Recently, I did a full restore on my iPhone to try and fix some of the many problems I’ve been having (we’ll save that list for another day). While SMS messages are generally temporary in nature, I decided to find out if I could export them somehow. There are a few programs out there that claim to be able to do this for you, such as MobileSyncBrowser (Mac/PC, free trial/$10/$20), iPhone / iPod Touch Backup Extractor (Mac, free), or an online tool like iphone backup sms extractor. I didn’t try any of these because I don’t want to pay, I am not on a Mac, and I don’t want to upload my private messages to some random site. Luckily, I discovered that it’s not too hard to do it yourself. Grab your iPhone, put on your techie hat, and follow the 3 easy steps after the break!
Step 0 – Before You Start:
A couple things you need to take care of before diving in to the tutorial:
Make sure to do a sync/backup of your iPhone in iTunes before starting to ensure all messages will be extracted.Download SQLite Database Browser as you will need this to browse/export the database once finding it.
Step 1 – Find the Backup File:
The SMS messages are stored in an SQLite database file that is located in a backup folder somewhere on your computer. The file is (most likely) named
3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata
On Windows, the path to the folder should resemble something like the following:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\[some random id]\
On a Mac, you should find it at:
home/Library/MobileSync/backup/[some random id]/
Or just search your computer for 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.
Once you find the file, you can verify that it is an SQLite database by opening it in a text editor and making sure the first characters of the file are “SQLite format 3″.
Just to be safe and, copy the file to your desktop or another folder and rename it something shorter like sms.sqlite.
Step 2 – Browsing the SMS SQLite Database
You will need the SQLite Database Browser as mentioned above, so go download it now if you haven’t already!
Once you have it downloaded, extract the program and run it! Click File > Open and navigate to where you saved the copy of the backup file. When you open this file you will see an interface that should be familiar if you’ve ever used any sort of database management tool.
From the Table drop-down menu, choose the message table. This is the main table we’re interested in and you don’t really need to use the other tables at all but go ahead and take a look if you’re interested!
There are a few fields that we are interested in:
address: This holds the phone number of the person that sent you or you sent the message to.date: This is a Unix timestamp of when the message was sent.text: The actual message.flags: This should be either 2 or 3. The messages flagged 3 are messages that you sent (outgoing), while the messages flagged 2 are incoming messages.
Step 3 – Exporting:
Still using SQLite Database Browser program, click File > Export > Table as CSV File. Choose the messages table and click Export. Choose a filename like sms.csv, hit Save, and you’re done!
Now you can open the CSV using Excel (or equivalent) and laugh/cry/look at all the funny/angry/crazy messages you have sent and received over the years/weeks/days!
To convert the datestamp to a human readable format in Excel, use the following formula (from SpreadsheetPage.com):
=(((A1/60)/60)/24)+DATE(1970,1,1)+(-5/24)where A1 is the cell holding the datestamp, and -5 is your timezone GMT offset.
You can also duplicate (copy/paste) the address column and then do a find and replace of the phone number with the person’s actual name (useful at least for the people you text the most with).
Notes:
This will not export emoticons/emoji/MMS messages. There may be a way to grab these (table msg_pieces may give some hints), but I’m not really worried about losing this info.
You will only get the phone numbers of the messages, not the names (though it’s easy enough to do a find and replace for your most used phone numbers).
That’s it! I hope this will be useful to someone, and if you have any questions or comments, or find any errors in this post just leave a comment!
If you don't know how to do,you can learn this article about:
How to transfer iphone SMS and contact to computer?
How to backup iphone SMS and contact to Mac?
