How to Restore SMS on a Windows Phone

Windows Phone's built-in Backup feature can be configured to back up text messages to Microsoft SkyDrive. If you subsequently get a new Windows phone, you can restore these text messages alongside your other apps and settings. You can also restore messages to an existing device by resetting your phone first. In order to back up your SMS messages, you must sign in to your phone with a Microsoft account and select “Turn Text Message Backup On” from the device's backup settings menu. This instructs the phone to include text data in its regular cloud backups.

Flick left on the Start screen to open up the App List and then tap the “Settings” icon.

Tap the “About” menu option and then select “Reset Your Phone.”

Tap “Yes” on the first warning screen and then tap “Yes” again on the second warning screen. Your phone will reset itself to default settings, a process which may take a few minutes to complete. Once the device powers back on it will act as a brand-new, unconfigured phone.

Sign in to your phone with the Microsoft account that you have your data backed up to and then tap “Next” to open the “Restore Your Phone” menu.

Select the backup that contains the SMS messages you wish to restore and then tap “Next” to open the “Preparing To Restore” screen.

Tap “Next” to restore the backup to your phone. This process may take a few minutes to complete.

Tap “Skip” on the “Restored Accounts” screen to complete the restore process and open the phone's Home screen. Open the Messaging app to view the restored messages.