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See old iMessages on new device?

Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
1,819
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I bought an iPad recently and wondered if there was a way I could see my old iMessage conversations which I had on my iPhone and Mac. People say it's only possible to have new conversations synced, but I don't quite believe that because when I bought a new Mac it did load all the previous conversations. And I didn't restore anything from time machine.
 
Well if you find a way, please share. Because I have wanted to know this too. Sadly on adding new devices they start with a blank slate.

After doing a clean install of Yosemite it's also a blank slate. I even had a backup of the messages but Yosemite just hangs trying to update the messages database.
 
NeoX360 said:
Well if you find a way, please share. Because I have wanted to know this too. Sadly on adding new devices they start with a blank slate.

After doing a clean install of Yosemite it's also a blank slate. I even had a backup of the messages but Yosemite just hangs trying to update the messages database.
Click to expand...

They act "separately". Unless you have Time Machine, those messages are gone. Although, perhaps there's a way you could use the software people use when they want to extract messages from their iPhone, make a fresh install, then transferring those messages back to their phone. Maybe you can use that phone backup to sort of attach the messages to the Yosemite message app? Not sure that would work, just a thought.
 
When i received my iphone 6 plus and connected it to my imac and updated and installed yosemite,i carried out a full backup before i installed and i have all of my old text messages on my phone,
 
Yes, so obviously there must be a way to get them. I'm wondering if I could load an iPhone backup into the iPad, perhaps I would get all of my messages then?
 
Sanchez25 said:
Yes, so obviously there must be a way to get them. I'm wondering if I could load an iPhone backup into the iPad, perhaps I would get all of my messages then?
Click to expand...

Not the entire backup, but extract the messages from the iPhone using software (iBackupBot or similar) to your Mac/PC, then attach that folder to your iPad?
 
Sanchez25 said:
Yes, so obviously there must be a way to get them. I'm wondering if I could load an iPhone backup into the iPad, perhaps I would get all of my messages then?
Click to expand...

That's a good question. They both run iOS.. maybe? Tell us what happens.
 
What do you mean with attaching the folder to the iPad? How do you do this?

And yep I'll try it out and then report. Mac has a service right now so I can't do anything yet until it's back.
 
Just restore the iPhone backup onto the iPad. You need to do this through iTunes though. Just backup the phone in iTunes then plugin the iPad and restore to it.
 
Imory said:
They act "separately". Unless you have Time Machine, those messages are gone. Although, perhaps there's a way you could use the software people use when they want to extract messages from their iPhone, make a fresh install, then transferring those messages back to their phone. Maybe you can use that phone backup to sort of attach the messages to the Yosemite message app? Not sure that would work, just a thought.
Click to expand...

I can live without it just would've been nice. When I upgraded it did not upgrade the messages like it should have. A progress bar came up and said it was updating the messages database to work with 10.10 and the progress bar never made any progress. After leaving it sit for about 20 minutes I hit quit anyway. To get messages to work on 10.10 from that point I had to delete the messages folder in my user/library folder. Which in essence deletes all the messages.
 
irnchriz said:
Just restore the iPhone backup onto the iPad. You need to do this through iTunes though. Just backup the phone in iTunes then plugin the iPad and restore to it.
Click to expand...

Yes, I guess I'll do that when my Mac gets back from service. What stuff will be overridden on the iPad? Is there stuff that can't be overridden because it's not iPad compatible? Anything I should pay attention to?
 
NeoX360 said:
I can live without it just would've been nice. When I upgraded it did not upgrade the messages like it should have. A progress bar came up and said it was updating the messages database to work with 10.10 and the progress bar never made any progress. After leaving it sit for about 20 minutes I hit quit anyway. To get messages to work on 10.10 from that point I had to delete the messages folder in my user/library folder. Which in essence deletes all the messages.
Click to expand...

How did you make a backup? Did you use iCloud or iTunes?

Your best shot is to use iBackupBot which both NeshyD and I mentioned.
 
Had a question concerning messages but didn't want to start new thread. I don't use it but I have this on my home screen
Is there some way to remove those notification circles? Everything with Messages is turned off on my iPad Air. Thanks.
 

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Settings > Mail,Contacts, Calendars

Under the CONTACTS heading there's a switch for 'Show in App Switcher'. Turn off Phone Favorites and Recents.
 
photoj2754 said:
Had a question concerning messages but didn't want to start new thread. I don't use it but I have this on my home screen
Is there some way to remove those notification circles? Everything with Messages is turned off on my iPad Air. Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can turn off Show In App Switcher in settings for Contacts.
 
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