Note:You can free download and copy the first 100 items for each contact in trail version.
iPhone SMS Contact Transfer - Save iPhone SMS and contacts to computer
Want to save your iphone sms and contacts to computer for backup? To transfer your iphone sms and contacts information to computer, you need an iphone backup solution to help. This iPhone SMS Contact Transfer can transfer iPhone SMS and contacts to computer in clicks.
iPhone SMS Contact Transfer is a bundle of iPhone sms messages backup and ipone contacts backup. This bundle includes 2 software -- "iPhone Transfer SMS " and "iPhone Transfer Contact ". Now you can get this iPhone backup pack. Free download HERE
iPhone Transfer SMS can provide you: - Backup SMS in iPhone to computer before iPhone reject receiving new SMS. - View and Manage old iPhone SMS in your computer. - View SMS in Text file format (.txt file), ANTS file format (.ants file), MHT file format (.mht file)on PC. - Password protection support (ANTS file only). - Edit SMS (ANTS file only). - Print SMS (MHT file print by IE).
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All iPhone users can't backup the SMS to anywhere until the SMS box is full, then you have to delete all of them to prevent iPhone rejecting new SMS receiving. With iPhone Transfer SMS, you can transfer the iPhone SMS to computer as a txt file or a ANTS file before the event above happens. Before the transfer, you can choose to transfer from all contacts or a single contact, further more, you can choose transfer the SMS to a TXT file or a ANTS file. In ANTS file condition, you can protect the file with a password to keep your privacy. From now on ANTS file support edit feature just the same operation process as the SMS edit on iPhone. If you want print iPhone SMS, you can choose MHT file format, then open the file by Internet Explorer, print it just like shown on iPhone! No more words, please watch step by step guide: how to backup and transfer iPhone SMS to computer.
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Using iPhone Transfer Contact all iPhone user can backup the contact and contact's photo to computer. With Tansee iPhone Transfer Contact, you can transfer the iPhone contact to computer as a txt file or a ANTC file before the event above happens. Before the transfer, you can choose to transfer all contacts or a single contact, further more, you can choose transfer the contact to a TXT file or a ANTC file. In ANTC file condition, you can protect the file with a password to keep your privacy. No more words, please watch step by step guide: how to backup and transfer iPhone Contact to computer
Get more info about iPhone SMS Contacts Transfer
How to transfer music, video, photo, ibook, voice memo, ringtone, camera roll, SMS, Contacts from iPhone to Mac?
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Full guide: Transfer music, video, photo, ibook, voice memo, ringtone, camera roll, SMS, Contacts from iPhone to Mac
The guide as follows will show you how to transfer music, video, photo, ibook, voice memo, ringtone, camera roll etc from iPhone to Mac with 3herosoft iPhone to Computer Transfer for Mac. Follow the guide step by step, you will learn the iPhone files transferring in fast way!
Free download the software and install it on your Mac. Then launch this iPhone to Mac Transfer software and connect your iPhone to Mac. All information about iPhone, such as type, capacity, version, serial number and format, will be shown on the main interface. And in the left panel all items stored iPhone library consisting of music, movie, books, ringtones, voice memos, photo, camera, SMS, Contacts and other playlist.
Now you can select what files you want to transfer.
Transfer Music Transfer Videos Transfer Photos Transfer iBooks(ePub bpoks) PDF Transfer Voice memos Transfer Ringtones Transfer Camera Roll files Transfer SMS messages Transfer Contacts
Transfer Music From iPhone to Mac iTunes
1)Open the "library/playlist" that you want to transfer. All these files are shown in file browser. 2)Check songs you want to transfer and check them. Besides music files, it also can be photo, video, podcast or TV program for exporting to iTunes. 3)Choose the "Export->Export to iTunes" option or directly click the "Add checked files to iTunes library" button to sync iPhone music file with iTunes.. Before you transfer iPhone music, please make sure you have already installed the iTunes successfully on your Mac computer.
After a few minutes, the music files you select can be transferred successfully from iPhone to iTunes library.
Transfer Videos From iPhone to Mac
1)Open the "Movie" library that you want to transfer. All these files are shown in file browser. 2)Find the files you want to transfer and check them. Make sure tick appeared that is shown in the picture below. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" on the top-menu, or directly click the "Export checked files to local" to export and select the target folder for saving iPhone files in the dialog that appears, and press "Save" button and start to transfer video from iPhone to Mac.
