.it suddenly stopped connecting to my phone.i downloaded th 1.7.0 version of it..but again th same thing happened.
everytime i would press refresh or “start multi-sync”
it gives an error sayn “could not open COMS!”
help.is there an alternative software so save msgs frm my sony ericsson p1i
October 25th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thank you very much for this software. it was just something i needed the most.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
There’s an easier way to solve this problem.Use Cell Phone Manager.