Back Up SMS, Call Logs & Contacts on Android Using ADB and OpenSSL (No Root)

1. Enable USB debugging on the phone

Open Settings → About phone → tap Build number seven times until you see “You are now a developer”. Then go back to Settings → System → Developer options and toggle USB debugging on. Confirm any security prompt that appears.

2. Verify the ADB connection

1. Connect the phone to the computer via USB.
2. Open a terminal (Command Prompt, PowerShell, Terminal, etc.).
3. Run adb devices. You should see a line like XXXXXX device. If the status reads unauthorized, check the phone for a dialog asking to allow USB debugging and tap Allow.

When the device appears as device, you are ready to pull files.

3. Pull the SMS database

SMS messages are stored in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db. Because the /data partition is not directly readable, we use adb pull with the run-as trick for apps that allow it, or we use adb backup as a fallback. The most reliable method works on most stock Android devices:

1. Run adb shell "run-as com.android.providers.telephony cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db" > sms_backup.db. This streams the file to your current directory.
2. If run-as returns “Permission denied”, fall back to adb backup -f sms.ab -noapk com.android.providers.telephony. Then extract the .ab file with openssl (see the optional section at the end).

After a successful pull, you will have a file named sms_backup.db on your computer.

4. Pull the Call Log database

The call history lives in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db. The same run-as technique works:

1. Run adb shell "run-as com.android.providers.contacts cat /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db" > calllog_backup.db.
2. If the command fails, repeat the adb backup approach with the package com.android.providers.contacts.

The resulting file calllog_backup.db contains both contacts and call‑log tables. We will later extract only the call‑log portion, but keeping the full database is useful for a complete restore.

5. Pull the Contacts database

Contacts are stored in the same contacts2.db file we just retrieved. To keep the process simple, we will reuse that file for both contacts and call logs. If you prefer a separate copy, repeat the command from step 4 and rename the output to contacts_backup.db.

6. Bundle the files into a single archive

Having three separate files makes encryption a bit more cumbersome. Use tar (available on macOS/Linux) or 7‑Zip on Windows to create a single archive:

# macOS / Linux
mkdir backup_tmp && mv sms_backup.db calllog_backup.db contacts_backup.db backup_tmp/
cd backup_tmp
tar -cvf ../android_sms_calls_contacts.tar *.db
cd ..
rm -r backup_tmp

# Windows (PowerShell with 7‑Zip in PATH)
mkdir backup_tmp
move sms_backup.db calllog_backup.db contacts_backup.db backup_tmp\
7z a -tzip android_sms_calls_contacts.zip backup_tmp\*
rd /s /q backup_tmp

The resulting android_sms_calls_contacts.tar (or .zip) file contains all three databases.

7. Encrypt the archive with OpenSSL

OpenSSL’s AES‑256‑CBC cipher offers strong symmetric encryption. Run the following command, replacing YOUR_PASSWORD with a passphrase you will remember (quotes are optional but help with spaces):

# Linux / macOS
openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt -in android_sms_calls_contacts.tar -out android_sms_calls_contacts.tar.enc -k "YOUR_PASSWORD"

# Windows (PowerShell)
openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt -in android_sms_calls_contacts.zip -out android_sms_calls_contacts.zip.enc -k "YOUR_PASSWORD"

After execution you will see a new file ending with .enc. This file is unreadable without the correct password.

8. Verify the encrypted backup

It’s a good habit to test decryption before you delete the original unencrypted archive. Run:

# Linux / macOS
openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in android_sms_calls_contacts.tar.enc -out test_decrypt.tar -k "YOUR_PASSWORD"

tar -tf test_decrypt.tar

# Windows (PowerShell)
openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in android_sms_calls_contacts.zip.enc -out test_decrypt.zip -k "YOUR_PASSWORD"
7z l test_decrypt.zip

If the tar -tf (or 7z l) command lists sms_backup.db, calllog_backup.db and contacts_backup.db, the encryption succeeded. You can now safely delete the unencrypted .tar / .zip file.

9. Store the encrypted backup safely

• Copy the .enc file to an external hard drive or a cloud folder that you trust.
• Consider keeping two copies in different locations (e.g., one local, one cloud) to guard against hardware failure.
• Periodically refresh the backup after major changes (new contacts, many SMS, etc.).

1. Decrypt the archive

# Linux / macOS
openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in android_sms_calls_contacts.tar.enc -out android_sms_calls_contacts.tar -k "YOUR_PASSWORD"

# Windows (PowerShell)
openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in android_sms_calls_contacts.zip.enc -out android_sms_calls_contacts.zip -k "YOUR_PASSWORD"

2. Extract the databases

# Linux / macOS
tar -xvf android_sms_calls_contacts.tar

# Windows (PowerShell)
7z e android_sms_calls_contacts.zip

3. Push the databases back to the device

Because the target locations are inside /data, we need run-as again. Run each command separately:

# SMS
adb push sms_backup.db /data/local/tmp/
adb shell "run-as com.android.providers.telephony cat /data/local/tmp/sms_backup.db > /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db"

# Call logs & contacts (both in contacts2.db)
adb push contacts_backup.db /data/local/tmp/
adb shell "run-as com.android.providers.contacts cat /data/local/tmp/contacts_backup.db > /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db"

After pushing, you may need to clear the data cache for the affected apps or simply reboot the device so the system reloads the new databases.