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wayshie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2010
2
0
Just upgraded to an iphone 4, and want to keep all my sms. I have tried the following methods online so far without success:

- Copy out the sms.db file from the Iphone 3G using OpenSSH, then copy it back into the iphone 4. I can read my SMS after this, but it crashes the SMS app so I can no longer send/receive SMS.

- Restore iphone 4 with my iphone 3G back-up. Lots of problems poped up after the restore, too many issues.

- Copy the iphone 3g backup file on my windows desktop from Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup, and put it into the iphone 4 backup folder to replace the file. Then restore as iphone 4. Itunes gives me an error on the backup file when I try to restore.

Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated, as I am sure some are going through the same thing as me. My next attempt is going to be opening up the iphone 3g backup file using SQLite manager, and try to copy the related tables into my iphone 4 backup file. However, I haven't worked with database for quite a while so I am hoping there is an easier way....

Thanks in advance!
 

wayshie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2010
2
0
Might try this today

Hi guys,

Still have been able to get it to work, so any help would be much appreciated.

I am going to try a new method today, and that is to copy the sms file from the 3G back up (3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d2), and try to make it look like the new Iphone 4 back up file using a SQLite manager. Last time I tried to replace the file directly and Itunes had an error with the file. Looking at both files using SQLite manager, I noticed that the 3G backup file had a few more tables. So I am going to delete the extra tables today, and try it.

However, a couple of things that suggest it still may not work, and please let me know if you think these are valid concerns:

- although the database table structures are the same, and the tables are the same, there are some reference in the table content that worries me. For example, there is a table called "message_pieces", it seems to store all the images and other files that came with the SMS, and it stores location to the files. But I don't have those files on the new iphone.

- In another table, it has a reference to "unique identifier", not sure if this is phone specific

In any case, hopefully it works out.

Thanks!
 

dccorona

macrumors 68020
Jun 12, 2008
2,033
1
maybe clearing out everything but your SMS so thats all the backup contains?
delete everything you can delete (apps, songs, contacts, favorites, call logs, pictures, etc) so that everything starts fresh except your texts. That might remove some of the issues you're having
 

iMacDragon

macrumors 68020
Oct 18, 2008
2,339
688
UK
- Restore iphone 4 with my iphone 3G back-up. Lots of problems poped up after the restore, too many issues.

What sort of problems? I've still got text messages on my phone from 2007, having been restoring with previous devices backup since original ipod touch, and through all 4 generations of iphone and not noticed any problems here at all.
 
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