Update (July 15th, 2026):
We’ve released a new version of the app that helps with the “missing messages” issue caused by these new message privacy rules.
Here’s what’s new:
- Easier backups of restricted messages – When you manually start a backup, the app will now ask if it can become your default messaging app just long enough to grab those hard-to-reach “restricted” messages. Scheduled backups cannot request to become the default SMS app and will continue missing those messages.
- A new clean-up tool – Under Menu > Tools, there’s a new option that goes through your existing messages and removes the “restricted” tag from messages, so they’re no longer locked away. Any future scheduled backups will then be able to back those existing messages.
- Better restores – When you restore a backup, the app will no longer bring back that “restricted” tag, even if it was present in the original backup. This means restored messages will be fully accessible again.
Where to get it: This update (v10.26.005) is currently available on the beta channel in the Play Store.
Original issue:
If you notice that some messages or entire conversation threads are missing from your SMS Backup & Restore backups, this is likely caused by a platform-level change introduced in recent versions of Google Messages and formalised in Android 17. End-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages are now marked as “Restricted” in Android’s messaging database, meaning they are stored on the device but are only accessible to the default SMS app. Apps that use the standard READ_SMS permission — including SMS Backup & Restore — cannot read the content of these restricted messages.
Google has confirmed this is intentional behaviour, designed to uphold the privacy guarantee of end-to-end encryption.
What’s affected
Only end-to-end encrypted RCS messages are restricted. Standard SMS, MMS, and non-encrypted RCS messages remain fully accessible and will continue to back up normally. Depending on which of your conversations use E2EE RCS, you may see individual messages missing within a thread, or entire threads absent from your backup if all messages within them are E2EE RCS.
How to verify this is what’s happening
Temporarily set SMS Backup & Restore as the default SMS app and then create a new backup. This can be done from Phone Settings > Apps > Default Apps on most phones. As the default SMS app it will have access to the restricted messages — if those missing messages now appear in the backup, that confirms they are stored on your device but marked as restricted. You can switch back to Google Messages afterward.
Is there a workaround?
SMS Backup & Restore can be manually set as the default SMS app, which grants it access to restricted messages for the duration of that backup. However this is not a practical long-term solution — while our app is the default, Google Messages loses its default status and you cannot send or receive messages normally. Scheduled automatic backups also cannot be relied upon to capture E2EE RCS messages for this reason.
Can SMS Backup & Restore fix this?
Not without changes from Google. The restriction is enforced at the platform level and READ_SMS — the standard permission backup apps use — is explicitly excluded from accessing E2EE message content. A proper solution would require Google to provide a dedicated API that allows authorised backup applications to access E2EE RCS messages in a privacy-preserving way.
Let Google know this matters to you
Google has marked this as working as intended, but that doesn’t mean the conversation is closed. Many users have a legitimate need to maintain independent, portable backups of their full message history — including encrypted RCS messages. If this affects you, please add a comment to the Google Issue Tracker to make your case. The more users who raise this, the more likely Google is to consider a backup-specific solution.
👉 Comment on the Google Issue Tracker: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/526983045