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iPhone Is there any Cydia app to backup/restore SMS/voicemail?

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macsrcool1234

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Original poster
Oct 7, 2010
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Currently I have to dig into my iTunes backups and then SSH back into my iphone after jailbreak and put the files back. (I also have to set permissions and things).

Is there any Cydia application that can backup certain parts of the phone that iTunes handles typically? Name the two in the title.


I always setup as a new phone but was wondering if there was an app to do these things that I do manually.
 
macsrcool1234 said:
Currently I have to dig into my iTunes backups and then SSH back into my iphone after jailbreak and put the files back. (I also have to set permissions and things).

Is there any Cydia application that can backup certain parts of the phone that iTunes handles typically? Name the two in the title.


I always setup as a new phone but was wondering if there was an app to do these things that I do manually.
Click to expand...

This would be nice, for some reason I'm never able to get me sms working. I think its the permissions thing, but I always lose my text messages when restoring.
 
jjk454ss said:
This would be nice, for some reason I'm never able to get me sms working. I think its the permissions thing, but I always lose my text messages when restoring.
Click to expand...

Yeah be sure to get permissions or teh app will crash. I actually had quite a bit of trouble goign from iOS4-iOS5, the SMS.db was entirely restructured. Somehow it just started working on it's own (I think because I use BiteSMS). I actually have text messages on my current phone back from my old iPhone 3G lol (have upgraded every iteration).
 
macsrcool1234 said:
Yeah be sure to get permissions or teh app will crash. I actually had quite a bit of trouble goign from iOS4-iOS5, the SMS.db was entirely restructured. Somehow it just started working on it's own (I think because I use BiteSMS). I actually have text messages on my current phone back from my old iPhone 3G lol (have upgraded every iteration).
Click to expand...

I wondered about iOS5 with iMessage, I see new files besides the sms.db file. Do I still only need this one file, and to edit the permissions?
 
jjk454ss said:
I wondered about iOS5 with iMessage, I see new files besides the sms.db file. Do I still only need this one file, and to edit the permissions?
Click to expand...

What I did was leave the original files intact and just overwrite the SMS.db.
/private/var/mobile/Library/SMS

For sms.db, you want to set the owner for both user and group to "mobile" and the permission to 0644.

Then reboot the phone and install BiteSMS. I have no idea if it works with the native messages app, I never checked (and unfortunately cant check right now as my phone is updating to 5.1.1) but I will let you know.

If you find your BiteSMS crashing, repeat the process. I think I only had issues because it was not fully IOS5 compatible at the time.

EDIT:
See this thread:
http://modmyi.com/forums/general/783415-addressbook-sqlitedb-sms-db-ios-5-upgrading-problems.html
 
macsrcool1234 said:
What I did was leave the original files intact and just overwrite the SMS.db.
/private/var/mobile/Library/SMS

For sms.db, you want to set the owner for both user and group to "mobile" and the permission to 0644.

Then reboot the phone and install BiteSMS. I have no idea if it works with the native messages app, I never checked (and unfortunately cant check right now as my phone is updating to 5.1.1) but I will let you know.

If you find your BiteSMS crashing, repeat the process. I think I only had issues because it was not fully IOS5 compatible at the time.

EDIT:
See this thread:
http://modmyi.com/forums/general/783415-addressbook-sqlitedb-sms-db-ios-5-upgrading-problems.html
Click to expand...

ECUpirate44 said:
Phone view for mac can do that.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, thanks for the info. And let me know if it works again for you when your done:). Thanks
 
I saw PhoneView but I wasn't sure if it had the ability to export and import back again. I think I might make a little Java program to do this.


UPDATE:
I installed and JB 5.1.1 and restored my old sms.db following the instructions above. All messages show up in both BiteSMS and the native Messaging application. Everything works fine with no issues.

Note: this was going from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1, not IOS4.
 
Last edited:
macsrcool1234 said:
I saw PhoneView but I wasn't sure if it had the ability to export and import back again. I think I might make a little Java program to do this.


