iPhone SMS Management Utility: Syphone Beta

MacRumors · Dec 2, 2007, 04:59 PM

Micromat has a utility called Syphone which is a freeware Mac application that lets you view, save and backup your SMS messages.

Quote:

The iPhone has a limit on the number of SMS messages it can store at one time. If this limit is exceeded, existing conversations must be deleted in order to make room for new messages. Syphone allows you to view and/or save any of these conversations, including deleted messages.

A beta is presently available for download. Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or greater

Article Link

darwen · Dec 2, 2007, 05:37 PM

It is funny that this just got posted because I was looking for a way to save text messages yesterday and found this.

One thing I dont understand is if I need to be selecting and exporting them to ensure they are saved. Or are they just working off the backups? Is it already saved?

foobarbaz · Dec 2, 2007, 05:39 PM

So, how many messages will the phone hold before I have to delete?

Ninja Dom · Dec 2, 2007, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foobarbaz

So, how many messages will the phone hold before I have to delete?

The iPhone can hold 1000 individual text messages.

Templex · Dec 2, 2007, 06:09 PM

I believe the (artificial) limit is 1000. This is still much better than my old RAZR V3i, which only held ~125 messages at a time, even less if the messages were long.

TheSpecialist · Dec 2, 2007, 06:15 PM

Why can't it be more then 1000 messages? My Sony Ericsson K800i can hold 1000 too, why so little? I have more then 2GB of space in it. Why can't it be stored there. And even the iPhone, it runs OSX!! 1000 is way to low, I can send 1000 SMS messages via Vodafone for 10eu a month. And every month I have to clean my inbox, which is reallyyyyyy annoying. I hope when I get an iPhone this is improved.!!!!

RichP · Dec 2, 2007, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Templex

I believe the (artificial) limit is 1000. This is still much better than my old RAZR V3i, which only held ~125 messages at a time, even less if the messages were long.

Just for nerd-dom... a max SMS message is 256 bytes or less, which means the iphone could hold well over 33.5 million messages. Thats a text message a second for 388 years.

Hope you like that touch keyboard!

TheSpecialist · Dec 2, 2007, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichP

Just for nerd-dom... a max SMS message is 256 bytes or less, which means the iphone could hold well over 33.5 million messages. Thats a text message a second for 388 years.

Hope you like that touch keyboard!

Exactly, maybe there's some limit in the memory. When my Sony has alot of messages it slows down with the scrolling and opening and back. Maybe that's the reason.

hessian1 · Dec 2, 2007, 07:23 PM

yes there is a maximum limit... I have hit it and had to delete messages (and i wasn't out of space on my iphone)... Also this program doesn't seem to work with an hacked iphone because I can't get mine to recognize.

cloudnine · Dec 2, 2007, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hessian1

yes there is a maximum limit... I have hit it and had to delete messages (and i wasn't out of space on my iphone)... Also this program doesn't seem to work with an hacked iphone because I can't get mine to recognize.

Well, my iphone isn't hacked in any way, shape or form and it doesn't recognize it, either. Very strange...

Templex · Dec 2, 2007, 08:03 PM

It's quite odd why Apple chose to limit the amount of text messages you could hold to 1000... I'd be content with 2000 or so, even more if the limit was 5000.

Project · Dec 2, 2007, 08:17 PM

Its because the texts are not stored on the flash drive. They are on a separate partition which is quite small and contains the critical phone stuff.

Karpfish · Dec 2, 2007, 08:45 PM

My Blackberry has no limit on messages, its great. Just one reason to skip the iPhone

iVoid · Dec 2, 2007, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Project

Its because the texts are not stored on the flash drive. They are on a separate partition which is quite small and contains the critical phone stuff.

On the SIM card, perhaps?

