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JSchwartz15

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2012
119
4
I currently have an iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1.2. The phone is old and slow and barely works, but I have been holding off until the iPhone 6 release to upgrade. I recently had to backup and restore the phone to unlock it and it put all my music on, but somehow the file path got messed up and the phone doesn't recognize the music is there (I know it's on the phone because the space is taken up). I asked the Genius Bar if there was anything I could do and in the end the best solution is to just wipe the phone and start over, but I don't want to lose my text message history. They suggested there may be third party apps that will let me back up just the texts. My plan is to set up the iPhone 6 as new iPhone and then use some third party app to restore my texts to it. However, the iPhone 6 will be running iOS 8 most likely so I don't know if the file path structure will match up.

My question is this:
What third party app will back up my text messages from the iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1.2 and transfer them safely to the iPhone 6 running iOS 8?
 
No 3rd party can backup and transfer texts between devices. You have to use iTunes to backup and restore from backup.

I know I've seen something before about an app that does this and the guy at the Genius Bar seemed sure it could be done, just not in a way that Apple provides
 
I just found this article online http://www.wired.com/2013/11/backup-sms-iphone/.

Apple saves your text messages in its iPhone backups, whether they’re saved locally on your PC or whether they’re part of an iCloud backup — which you should have. That’s good! Unfortunately, they’re not separated out. However, you can access them through the filesystem. If you back up locally on an Apple machine, you can find the file under Library > Application Support > MobileSync > Backup. There should be multiple folders there, each with a different backup image of your phone. Each of the folders should have a file named ” 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata.” Those are your texts, in SQLite database form.

On a Windows machine, you can find that file in C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming.

Unfortunately, you can’t open up that file in a text editor — you’ll either need a SQLite editor or a special third-party tool. But at the very least, if you copy that file and keep it somewhere safe, you’ve got an archive of your text messages. Here’s an online service where you can upload that file and download the content and metadata in either PDF or CSV form. Of course, it’s totally up to you whether you want to give some old website access to your private messages.

Is there a way I could manipulate the backup so that it seems like the backup of a phone that only has text messages (and iMessages) on it? Then when I get the new phone I can restore it from a backup and the only thing it will put on it will be the 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata file
 
Most likely to do that your iphone 6 on ios 8 would need to be JB first.
Then you could possibly go in and edit/replace the SQLite database and upload it to its current messages location on the phone.
Not sure of any other way but its all hypothetical still since there is no iphone 6 yet or an iphone 6 or ios 8 jailbreak available yet.
 
Most likely to do that your iphone 6 on ios 8 would need to be JB first.
Then you could possibly go in and edit/replace the SQLite database and upload it to its current messages location on the phone.
Not sure of any other way but its all hypothetical still since there is no iphone 6 yet or an iphone 6 or ios 8 jailbreak available yet.

Why would I need a jailbroken phone to alter the backup on my computer to resemble that of a phone that is new except for text history? Could I not backup the phone as it is now, save that backup elsewhere, reset my current phone as new, create that backup to have a template and then only transfer the 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata. files into that newer backup and setup the iPhone 6 from that?
 
Altered or edited backups wont work and are not as a simple thing as you're imagining.
Itunes wont allow you to just edit and change up your backup and restore it back to ios 8 like that.
But if you think its easy then go for it.
 
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