backup/retrive SMS

[Dilly Skills]

I have a iphone 6 here, all i need to do is get the texts off it - in any viewable way.. but I do not have a fresh new iPhone to restore to.

 

1. Must i succumb to 3rd party phone transfer apps? they appear like potentially scamware.. do you recommend one if i must?

 

2. Can i create a iTunes backup (without risk of mixing up with my own , on my mac) and surf to the files/db.. and run a SQL or save some text files? varying explanations mention differing locations on mac.

 

3. Will a quick jailbreak be safe for these texts, and allow me to ssh, ftp , or otherwise access the files or sql Lite db? I haven't jailbreaked phones for years, there was always a potential that things just dont work..

 

* texts dont appear to be included in Apples instructions to save iCloud items per:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204055

 

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

[kirkmc]

Good questions, and I'm afraid I don't have any answers. There are, as you know, a bunch of 3rd party apps that can copy stuff from the iPhone. I'm not sure if you can just pull them from the Sqlite database. I've explored it for music in the past, but never for anything like texts. Jailbreak? That seems a lot of work.

[Dilly Skills]

Heres how i got an export of messages, short of using the 3rd party app:

1. Backup to itunes and find location by right click on backup, view in Finder

2. Surf to backup location and look for file: 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 (a sql lite file)

3. Install a free SQLite client

4. Run a query:

select id, datetime(date + strftime('%s', '2001-01-01 00:00:00'),

'unixepoch', 'localtime') as date_read, text from handle, message where handle.ROWID = message.handle_id order by id, date

5. = Phone Number | Date | Message

[kirkmc]

Well, that wasn't easy. :-)

 

I'm surprised they're not encrypted, but at least you found a way to do it.