Backing up text messages to PC?

[jonesyvoor]

Is there any easy way to transfer or back up SMS messages to my PC (not Mac)?

I've searched the net for this and every forum that contains this question seems to filled with a bunch of spam as answers or links to $20 software.

And maybe that is the answer but i wanted to see if there was a better and easier way to do it.

I am jailbroken. I guess I could SSH but wanted to see if there was something even easier than that.

 

[Relznuk]

If you don't mind paying a few dollars for an excellent app that will do this, I recommend Reincubate (Reincubate: Labs: Backup Extractor for iPhone: extract and restore files from an iPhone backup on Windows, Linux and OS X). The app costs $25, but it's great and storing all your information so you aren't at a loss if you decide to restore your iPhone fresh.

There are also some instructions that show you how to do it, which can be found here (Free iPhone SMS Backup - Export and Archive SMS from Apple iPhone).

 

[hades#IM]

You can SSH into: /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db

 

[verwon]

good!! good!!!

so good post!!

Annoying, annoying posts!


Sent from my iOS ecosystem!

 

[AllYourTexts]

Is there any easy way to transfer or back up SMS messages to my PC (not Mac)?

I've searched the net for this and every forum that contains this question seems to filled with a bunch of spam as answers or links to $20 software.

And maybe that is the answer but i wanted to see if there was a better and easier way to do it.

I am jailbroken. I guess I could SSH but wanted to see if there was something even easier than that.

If you just want to back up your SMS messages, all you need to do is do a normal sync to your PC as that backs up your SMS messages as well. The folder location varies by OS release, but you can find yours on the Apple support page (support.apple.com/kb/ht4946). The SMS database is a file named "3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28" and it's stored in SQLite format, so you can view it with a SQLite viewer. The problem is it's not stored in a way that you could meaningfully read conversations, so that's where 3rd party programs are useful.

I wasn't happy with the existing 3rd party apps, so I actually created one of my own. It's called AllYourTexts. It allows you to view your texts in normal conversation form and allows you to export them as plaintext or HTML. There are also a few little bells and whistles like showing you statistics and graph visualizations of your texting behavior. It's $9.99 but there's a 15-day free trial where you can use all the features of the program (a lot of the other programs only allow you to view a few of your messages in the trial).

I can't link because this is my first post, but you can try out the program at allyourtexts.com.