SMS Backup Viewer (SBV)

A modern web application for viewing SMS and MMS message backups. Import your messages from "SMS Backup & Restore" XML files and browse them in a texting app-like interface.

Screenshots

Quick Start

docker:

docker run -d \
  -p 8081:8081 \
  -v $(pwd)/data:/data \
  -e DB_PATH_PREFIX=/data \
  lowcarbdev/sbv

docker-compose:

services:
  sbv:
    image: lowcarbdev/sbv
    ports:
      - "8081:8081"
    volumes:
      # Mount data directory for persistent database storage
      - ./data:/data
    environment:
      - PORT=8081
      - DB_PATH_PREFIX=/data
    restart: unless-stopped

Features

Multi-user - Create a username/password to log in
Import SMS Backup & Restore XML - Upload XML files from the web interface.
Tested with large backups - Works with multi-GB backups
SMS, MMS, and call logs support - Read all types of call and message records.
Inline image and video - View images or watch videos as you browse. Even works with Apple HEIC and 3gp videos.
Fast conversation filtering - Skip to the right conversation.
Full-text search - Find what you want fast.
Activity view - See it as it happened.
vCard preview - Preview the contents of contact cards (vCards)

Tech Stack

Backend: Go with SQLite database
Frontend: React with Vite and Bootstrap CSS
Database: SQLite (stores messages, including media as BLOBs)

Data Persistence

The Docker setup uses a bind mount to persist the database:

Host path: ./data/sbv*.db
Container path: /data/sbv*.db

This ensures your data survives container restarts and updates.

License

MIT

Contributing

Please submit any issues to github issues
PRs are welcome, but for anything over ~100 lines, please submit a github discussion first

Known Issues

Imports are somewhat slow for large imports on Linux
In group MMS, the sender label only shows the phone number (not contact name) because the contact name is not available in the XML file

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