Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent "Safe Mode"? I have a non-rooted Droid X2 that is in permanent "Safe mode", but I want to recover SMS messages.  SMS Backup and Restore will NOT work because safe mode only allows system apps to run.

adb shell will get me into the phone, but does not allow me to get to the SMS database:


[rjt@pc232 workspace]$ adb shell
$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32.9-00008-gc406305 (hudsoncm@il93lnxdroid80) (gcc version 4.4.0 (GCC) ) #2 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jan 24 22:54:19 CST 2012

$ cd /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/
$ pwd
/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases
$ ls
opendir failed, Permission denied
$ su -l root
su: permission denied
$ sudo
sudo: permission denied
$ sudo su -
sudo: permission denied
$ sudo su -l root
sudo: permission denied
$


Since SMS Backup and Restore is allowed to access my SMS messages when in normal mode, is "Safe mode" blocking my access or the fact that this phone is not rooted?   

Can I root the phone without losing my existing SMS messages?
Try this:

cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db &gt; /sdcard/mysms.db


Which copies the SMS database across to the SDCard.

For the Telephone database, 

cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db &gt; /sdcard/mytelephony.db


Its a very old trick, to pull in the databases without root. It is not guaranteed to work across all ROMs depending on how the directory permissions are set.