MarkW19 · Dec 2, 2007, 09:14 PM

Whats interesting is that screenshot shows EVERY message with its own timestamp, so the iPhone obviously logs this. Maybe its only a matter of time before someone figures out how to hack the iPhone to show every timestamp, if you wanted to. Ive certainly seen it complained about before!

Cleverboy · Dec 2, 2007, 09:48 PM

Boy, I sure can't wait for February. Aw, yeah... gonna be crazy cool.
'Til then, I'm always skeptical about how much Apple will mess with.
The whole Notes/SQLite thing still irks me. It's like its so close to
being easily manipulated, but just non-standard enough to give one pause.

~ CB

ortuno2k · Dec 2, 2007, 11:01 PM

I don't know why anyone would want to hold more than 1k messages...as if they were all meant to be kept.
Good finding though.

darwen · Dec 2, 2007, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ortuno2k

I don't know why anyone would want to hold more than 1k messages...as if they were all meant to be kept.
Good finding though.

When it threads the messages.... you cant delete specific ones. Messages you want to delete pile on top of ones you want to keep. You cant delete one w/o deleting all of them.

Templex · Dec 3, 2007, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iVoid

On the SIM card, perhaps?

If the messages were stored on the SIM card, you would only be able to hold around 30. Trust me, I know from experiences with my V3i.

Yuppi · Dec 3, 2007, 03:21 AM

Not every sim card has the same (small) amount of messages. They noticed that people have the need for a bigger storage. So it is possible to have storage for that amount of messages in the sim card.
Btw. that could also be an explanation of the problems caused with foreign sim cards in legally unlocked phones.

badtz · Dec 3, 2007, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hessian1

yes there is a maximum limit... I have hit it and had to delete messages (and i wasn't out of space on my iphone)... Also this program doesn't seem to work with an hacked iphone because I can't get mine to recognize.

It should definitely work, the program grabs the information from the iTunes SQLite DB backup .... after every time you sync it with your computer ...

Steve Jobs=God · Dec 3, 2007, 07:15 AM

Looks like a good piece of software, though i can't even get the disk image to mount

TeddyBlack · Dec 3, 2007, 07:47 AM

For all of those who are saying they can't get syphone to recognise their iphone, I just had the same problem myself. Had a look around a bit on different forum sites, and found this solution.

1. sync iphone through itunes
2. eject iphone through itunes
3. launch syphone
4. In preferences, UNtick the run helper apps button, then tick it back on.

Step 4 caused my version of syphone to crash, but relaunched it, and then it worked fine. Try it and you should'nt have any problmems.

Enjoy!

dr_lha · Dec 3, 2007, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jobs=God

Looks like a good piece of software, though i can't even get the disk image to mount

Yeah, I'm having the same problem. The archive seems to be corrupt. Why use bzip2 to compress a DMG files anyway, when DMGs have built in compression?

HailToTheVictor · Dec 3, 2007, 01:47 PM

wow, 1000, I thought it was a lot less. I have had to clear my inbox about six times, I text way too much.

Dec 2, 2007, 05:37 PM	#2
darwen macrumors 6502a Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: California, US	It is funny that this just got posted because I was looking for a way to save text messages yesterday and found this. One thing I dont understand is if I need to be selecting and exporting them to ensure they are saved. Or are they just working off the backups? Is it already saved? __________________ Darwen

Dec 2, 2007, 06:09 PM	#5
Templex macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA	I believe the (artificial) limit is 1000. This is still much better than my old RAZR V3i, which only held ~125 messages at a time, even less if the messages were long. __________________ Mid-2007 MacBook Pro iPhone (Original) iPhone 3GS

Dec 2, 2007, 08:03 PM	#11
Templex macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA	It's quite odd why Apple chose to limit the amount of text messages you could hold to 1000... I'd be content with 2000 or so, even more if the limit was 5000. __________________ Mid-2007 MacBook Pro iPhone (Original) iPhone 3GS

