SMS Text Message Question!

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vegasiphone

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Sep 1, 2007
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Hello! I have had my iPhone for about a month and I think it's great!

I have a long "conversation" of text messages that I would like to save. Is there any way to email it to myself or access it through the computer to save it as a text file? When I go into iPhone through "My Computer" all I can see are the pictures taken with the camera... even if I enable hidden files I still cannot see the data files of the device. Is there any hack or anything that would allow me to access SMS messages and copy them as a text file?

Thank you in advance!
 
x999x

x999x

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Your messages get backed up when you sync, so if you've not hacked your iPhone, it may still be possible to find the backed up versions on your computer. You'll need to either check your iTunes install folder, or your Documents and Settings folder. I don't know what they're called unfortunately, but this may point you in the right direction.
 
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vegasiphone

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Sep 1, 2007
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x999x said:
Your messages get backed up when you sync, so if you've not hacked your iPhone, it may still be possible to find the backed up versions on your computer. You'll need to either check your iTunes install folder, or your Documents and Settings folder. I don't know what they're called unfortunately, but this may point you in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Thanks! But I have never "hacked" my phone before... where can I find that "back up" folder? Is it within the iTunes folder?
 
x999x

x999x

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A quick search in my Documents and Settings folder and I think I've found something that will work. First off, I'm opening these in Wordpad, but they're listed as SQL files with tables and such, so if you have a spreadsheet reader you may want to try opening these files with that instead. Here's the first bit of text from the file as an example:

bplist00ÓTPathTDataWVersion_Library/SMS/sms.dbOŒSQLite Format3

Anyway, it's going to be kind of a chore to find your exact sms file, you're going to have to open each file and look for the line above, that's why I used wordpad.

You can find these files in this folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\d02f07f566cb03cdacfdce5fccbe9d562c7a5295

That big long d02f0... yours may be different, but there should only be one folder to open anyway. Once inside that long named folder, start opening the files named like:

0b1fe6f87c054ebb6d00cfafb6bacd343a7f6fa1.mdbackup

Go for the larger sized ones first, they've obviously got the most information, aka text messages.
 
luvmyiphone25

luvmyiphone25

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Jul 8, 2007
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interesting

this is really interesting that you can do that. i really don't know much about computer files and things like that (i really don't know what they are called) its weird that it saves all the information to your computer like that. i opened that file that you have listed and it does have my text messages saved but they are not in order of conversation or anything. then in other files i found all the websites ive been to on the iPhone (so the kids that post the threads about their parents knowing what websites they've been they might want to look into that) then my contacts and ical and notes. but anyways i just learned something knew. lol
 
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vegasiphone

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Sep 1, 2007
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x999x said:
A quick search in my Documents and Settings folder and I think I've found something that will work. First off, I'm opening these in Wordpad, but they're listed as SQL files with tables and such, so if you have a spreadsheet reader you may want to try opening these files with that instead. Here's the first bit of text from the file as an example:

bplist00ÓTPathTDataWVersion_Library/SMS/sms.dbOŒSQLite Format3

Anyway, it's going to be kind of a chore to find your exact sms file, you're going to have to open each file and look for the line above, that's why I used wordpad.

You can find these files in this folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\d02f07f566cb03cdacfdce5fccbe9d562c7a5295

That big long d02f0... yours may be different, but there should only be one folder to open anyway. Once inside that long named folder, start opening the files named like:

0b1fe6f87c054ebb6d00cfafb6bacd343a7f6fa1.mdbackup

Go for the larger sized ones first, they've obviously got the most information, aka text messages.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU! I found the file. Seriously this had turned into a mission, Apple Support/At&t Support... they were clueless.

The only bad news is that the texts are all a jumbled mess and it will take a lot of text editing to make them easy to read through. Still, I will confirm that it is possible to access text message conversation within the back up file. :laugh2:
 
stevetim

stevetim

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Jul 20, 2007
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A more tedious way would be to take screenshots of your conversation. They will be chronologically ordered on your phone. Then if you have a Mac, use iPhoto to export them to your computer. They will be grouped under one 'event' that you can save as a PDF or any other file you want.

Seems like a lot of work, but at least you will get the whole conversation as it looks on the phone.
 
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iChristian

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May 28, 2008
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what you can also do is take screenshots by pressing the home button and sleep/wake button simultaneously and depending on how long it is you might have to take a lot of screen shots but it seems like a rather easy solution..thats what i know of.
 
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anotherdave

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Sep 4, 2008
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vegasiPhone said:
THANK YOU! I found the file. Seriously this had turned into a mission, Apple Support/At&t Support... they were clueless.

The only bad news is that the texts are all a jumbled mess and it will take a lot of text editing to make them easy to read through. Still, I will confirm that it is possible to access text message conversation within the back up file. :laugh2:
Click to expand...
What program did you open the file with? I beleve its a data file so I'm stumped.

I tried syphone but it didn't work.

PhoneView is not free and does not have consistent reviews.

All other solutions require a jailbreak.
 
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xrakeheadx

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Dec 24, 2008
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it works

Chaseme said:
Bump...
I know there is this free program, Syphone, for the iPhone EDGE so I downloaded it but it didn't work with my 3G.

Anyone else get it to work?

http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=190
Click to expand...
I am not sure if thats the right link, but i just now downloaded Syphone from Micromat (ftp://ftp.micromat.com/syphone/syphone_0.99b11.zip and installed it, Sometimes I had to hit load earlier messages on the phone, but it worked fantastic, just make sure its in your applications folder,

the only thing I can think of different on my 3G is that mine isn't synced up to this computer since i just reinstalled OSX 10.5.5 . thats all i got, but get it, and its free right now.

dug@ddwreckords.com
"We record you for whatever you want to pay us! We are a recording company not the US Government!(thankfully!)"
www.myspace.com/ddwreckords
www.ddwreckords.com (temporarily down)
 
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ifanphone

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Apr 7, 2009
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luvmyiPhone25 said:
this is really interesting that you can do that. i really don't know much about computer files and things like that (i really don't know what they are called) its weird that it saves all the information to your computer like that. i opened that file that you have listed and it does have my text messages saved but they are not in order of conversation or anything. then in other files i found all the websites ive been to on the iPhone (so the kids that post the threads about their parents knowing what websites they've been they might want to look into that) then my contacts and ical and notes. but anyways i just learned something knew. lol
Click to expand...
If I ever have kids I'll make sure they sync their iPhone in the family computer haha It is a bit creepy how it keeps tabs on EVERYthing.
 
P

pattinsonc

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Dec 27, 2009
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Iceblinkluck said:
where are they stored on a mac? Please if anyone has any information, it is really urgent. Thanks
Click to expand...
SMS's on the mac are stored at library/application support/mobile sync/backup. the file name is 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata (no idea what or where it is on a PC).

only problem with this file is every time you sync the iPhone, this file is overwritten with new content and will contain only the SMS's you currently have on the phone at that moment in time - it is not a true historical record so if you have deleted them from the phone, they will not be in this file.

However, if you COPY it to your desktop and rename as whatever you want (i.e. date of sms back up) after each time you sync it will become a kind of back up history.

u can then go to http://insend.de/ and upload that file and export as PDF etc for a cost of about $8.


I'm also looking for a way to access historical SMS's (i.e. those deleted from the phone before the last sync) so if anyone has any ideas........

Cheers
 
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