iPhone Transfer SMS from one iPhone to another.

[lyceumHQ]

Wondering if anyone knows of any third party apps that do this?

According to Apple the only way is to backup via iTunes then restore from that backup.

I have an iPhone 5. I am buying an iPhone 6. I want to set the 6 up as a new phone but keep the contacts and SMS messages from my 5.

The contacts I can backup via iCloud (I've never used iCloud always backed up with iTunes)

So does anyone know of any apps that will let me transfer messages from my 5 to my 6?

Thanks.

 

[Small White Car]

The contacts I can backup via iCloud .

You shouldn't be just backing up contacts, you should be syncing them. Pick whatever you want: iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo... the list goes on. It doesn't matter which one. Just get them somewhere so that you have them constantly being saved and updated should something happen to your phone. An occasional iTunes backup for something like that would really make me nervous.


As for the texts, I believe you can do it with Phoneview:

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

It's $30 but I hear good things. Maybe you'll find a cheaper solution from someone else, but if not I think this is a good bet.

 

[lyceumHQ]

You shouldn't be just backing up contacts, you should be syncing them. Pick whatever you want: iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo... the list goes on. It doesn't matter which one. Just get them somewhere so that you have them constantly being saved and updated should something happen to your phone. An occasional iTunes backup for something like that would really make me nervous.


As for the texts, I believe you can do it with Phoneview:

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

It's $30 but I hear good things. Maybe you'll find a cheaper solution from someone else, but if not I think this is a good bet.

I don't have masses of contacts and none that I couldn't replace. So it wouldn't be the end of the world should I lose my contacts.

My SMS on the other hand would. I have an SMS from my mother who has since passed away. Keeping that is more important than anything else.

I've googled for about an hour but no solid solutions. I find it strange that I could transfer them to android or windows os in a few clicks but can't transfer them to my next iPhone. Unless I do a backup and restore from that backup.

Looks like I'm going to have to just do a full backup then restore from that.

I had really wanted to set up my iPhone 6 as a new phone.

I honestly though iCloud would just back them I'll but according to Apple chat iCloud doesn't back messages up. Only iTunes does.

 

[Small White Car]

I honestly though iCloud would just back them I'll but according to Apple chat iCloud doesn't back messages up. Only iTunes does.

You've gotten 2 things confused.

If you backup your phone in iCloud the SMS messages are a part of that backup. When you restore they'll come back.

iCloud, though, does not save SMS messages on their own. That's probably what the Apple rep was saying. They should have been more clear. It's confusing how iCloud is used for backing up some data and ALSO for backing up phones. Some things are included in the phone backup that aren't included in the iCloud data.

Another similar example: Angry Birds levels you've completed. Not part of iCloud's normal data. But it IS a part of your iPhone backup that's stored in iCloud.

Text messages are the same way.

Basically, nothing you've said is really wrong, it's just that you have the option to do your backup in either iTunes or iCloud and it'll come out the same. I think the Apple rep didn't make that option clear.

 

[lyceumHQ]

You've gotten 2 things confused.

If you backup your phone in iCloud the SMS messages are a part of that backup. When you restore they'll come back.

iCloud, though, does not save SMS messages on their own. That's probably what the Apple rep was saying. They should have been more clear. It's confusing how iCloud is used for backing up some data and ALSO for backing up phones. Some things are included in the phone backup that aren't included in the iCloud data.

Another similar example: Angry Birds levels you've completed. Not part of iCloud's normal data. But it IS a part of your iPhone backup that's stored in iCloud.

Text messages are the same way.

Basically, nothing you've said is really wrong, it's just that you have the option to do your backup in either iTunes or iCloud and it'll come out the same. I think the Apple rep didn't make that option clear.

No. I specifically asked if iCloud backed up messages and thre Apple rep said it doesn't back them up at all because they're a carrier service.

She/he said only iTunes backs them up.

I thought it was a bit sis when I read it as surely a 'complete' backup which is what iCloud is supposed to provide. Would include SMS messages.

But as I've never used iCloud I couldn't refute it.

But as it stands there seems to be no way to transfer just contacts and SMS from one iPhone to another.

I either back the lot up and restore the lot. Or delete everything from my iPhone 5 besides stock apps. Contacts and SMS. Make a backup and then restore from that.

Out of curiosity. Does anyone know which toggle on iCloud backs up the messages? Or it it just that they'll be backed up if have all the toggles on?

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

Get the PhoneView software (or equivalent) and back the messages up to your computer. That way you can save a permanent copy of the message(s) that are important to you in multiple locations (computer, external drive, cloud storage etc)

Do not trust just moving them from one phone to another. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. A phone could fail, it could be lost or stolen, etc.

If you absolutely have to have a copy on your phone to read you can send it to yourself so you can read whenever.