Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

KTK1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 26, 2008
349
42
I found I have 2.6GB of data in the Messages app and would like to save some old texts to a text file on my pc.

How would I backup my texts so I could delete them off my phone without losing them and have 0GB again in the messages app?

I have tried iExplorer but encountered a paywall when I tried to export my messages as .txt.

Is there another way to do it that is free?

Thanks.
 
I don't use iCloud backup, I backup to my laptop through iTunes.

I'd really like a readable backup of the texts so I can delete them all off the phone without losing them all.
 
The site says that it does not support iOS 6 devices, my phone is running iOS 7.
Oh sorry it's been a while since I've used it. Looking around it seems backuptrans is the only one that is stating ios 7 support right now.
http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sms-backup-restore.html
 
There are programs that can do this (though I don't recall if it requires a jailbreak). I had one on my computer that saved all of my text messages into a browsable/editable database, and also allowed you to restore them to your phone.

I don't remember what it was called, but I can check tonight if you want.
 
iBackupBot for iTunes works a treat, simply backup in itunes and then open this and it will read your backup data and you can extract pictures via the app to your desktop then simply delete old picture texts

That sounds really familiar and just might be the one I have (mentioned in my previous post).
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.