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When answering this question, please note if the solution is:

  1. For Windows and/or Mac OS X users
  2. The price of the solution
  3. If you have successfully—and actually—used the solution

How can I export SMS text messages from my iPhone?

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48
  1. Get /var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db
  2. It is now exported.

What format do you want the export to be? The existing format is sqlite, so you can convert it to ASCII like so: sqlite3 sms.db .dump > sms.db.txt

For step one, you can jailbreak and then scp, or you can just search your backup folder for the file, no jailbreak required.

If your phone is not jailbroken, look on OS X in:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/<long_hex_string>/

And, in my case, and according to various web sources, although not in all cases, is named:

3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28

To answer your other questions: Any OS, Free, Successful.

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  • Great solution. I'm going to have to try this when I get home. Thanks! – Ciaocibai Jan 24 '11 at 23:59
  • Thanks for the solution. I have a non-jail broken iPhone and was able to get what I needed. However, I'd also be interested in sans-Terminal solutions for non-technical folks if you've used any. – Matthew Rankin Jan 26 '11 at 16:30
  • Awesome solution. voted up – segfault Jan 18 '12 at 22:08
  • any idea how I can find this file in ios6? I've asked here: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/80875/… – ptim Feb 3 '13 at 9:20
  • The command, sqlite3 sms.db .dump > sms.db.txt is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! – Andrew Larsson Jun 27 '13 at 15:39
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AllYourTexts - free - Windows

Full disclosure: I'm the author.

  • Allows you to view SMS and MMS data from your PC
  • Supports exporting to plaintext or HTML files.
  • Shows you graph visualizations of your texting behavior over time.

I was looking for a solution to this myself and I was unhappy with the 3rd party offerings. I felt like they were overpriced or poorly designed, so I wrote my own.

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  • After trying out AllYourTexts, i can honestly say that this is the most simple and easy to use software for exporting text messages. I've looked around the web for days trying to find a program that will export text messages AND iMessages for the iPhone, and I finally found it. As a computer geek, I highly recommend AllYourTexts. – user26487 Aug 1 '12 at 6:22
  • 1
    This is great! View, export and see status of your texting habits! Thanks much for your efforts. – SeanDowney Jun 26 '15 at 3:51
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    Note: It's not yet compatible with iOS 10 – Simon East Dec 27 '16 at 5:22
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I rely on PhoneView which you correctly note is a Mac OS X only paid solution.

It has always been updated very quickly by the developers each time a new iOS is released. I even received support several times for pre-release / beta versions of iOS and iTunes. Support emails are promptly answered and I have twice received custom builds from them to resolve issues using their product with pre-release iOS versions to assist me in managing the devices I use for iOS development.

I've used PhoneView to save data from a phone that iTunes said was broken and could only be erased and then restored. It's been a reliable swiss army knife for me filling in many gaps that iTunes and Xcode leave for managing iOS devices.

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  • 1
    me too, its a fantastically handy piece of software, it was one of the first apps out there when it was called iPhoneDrive. I use it most of the time to bypass iTunes when loading content/backing up in game purchases. – Stu Wilson Oct 5 '12 at 20:46
  • tried this but it doesn't work (macOS 11.2.1 + iOS 14.4) – Bowen Mar 15 at 19:33
  • @Bowen thank you. I will dust off my license and see if I get the same. – bmike♦ Mar 15 at 20:55
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I used CopyTrans Contacts for Windows (not sure whether it also operates on Mac) to export my iPhone SMS and iMessage text messages to my PC.

Here is where I found out about the tool: How to export iPhone SMS

I do not know the price as I used their free version to export all of my 100+ messages I think you have to pay if you want to export a really large number of SMS text messages.

export iphone sms

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I'm on windows and I bought Decipher Text Message (Mac $7, Windows $10). It did the trick for my needs and backed up all my work sms messages from my iphone. My girlfriend uses it too however, she is on a mac. The cool thing is that the program also saved my sms images, which I hadn't even expected. Has anyone tried any of the other tools?? Curious about them.

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  • This is a pretty powerful tool. Just checked it out, works fairly well for iOS 12.4. – Joshua Detwiler Aug 11 '19 at 5:04
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A windows software solution is Save The Message

The software is free (trial) however the costs after the 30 day trial are $9.99 for a basic account, $99 for a professional" account.

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1

Believe it or not, there's an app for that!

The app SMS Export ($4.99) will allow you to export your SMS to the software on both your Mac and Windows.

You can make a back-up of your entire SMS-database or export the SMS-messages to your computer:

You can converted SMS to HTML, CSV or Text. Then you can load your SMS into any program like Excel or Word and print them.

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1

My destination for the export was a new Smasung Galaxy Note, so the Samsung Kies software (eventually) managed to import the SMSs from an unencrypted iPhone backup. Kies is free for Samsung phones. It was necessary to 'update drivers' from one of the menus in Kies before this worked for me. Kies also prevents me running Android File Transfer on 10.8, so I uninstalled Kies once the import was complete.

Otherwise, I've successfully used DiskAid on the Mac to export my SMSs to a flat text file. A useful reference, but I'd rather it exported a friendly (ie standard) SQLite database so I could easily use the data elsewhere.

DiskAid is $29.90 at the time of answer, but they also offer free educational licenses to folk with email addresses at tertiary institutions.

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  • note, Kies got only SMSs, not MMSs (or at least, not the photos) – ptim Feb 12 '13 at 6:48

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