I'm attempting to move my SMS/RCS data from a working Pixel 8 Pro (stock android) to a Pixel 6 Pro (fresh GOS install).
Short version: Despite everything I've done, Google Messages won't load in any chat history from either the onboard SMS database that I've restored from a manual backup of the 8 Pro SMS db, or from my google account (the 8 pro is backed up there). I do have RCS working - I just can't get the history that I've loaded into the SMS db to show up.
Long Version
I am attempting to use a 6 Pro as essentially a trial ground to make sure I am able to replicate all of the key functionality I need from my 8 Pro, with as little Google involved as possible. I've been very pleasantly surprised at how well Graphene is fleshed out - I have everything working, except SMS or RCS.
In order to copy my SMS data from the 8 Pro, I
- disabled RCS on the 8 pro
- used "SMS Backup & Restore" from Google Play to write all of the conversations to a file
- moved my physical sim (Verizon) from the 8 Pro to the 6 Pro
- used the same app on the 6 pro to restore from said backup
Once done, I installed QUIK, and it was able to view all of my past conversations (SMS and RCS) without issue, although it could obviously only send SMS.
After some playing around and finding some issues with QUIK, I decided that I was willing to take the privacy hit to get RCS working. First thing I did was install Google Messages + Google Play Services, and switched my SMS app to Google Messages.
Despite everything appearing fine in QUIK, Google Messages did not show any conversation history, despite several rounds of turning it off and on again, clearing cache/data, etc. Interestingly enough, I did get RCS connected, although it didn't seem to be fully functional.
I then followed some of the guidance on this page and elsewhere on these forums + reddit to try a more official route by actually signing in to my Google account etc. With that, I was able to get RCS fully working - but still no conversation history.
All of the official Google docs essentially say to restore your conversation history during new device setup, which will obviously not work for a GOS phone. Has anyone gone down this route & had any luck convincing Google Messages to load history in, one way or another?