Best way to download all text messages from iPhone?

[HXGuy]

I'm getting ready to wipe clean my 4S to ship out to NextWorth but I'd like to get all my text messages off of it and save, anyone know of the best way to go about this?

(I setup my iPhone 5 as new instead of restore from backup since my 4S was jailbroken, wanted to start clean)

 

[wordoflife]

Perhaps backing up to iCloud, and restoring from iCloud?

Probably backs up less junk than an iTunes restore.

(information based off of nothing though)

 

[HXGuy]

Unfortunately text messages aren't part of the iCloud backup.

 

[TheBuffather]

Unfortunately text messages aren't part of the iCloud backup.

Actually, they are. I restored from a backup once to a brand new iPhone that was a replacement, and my text messages were restored.

 

[Mliii]

I'm getting ready to wipe clean my 4S to ship out to NextWorth but I'd like to get all my text messages off of it and save, anyone know of the best way to go about this?

(I setup my iPhone 5 as new instead of restore from backup since my 4S was jailbroken, wanted to start clean)

If you are on a Mac and want to download previous messages to your computer and save them that way, PhoneView will do it. It will also allow you to copy them back into your phone.
Disclaimer: I've not done it with an iPhone 5, but have with a 4 and 4s

 

[HXGuy]

Wow for real? And I should be able to import them into my new phone? That would be awesome...gotta go look into it.

 

[maddux2005]

iCloud does indeed keep texts. Still have all mine

 

[HXGuy]

If you are on a Mac and want to download previous messages to your computer and save them that way, PhoneView will do it. It will also allow you to copy them back into your phone.
Disclaimer: I've not done it with an iPhone 5, but have with a 4 and 4s

Wow man thanks for letting me know about that software, it seems great! About to download the 7 day demo to try it out but I'll probably buy the whole thing as it seems really useful from what I've read so far.

As for doing a backup from iCloud...I've already setup my iPhone 5 the way I want it, dont' really want to redo the whole thing with a new restore.

 

[Nikos]

If you use iTunes to backup your 4S, it should store them in the backup.

 

[HXGuy]

If you use iTunes to backup your 4S, it should store them in the backup.

And how do I get them from the backup and onto the new iPhone.

Unfortunately the PhoneView didn't work out as I thought it would, and I spent the $29. It allows you to download all the texts, but you can't upload them to another device, just save them on the computer.

 

[HXGuy]

Finally got it done by using this software!

http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sms-backup-restore-for-mac.html

Had to pay $24 for it but it worked great. It's a big more complicated using iOS 6 but still very easy to do.

 

[Martin Murphy]

Just visited Apple store re missing text messages

Hi Guys

We upgraded to iPhone 5 from 4S and text messages will only come across if you back up through iTunes, they will not come across from iCloud, iCloud does not keep a back up of your text messages. Also be very very careful of backing up through iTunes, once you back up your old phone make absolutely certain that it did in fact back up. Check this before you wipe your old phone. We just lost all our messages as the back up did not take properly so when we restored to the new iphone5, all we had was messages up to October 2011 from the last time we changed the phone from 4 to 4S.
I think there are issues with iTunes as my back up of the latest iPad does not show either?

 

[TwoBytes]

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

support the dev and buy the software! It does much more than sms messages. i think he's a one man team but i've been using this for a while.

 

[HXGuy]

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

support the dev and buy the software! It does much more than sms messages. i think he's a one man team but i've been using this for a while.

Yea I like the features of just drag and dropping photos and music directly off the phone, much faster and simpler than using iPhoto and iTunes.

 

[tipopilota]

SMS Backup

This program is awesome. I have used it for a while now ant it not only lets you back up the entire set of texts but also texts from one person, etc. Definitely a must have.

http://www.tansee.com/iphonetransfersms.html

 

[TwoBytes]

it does a cool save to pdf for archiving and searching on your mac later on

 

[wildonrio]

No software program needed! iCloud backs up all your text messages and puts them on your new phone. I just did it. Didn't even touch iTunes.

1. Backup to iCloud using previous iPhone.
2. Restore from iCloud on iPhone 5.
3. All text messages will be there.

I am seeing ones from 2008. I can scroll down for days.

 

[GravityEyes]

Decipher Textmessages is a nice app. It will pull archives from any and all of your iTunes backups. It does not restore them to your phone, however.

 

[robertk328]

No software program needed! iCloud backs up all your text messages and puts them on your new phone. I just did it. Didn't even touch iTunes.

1. Backup to iCloud using previous iPhone.
2. Restore from iCloud on iPhone 5.
3. All text messages will be there.

I am seeing ones from 2008. I can scroll down for days.

What if you only want text messages restored? iCloud needs the option to do a selective restore.

 

[darngooddesign]

I'm pretty sure the text messages were restored when I backed up to my Mac normally.