Problem with restoring of SMS from old to new phone

[jonasholmlund]

Hi,
I have been trying to move from an old phone (Xperia Z1) to a new one (Xperia XZ1 Compact).
Call records and miscellaneous other things transfer OK but the SMS transfer fails either completely or partially (only the SMS from the last month or so transferred). All in all there should be >12000 SMS going back years but only a fraction end up restored.

Methods attempted:
Xperia Transfer between apps on the 2 mobiles: Z1 -> XZ1 Compact over WiFi
Xperia Companion (v1.7.2.0): select Xperia Transfer: old device (Z1) -> XZ1 Compact over USB
Xperia Companion: select Xperia Transfer: Z1 backup -> XZ1 Compact over USB
Third party application: SMS Backup & Restore: Z1 sms backup moved via USB to SD of XZ1 Compact, then start Restore. Claims to be successful. Same result, though. Partial restore only.

In all cases I have allowed the transfer to change the SMS handling app to whatever the backup/transfer/restore function needs and then after the transfer has taken place I have restored the standard Messages app.
I have tried rebooting the phone after transfer complete and I have tried leaving the Messages app open overnight in case it needs more timeto re-index entries or something similar.

Only peculiar aspect I am aware of compared with earlier transfers over the years between different Xperia phones is that I have not yet put in a SIM card in the new phone since I know that then the operator will consider the old SIM not active (calls & SMS only towards new SIM).

[jonasholmlund]

(text got posted before it was ready)
I have usually tried performing a full factory reset between attempts although a few times I have not done the factory reset.

The most common situation after "completed" restore is that it just states "Loading conversations" and displays some half greyed out conversation fields. And that loading phase simply never ends (at least not within 8 hours). Sometimes, as stated earlier, a couple of weeks worth of SMS can be seen followed by the half greyed out stuff and "Loading conversations" again.

I have come across glitches occasionally in the past but nothing that has stopped backup & restore for mor than an hour or so.
This time I've been trying to get it to work for weeks. And I'm running out of ideas.

Any suggestions for what I'm doing wrong or other methods worth trying?

[Ashaman]

You can try the Xperia transfer via cloud. That has worked for me many times (10+ phone changes).

Please not that if you have several thousand messages, it will take a long time to restore on the new phone, as the SMS's and MMS's are inserted one by one in the database. This is due to some generic Android functionality, it was faster before.