Dec 2, 2007, 08:45 PM	#13
Karpfish macrumors 6502a Join Date: Sep 2006	My Blackberry has no limit on messages, its great. Just one reason to skip the iPhone __________________ Macbook Pro;2.4GHz C2D;4GB RAM;200GB 7200RPM HD HK Soundsticks A lot more external HD space than I need(2.77TB) Nikon SLR Gear

Dec 2, 2007, 09:48 PM	#16
Cleverboy macrumors 65816 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Pocket Universe, nth Dimensional Complex Manifold	Boy, I sure can't wait for February. Aw, yeah... gonna be crazy cool. 'Til then, I'm always skeptical about how much Apple will mess with. The whole Notes/SQLite thing still irks me. It's like its so close to being easily manipulated, but just non-standard enough to give one pause. ~ CB __________________ Contemplations.com - Never under estimate the power of a good idea! Website-Toolkit.com - Best of the Net for Website Mastery!

Dec 2, 2007, 05:39 PM	#3
foobarbaz macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2007	So, how many messages will the phone hold before I have to delete?

Dec 2, 2007, 06:15 PM	#6
TheSpecialist macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: The Netherlands, Europe	Why can't it be more then 1000 messages? My Sony Ericsson K800i can hold 1000 too, why so little? I have more then 2GB of space in it. Why can't it be stored there. And even the iPhone, it runs OSX!! 1000 is way to low, I can send 1000 SMS messages via Vodafone for 10eu a month. And every month I have to clean my inbox, which is reallyyyyyy annoying. I hope when I get an iPhone this is improved.!!!!

Dec 2, 2007, 07:23 PM	#9
hessian1 macrumors newbie Join Date: Aug 2007	yes there is a maximum limit... I have hit it and had to delete messages (and i wasn't out of space on my iphone)... Also this program doesn't seem to work with an hacked iphone because I can't get mine to recognize.

Dec 2, 2007, 08:17 PM	#12
Project macrumors 68020 Join Date: Aug 2005	Its because the texts are not stored on the flash drive. They are on a separate partition which is quite small and contains the critical phone stuff.

Dec 2, 2007, 09:14 PM	#15
MarkW19 macrumors 65816 Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Leeds, UK	Whats interesting is that screenshot shows EVERY message with its own timestamp, so the iPhone obviously logs this. Maybe its only a matter of time before someone figures out how to hack the iPhone to show every timestamp, if you wanted to. Ive certainly seen it complained about before!

Dec 2, 2007, 11:01 PM	#17
ortuno2k macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Miami, FL	I don't know why anyone would want to hold more than 1k messages...as if they were all meant to be kept. Good finding though. __________________ 15" C2D MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz with 3GB of RAM, 320GB HDD on 10.6.1

Dec 3, 2007, 03:21 AM	#20
Yuppi macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2007	Not every sim card has the same (small) amount of messages. They noticed that people have the need for a bigger storage. So it is possible to have storage for that amount of messages in the sim card. Btw. that could also be an explanation of the problems caused with foreign sim cards in legally unlocked phones.

Dec 3, 2007, 07:15 AM	#22
Steve Jobs=God macrumors 6502 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Plymouth, UK	Looks like a good piece of software, though i can't even get the disk image to mount

Dec 3, 2007, 07:47 AM	#23
TeddyBlack macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2007	For all of those who are saying they can't get syphone to recognise their iphone, I just had the same problem myself. Had a look around a bit on different forum sites, and found this solution. 1. sync iphone through itunes 2. eject iphone through itunes 3. launch syphone 4. In preferences, UNtick the run helper apps button, then tick it back on. Step 4 caused my version of syphone to crash, but relaunched it, and then it worked fine. Try it and you should'nt have any problmems. Enjoy!

Dec 3, 2007, 01:47 PM	#25
HailToTheVictor macrumors regular Join Date: Feb 2007	wow, 1000, I thought it was a lot less. I have had to clear my inbox about six times, I text way too much.

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