After 2 months of fruitless searching, I found what should be OBVIOUS... but wasn't: How to backup your contacts, SMS & MMS to micro SD card using Windows phone 8.1, so you then have at least SOME kind of offline backup!:
http://girts.niedra.org/2014/12/exporting-sms-from-windows-phone
In case this page ever goes offline, here is a copy:
Exporting SMS from Windows phone
Posted on 2014/12/29 by Girts Niedra
Maybe someone finds this useful (word of advice, don’t use Windows phone in the first place to avoid trouble like this)
to be able to export sms’es without rooting etc., you first need to upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 since the feature only appeared in this version
then you need to insert an sd card
go to settings, transfer my data
click the “…” button
export to sd option, select sms’s / contacts to export
a file like sms.vmsg will be created. it is a format for which there is no support outside Windows Phone it seems (there was a tool from Lenovo that could import them in Android 4.2 but it stopped working. And, vmsg is not vmg either.
the sms’s are in the file, what I did was to convert it to a Titanium Backup Android XML schema by lots of text manipulations. Another advice with Titanium, try to make thread that are less than 500 messages or it will hang. Also, take care of the unicode characters in the texts.
I am going to move from a Lumia 735 to an iPhone 4S, tomorrow, and I *NEEDED* to have found this site, so thank you to whoever wrote that. Why isn't this more obvious? Who knows. I am off to find out how to convert this XML syntax to something HTML/more readable - cheerio
[Step-by-step photos of me backing up, below]:
http://girts.niedra.org/2014/12/exporting-sms-from-windows-phone
In case this page ever goes offline, here is a copy:
Exporting SMS from Windows phone
Posted on 2014/12/29 by Girts Niedra
Maybe someone finds this useful (word of advice, don’t use Windows phone in the first place to avoid trouble like this)
to be able to export sms’es without rooting etc., you first need to upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 since the feature only appeared in this version
then you need to insert an sd card
go to settings, transfer my data
click the “…” button
export to sd option, select sms’s / contacts to export
a file like sms.vmsg will be created. it is a format for which there is no support outside Windows Phone it seems (there was a tool from Lenovo that could import them in Android 4.2 but it stopped working. And, vmsg is not vmg either.
the sms’s are in the file, what I did was to convert it to a Titanium Backup Android XML schema by lots of text manipulations. Another advice with Titanium, try to make thread that are less than 500 messages or it will hang. Also, take care of the unicode characters in the texts.
I am going to move from a Lumia 735 to an iPhone 4S, tomorrow, and I *NEEDED* to have found this site, so thank you to whoever wrote that. Why isn't this more obvious? Who knows. I am off to find out how to convert this XML syntax to something HTML/more readable - cheerio
[Step-by-step photos of me backing up, below]:
