Backup/Restore SMS/MMS via ADB on a non-rooted device?

Is there any way to backup/restore SMS and MMS messages using ADB, when the device is not rooted? * adb pull won't work here, as the corresponding database (/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db) cannot be read by ADB if it's not running in insecure (root) mode * adb shell "cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db > /sdcard/mmssms.db doesn't work either without root access * adb backup for some reason doesn't cover this database on the device I've checked with (empty backup – just the 41 bytes of the backup header in the resulting file) I especially wonder why adb backup doesn't cover this. If it's for "privacy reasons", then the same should apply to the contacts database – which clearly is backed up. **References:** * [Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent “Safe Mode”?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/37492/16575) covers the same topic – but other than there, I'm not restricted to [tag:safe-mode] * [backup full sms/mms contents via adb](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12266374/backup-full-sms-mms-contents-via-adb) (on our developers sister-site) is for a "rooted solution" (and, apart from that, a bit of age: question and answers are more than 3 years old) So: Any solution on a non-rooted device? Note that I'm ***NOT*** asking for an app-based solution. I'm fully aware there are [several apps available for this](http://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/file_backup#group_133) . I specifically want a "shell based solution", to be used via ADB.