[GH-ISSUE #420] Feature Request: Allow user to manually set 'skip' date #354

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-02-26 00:36:56 +03:00 by kerem · 2 comments

kerem commented

2026-02-26 00:36:56 +03:00

Owner

Originally created by @Yakhobian on GitHub (Jan 13, 2014).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/420

When installing SMS Backup+ a second time after wiping a phone or changing phones, you are given the option to 'skip' the backup, so as to prevent messages being backed up twice.

This generally works, but I am currently in the situation where this worked for SMS but not for WhatsApp. As such, when I attempt to do a backup now, while only the few new SMS messages will be backed up, SMS Backup+ attempts to back up every single WhatsApp message on my phone. At this point I am cancelling the backup, so as to prevent all my WhatsApp messages being duplicated on Gmail.

My suggestion for a feature would be an advanced setting to manually set the date and time cut-off value for back-ups, so as to allow the user to get around such a scenario.

If this feature was available, the problem could be solved by the following steps:

Temporarily disable backup of SMS, but leave WhatsApp backup enabled
Temporarily set the 'skip' date and time to the last time I properly backed up a WhatsApp message
Perform a backup such that all WhatsApp messages not yet backed up get added to Gmail
Set the skip date and time to the present date and time
Re-enable SMS backup

After this point, only new messages should get backed up for both SMS and WhatsApp.

I hope you will take this suggestion into consideration.

Originally created by @Yakhobian on GitHub (Jan 13, 2014). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/420 When installing SMS Backup+ a second time after wiping a phone or changing phones, you are given the option to 'skip' the backup, so as to prevent messages being backed up twice. This generally works, but I am currently in the situation where this worked for SMS but not for WhatsApp. As such, when I attempt to do a backup now, while only the few new SMS messages will be backed up, SMS Backup+ attempts to back up every single WhatsApp message on my phone. At this point I am cancelling the backup, so as to prevent all my WhatsApp messages being duplicated on Gmail. My suggestion for a feature would be an advanced setting to manually set the date and time cut-off value for back-ups, so as to allow the user to get around such a scenario. If this feature was available, the problem could be solved by the following steps: - Temporarily disable backup of SMS, but leave WhatsApp backup enabled - Temporarily set the 'skip' date and time to the last time I properly backed up a WhatsApp message - Perform a backup such that all WhatsApp messages not yet backed up get added to Gmail - Set the skip date and time to the present date and time - Re-enable SMS backup After this point, only new messages should get backed up for both SMS and WhatsApp. I hope you will take this suggestion into consideration.

kerem closed this issue

2026-02-26 00:36:56 +03:00

kerem commented

2026-02-26 00:36:56 +03:00

Author

Owner

@Yakhobian commented on GitHub (Jan 13, 2014):

After looking at the file "/data/data/com.zegoggles.smssync/shared_prefs/com.zegoggles.smssync_preferences.xml", I think this would probably be even easier to implement than I initially thought.

The preferences file has separate time stamps for last backup of each service (sms, call logs, whatsapp, etc). Perhaps the feature could just be to allow the user to edit any of these time stamps as required.

I also realised that there is no need for the 4th step in my original message as the last backup time value will automatically be set to the latest message date and time after performing the backup in the 3rd step.
Furthermore, since each backup type has its own last backup date, the first and last steps of my original message would also seem to be unnecessary.

@Yakhobian commented on GitHub (Jan 13, 2014): After looking at the file "/data/data/com.zegoggles.smssync/shared_prefs/com.zegoggles.smssync_preferences.xml", I think this would probably be even easier to implement than I initially thought. The preferences file has separate time stamps for last backup of each service (sms, call logs, whatsapp, etc). Perhaps the feature could just be to allow the user to edit any of these time stamps as required. I also realised that there is no need for the 4th step in my original message as the last backup time value will automatically be set to the latest message date and time after performing the backup in the 3rd step. Furthermore, since each backup type has its own last backup date, the first and last steps of my original message would also seem to be unnecessary.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 00:36:56 +03:00

Author

Owner

@jberkel commented on GitHub (Nov 21, 2014):

sorry, won't do this

@jberkel commented on GitHub (Nov 21, 2014): sorry, won't do this