Transfer Photos From iPhone to Mac
1)Open the "Photo" library that you want to transfer. All these files are shown in file browser. 2)Locate the pictures files you want to transfer and check them. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" on the top-menu, or directly click the "Export checked files to local" button to export and select the target folder for saving iPhone files in the dialog that appears, and press "Save" button and start to transfer pictures from iPhone to Mac.
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1)Open the "Books" library that you want to transfer. All these files are shown in file browser. 2)Find the files you want to transfer and check them. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" on the top-menu, or directly click the "Export checked files to local” button to export and select the target folder for saving iPhone iBooks in the dialogbox that appears, and press "Save" button and start to copy iBooks from iPhone to Mac.
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1)Open the "Voice Memos" library and all voice memos files are shown in file browser. 2)Find the voice memos you want to export to Mac and check them. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" on the top-menu, or directly click the "Export checked files to local” button to export and select the target folder for saving iPhone files in the dialogbox that appears, and press "Save" button and start to export voice memos from iPhone to Mac.
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1)Click "Ringtones" icon under iPhone library list and all ringtone files are shown on right interface panel. 2)Search for ringtones files you wanna copy to Mac and check them completely. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" on the top-menu, or directly click the "Export checked files to local” button to export and select the target folder for saving iPhone ringtones in the dialogbox that appears, and press "Save" button and start to copy iPhone ringtone to Mac.
Transfer Camera roll From iPhone to Mac
1)Open the "Camera" library and all camera roll files are displayed in file browser. 2)Find the camera roll you want to transfer and check them. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" on the top-menu, or directly click the "Export checked files to local” button, and an "Open" dialog box pops up, select a destination for saving camera roll files and press "Save" button to start to transfer iPhone camera roll to Mac.
Transfer SMS From iPhone to Mac
1)Open "SMS" library in iPhone list, while a small window box pops up and show you the sync process between software and iPhone. Several minutes later, all iPhone SMS info such as Address, Date, Message, etc. are shown in the interface. 2)Locate and check iPhone SMS you wanna copy to Mac. 3)Click the "Export->Export to local" button in the toolbar bar while choose a proper target folder to save SMS in the pop-up window box. Now breezily, iPhone SMS have already transferring to computer in very quick way.
Transfer Contacts From iPhone to Mac
1)Click "Contacts" icon in the iPhone list, the iPhone contacts info will display as shown in your iPhone screen automatically. You can view the person's Name, Mobile, Phone, E-mail on contact. 2)Choose one or more contacts on the display list to transfer and check them. 3)Press "export checked files to local"button and select a target destination to start iPhone contacts to PC transferring. Several minutes later, all iPhone oontacts are stored on Mac as .TXT file and .CSV files.
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You can know more features about it by referring here.
For Windows user, please use this iPad/iPhone/iPod to Windows Transfer to help.
Copy/backup iPhone contacts/SMS to another iPhone on Mac
Download iMacsoft iPhone Contact to Mac Transfer, install and launch it on Mac. Connect your iPhone to Mac, the iPhone to Mac transfer will automatically recognize it and the device info will be shown as the picture below.
In this screen, you click Contacts icon in the iPhone list, the iPhone contacts info will display as shown in your iPhone screen automatically. You can view the person's Name, Mobile, Phone, E-mail on contact. Before transfer any contact, you need to choose on or more contacts on the display list. And then press export checked files to local button and select a target destination to start iPhone contacts to Mac transferring. Several minutes later, all iPhone oontacts are stored on Mac as .TXT file and .CSV files.
Export all your contacts from iPhone to Mac as .CSV file format at the desktop. Run the Addres book application, add import .CSV files to it. Then you can view all the contact lists on the address books screen.
Run the iTunes and connect new iPhone to Mac, you can choose Info menu and select sync address book contacts option which will show contact lists as below you add to the address book. And then press Apply button to sync all contacts you select to iPhone in several seconds.
