How to safely backup iPhone SMS?

My 3GS has been playing up for months, going in and out of safemode. Last night it was doing the same but without any interaction from me possible. I hard turned off the phone, turned back on and my messages aren't there.

Once I got back onto my phone, my text messages were all gone. I googled a bit and just went to sleep.

I have iExplorer open, and have the directory of the sms folder. Can anyone tell me which files inside this folder I need to back up? I hope to just perform a restore and then replace the blank sms.db file with this new one.

I know the sms.db isn't empty because I searched for some keywords in spotlight and the messages showed there.

I'm not a noob at this, just I've never had to perform this task before so want to make sure I'll do it right. If I have no option I can just use a backup file from the 8th to get messages back upto that point, but I want them all back really.

P.s, I'm wanting to place the files back onto the iPhone after a restore.

Thanks guys.

asked Feb 11 '12 at 09:29

Taz155
191●16●21●27

edited Feb 11 '12 at 09:42

One Answer:

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Since you mentioned safe mode, I'm assuming you're jailbroken? If so, install openSSH (if you don't have it already) and SSH into your phone with either WinSCP (Windows) or Cyberduck (mac). From a quick Google search, the sms.db file is in var/Mobile/Library/SMS I'm not sure if you already knew this or not (I didn't quite understand if you did from your post). You could try copying this file to your computer, and then I'd make a backup in iTunes (if the sms.db file really isn't empty, then it will back it up). Then try restoring from that backup and see if your SMS's come back. If not, try jailbreaking again and copy the sms.db file back.

answered Feb 11 '12 at 20:09

lhamil64
476●4●6●13

Decided to just forget it. Used a program called "decipher text message" which allowed me to read the backup and export them to .xml. Then I performed a restore and have now started fresh. Things have actually worked out better because I can now safely store messages off the phone. It was highly irresponsible of me to keep all my messages on the phone... Anyway, all safe now. Thanks for your answer.

(Feb 12 '12 at 20:14) Taz155

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