Comments on: How to Backup iPhone SMS Messages for Free (No Jailbreak Needed)

By: Matthew Ruten

Matthew Ruten — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:13 +0000

Are you on a Mac? If so, this program should work:
http://supercrazyawesome.com/

By: donut

donut — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:10:52 +0000

Yes done a file search already, encrypts in itunes was already turned off.
Whilst waiting for you very swift reply, i went the open ssh way, and winscp. I'm in, but no idea what to do next as im a noob. I just wanna get these messages copied and viewable in some way. Cheers

By: Matthew Ruten

Matthew Ruten — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:23:19 +0000

Did you try doing a file search on your computer?

Also, are you using “encrypted backups” (you can check to see if you have this checked in iTunes)? If so, you will need to turn off encrypted backups and do a non-encrypted backup to be able to extract your texts using this method.

By: Donut

Donut — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:53:07 +0000

Donut here, Hi matthew
backed up, downloaded sqlite, and can't find the file 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata or anything resembling this.

got some important texts i need to save, i am jailbroken but not housebroken

Regards, Donut

By: bottle

bottle — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:45:40 +0000

when I try to open……(sorry)

By: bottle

bottle — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:43:52 +0000

when Itey to open the file its saying that that an error has occurred: file is not a sqlite 3 database

By: Parker

Parker — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:20:10 +0000

Just got the iPhone4. I want to keep the old texts but essentially start anew with everything else (since I was jailbroken before). If you figure it out please post here! I am very interested.

By: Arnoz

Arnoz — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:01:07 +0000

Unfortunately the backup process in iOS 4 has been changed so I can't simply replace the files.
I'll check more thoroughly in a few days…

By: Arnoz

Arnoz — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:14:19 +0000

Thanks! Should be able to try out that over the weekend, I'll keep you posted

By: Matthew Ruten

Matthew Ruten — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:11:36 +0000

I'm not sure if this is possible, and unfortunately can't test it at the moment.

Though I would guess that this may be possible:
- Save the 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata and 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mdinfo files from your phone before restoring.
- Restore the phone, and backup at least once (so that the new backup folder will be created).
- Next, copy the above two files into the new backup directory and then do a "Restore from Backup..."; you should be left with a restored phone but with your old SMS messages.

If you do try this out and it works, let me know! Make a copy of your original backup just in case something goes wrong.

Matt