Here are some iPhone related products,you can visit:
Transfer all iPhone files to computer
Transfer iPhone SMS+Contact to computer
Transfer mobile SMS and Contact to computer
Backup and Restore iPhone SMS on computer If you're looking to transfer iPhone SMS between iPhone and computer, Backuptrans iPhone SMS Backup & Restore is the best choice which lets you do it in just a few easy steps. It offers all solutions for all serious iPhone users. It not only supports iPhone SMS to computer backup & export, but also enables users to restore SMS backup from computer database to a new iPhone or back to your old iPhone. No other iPhone utility softtware does more. Features: 1 Backup iPhone SMS to computer 2 Restore SMS to iPhone from PC 3 Export iPhone SMS to document files such as txt, csv, doc or html 4 Import SMS to iPhone from iTunes Backup 5 Print out iPhone SMS messages in conversations 6 iMessage supported also Read more: http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sm...p-restore.html Free Download it to try. Backup and Restore iPhone SMS on Mac If you're looking to transfer iPhone SMS between iPhone and Mac, Backuptrans iPhone SMS Backup & Restore for Mac is the best choice which lets you do it in just a few easy steps. It offers all solutions for all serious iPhone users. It not only supports iPhone SMS to Mac backup & export, but also enables users to restore SMS backup from Mac database to a new iPhone or back to your old iPhone. No other iPhone utility softtware does more. Features: 1 Backup iPhone SMS to Mac 2 Restore SMS to iPhone from Mac 3 Export iPhone SMS to document files such as txt, csv, doc or html 4 Import SMS to iPhone from iTunes Backup 5 Print out iPhone SMS messages in conversations 6 iMessage supported also Read more: http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sm...e-for-mac.html Free Download it to try.
The following article will show you the detailed solution on how to backup iPhone SMS to computer step by step: Step1: Install the software on computer and run it Run Backuptrans iPhone SMS Backup & Restore and connect iPhone to computer with USB cable. Then our software will automatically read SMS messages from your iPhone and show them on its main interface: Tip: Clicking the device title in Devices list will show all SMS messages. To view only the sms with a single friend like Iris, just click the contact name like "Iris' on the left list. Note: Before you run the software, please make sure you have installed iTunes 10.0 or above on your computer and turned off "iCloud Backup" on your iPhone. Also, you need to enter correct passcode on iPhone if your iPhone is protected with a passcode. Step2-A: Backup all iPhone SMS to computer 1) Click the iPhone in Devices list. 2) Turn to top toolbar and press "Backup SMS to Local Database" button or go File -> Backup SMS to Local Database. Tip: Or you can right click the iPhone in Devices list and then choose "Backup SMS from this iPhone to Local Database". Step2-B: Backup iPhone SMS with a single contact to computer 1) Click your wanted contact name under device. 2) Turn to top toolbar and press "Backup SMS to Local Database" button or go File -> Backup SMS to Local Database. Tip: Or you can right click the contact name and then choose "Backup SMS with this contact to Local Database". Step3: Select a database to save messages Select a database to save messages. To ceate a new database for your iPhone, simply enter a new database name. Click Confirm to continue. Backup successfully. How easy and fast! Now you can click the backup file to view, export or print SMS on computer with Backuptrans iPhone SMS Backup & Restore. You can even restore SMS from the database backup file back to your iPhone any time you want. Free download Backuptrans iPhone SMS Backup & Restore to your computer to try or read more detail from http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sm...p-restore.html Related tutorial: How to restore SMS to iPhone from computer? How to backup iPhone SMS to Mac?
Have no idea of importing CSV files to your iPhone? Do you want to transfer the contacts from Google, Outlook Express, Hotmail and more to iPhone?From this video tutorial, you will find it is easy to import contacts (CSV & vCard) from Outlook, Google, Aol Mail, Thunderbird, Incredimail and other address books to iPhone with the help of iPhone Contacts Backup for Mac. This program also works well for iPhone 5 witho iOS 6. Just have a free try on it.Video Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8kxi6uFqrE
Why people are spamming these useful topics. There is no need to spend $25-$30 just to backup iPhone SMS. You can backup all the data including messages and contacts using iCloud/iTunes. But still if you want to give a try to third party apps or programs then go for MissingSync (iPhone App) or iPhone SMS to Computer Transfer (desktop utility): www.iphone-to-pc.com/how-transfer-messages-iphone-pc.html.