ThreadlodeOpen an SMS Backup & Restore XML file on your computer
“SMS Backup & Restore” is a popular Android app that saves your texts to a file like sms-20240102100000.xml. You can open that file in a browser or a text editor, but you only see a wall of code – and with MMS photos it can be several gigabytes.
Read it as conversations
- Copy the
sms-….xmlfile to your computer (from the phone, Google Drive, Dropbox or wherever you saved it). - Open Threadlode and click Open .xml / sms.db / chat.db files, or drag the file onto the page.
- Your conversations appear on the left; click one to read it. Photos sent by MMS are shown in the thread.
What is in the XML file
| XML element | What it contains | Shown in Threadlode as |
|---|---|---|
| <sms> | One text message: number, date, sent/received, text | A message bubble |
| <mms> + <part> | Picture/group messages; attachments are stored as base64 text | A bubble with the photo, video or file |
| <addr> | Who sent and received an MMS | Group conversations with names |
| contact_name | The name from the phone’s contacts at backup time | Conversation title |
Several backups?
If you made backups at different times, open all the XML files together. Messages that appear in more than one file are merged, so each message is shown once. The summary shows how many duplicates were removed.
Big files
Threadlode reads the XML piece by piece and leaves attachments in the file until you look at them, so it does not need to load gigabytes into memory. A very large file still takes some time to read through.
Questions and answers
Can I open the XML without the app installed on the phone?
Yes. Threadlode only needs the XML file. Nothing has to be installed on your phone or computer.
Does it work with the calls-….xml file?
Yes. Open it together with the messages; the call log can be exported as CSV.
Last updated: 2026-10-26