UPDATE:
I installed and JB 5.1.1 and restored my old sms.db following the instructions above. All messages show up in both BiteSMS and the native Messaging application. Everything works fine with no issues.

Note: this was going from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1, not IOS4.
Click to expand...

can you tell me step by step how to do it ?
 
macsrcool1234 said:
I saw PhoneView but I wasn't sure if it had the ability to export and import back again. I think I might make a little Java program to do this.


UPDATE:
I installed and JB 5.1.1 and restored my old sms.db following the instructions above. All messages show up in both BiteSMS and the native Messaging application. Everything works fine with no issues.

Note: this was going from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1, not IOS4.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it, thanks.
 
macsrcool1234 said:
I saw PhoneView but I wasn't sure if it had the ability to export and import back again. I think I might make a little Java program to do this.


UPDATE:
I installed and JB 5.1.1 and restored my old sms.db following the instructions above. All messages show up in both BiteSMS and the native Messaging application. Everything works fine with no issues.

Note: this was going from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1, not IOS4.
Click to expand...

Did you use iFile to change permissions? I'd like to do it via SSH, is this possible?
 
OK. I got it, I was worried:).

1)Backup /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db to computer
2)Restore
3)JB with Absinthe
4)Open and update Cydia
5)Open Cydia and install OpenSSH and iFile
6)Delete ALL files from /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/
7)SSH only the sms.db from backup to /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/
8)Open iFile and change owner from "root" to "mobile"
9)Check permissions are set to 644:

Screenshot2012-05-27at74420PM334x197.png


10)Close iFile
11)Restart iPhone

Not sure why, but I don't have messages from today or yesterday. I only have them from Friday and later. I did just backup the sms.db today, so I don't know why. Does the phone maybe not write to this file until a reboot? Either way, I got my old messages I cared about, and everything seems to work just fine. I can send/receive a message to myself anyway.
 
Does restoring the 'sms.db' file also restore the attachments within converstations (i.e. pictures, videos, & audio)?

I currently use PkgBackup and it seems to backup/restore my messages completely including all attachments.
 
LaZyFLiP said:
Does restoring the 'sms.db' file also restore the attachments within converstations (i.e. pictures, videos, & audio)?

I currently use PkgBackup and it seems to backup/restore my messages completely including all attachments.
Click to expand...

I don't think it does, there is an attachment folder that maybe you could transfer. I didn't have any attachments, so I can't check.
 
A related question,

i have just got an iPhone 4, updated to it to 5.1.1, jailbroke using absinthe. to transfer SMS from old iPhone 3GS(4.0.1) i replaced sms.db and removed sms.db-shm and sms.db-wal from from iphone4 using SSH. Problem occured that i can see preview of messages but cant see the conversations and can't send sms either.
then i removed everything in SMS folder and used iTune to backup from 3GS and restore to 4. now all messenges are shown and working well on iphone 4 but i cant find any sms.db file in SMS folder using SSH(its still empty). if the folder is still empty how can i see all the sms?
 
I jailbroke with absinthe 2.0.4/unlocked with gevey ultra S my Sprint iPhone 4s to run on a regular AT&T plan (not straight talk). I've tried almost everything to make iMessage/FacetTime/MMS work but nothing has been successful for me! Every time I try to turn it would not work and I would get this text (look below). Please help me!!
 

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lindagergorelar said:
If you have back up your text messages, you can restore from the backup.
To restore information from a backup, use one of the following methods after connecting your iOS device to the computer with which you normally sync:
1. Right-click (or Control-click) the device and choose Restore from Backup
2. If you have a new phone, you can connect to iTunes and it will prompt to restore from your backup

If you have no backup for your data on iPhone, iPhone data recovery software is your last shot! It's easy to use. Just a few clicks you can get all your data back.
Click to expand...

This thread is more than a year old…
Besides that the basic backup/restore routine is well known.
 
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