By Jennifer | Last Updated
Q: "I have a lot of text messages on my iPhone, and I would like to backup some precious content. So, how do I transfer text messages on iPhone to computer?".
Whether it's for saving nice chats, saving important information or freeing up storage space on your device, transferring text messages on iPhone to computer is a practical choice. In this guide, we will introduce several effective methods so that you can save text messages data on your iPhone to your computer.
iSyncGenius by iSunshare is an easy-to-use backup and recovery software that allows you to easily manage all kinds of data on your iOS device, including transferring data from iPhone to iPhone or computer. If you are looking for a direct and convenient way to backup your text messages, then iSyncGenius is a good choice. With its help, you can freely save and manage backup contents on your computer without relying on the Internet or cloud services.
Step 1: Download and install iSunshare iSyncGenius on your computer. after the installation is complete, launch the program.
Step 2: After connecting your iPhone to your computer, select "Trust this computer" in the pop-up window.
Select the "Backup" option and make sure the iPhone can be recognized by the software correctly. If the device information is correct, click "Next" to confirm.
Step 3: Click "All Backups" and then choose where to save the backup file. After that, click "Start" button.
If desired, the software's "Classified Backup" feature has more flexible backup options, allowing you to transfer photos, music, contacts, and other data from your iPhone to a computer or external storage device separately.
Step 4: Transfer time depends on the amount of data you have. When prompted, click "Finished" and then exit the software.
iCloud offers a flexible wireless backup solution. When you enable iCloud message synchronization on your iPhone, text messages are stored in the cloud in real time and can be accessed on all devices with the same Apple ID. However, iCloud does not currently support downloading text messages directly to your Windows computer, so if you don't have a Mac, you won't be able to export text messages from iCloud to your computer alone.
For Mac users, you can refer to the following guide to backup iPhone text messages to Mac via iCloud.
Step 1: On iPhone, go to "Settings" > "Your Name" > "iCloud", find the option of "Message" and turn on backup.
Step 2: Go to "iCloud Backup" and make sure it is turned on, then click the "Back Up Now" button to start backing up all selected data on your iPhone, including text messages immediately.
Step 3: If you have a Mac and sign in with the same Apple ID, you can view and save text messages on iPhone on Mac after enabling "Message" sync on Mac.
iTunes is a multimedia player provided by Apple with file management features, which can not only backup text messages from iPhone to computer, but also save photos, app data and settings. In addition, you can encrypt these backed up files to ensure the security of your data.
Please note that you can't open or view the iTunes backup file directly, and the text messages can't be extracted individually, you need to restore the whole backup file completely to access the text message content. If you prefer a simple backup solution, we recommend choosing a more flexible third-party software.
Step 1: Install the latest version of iTunes on your computer and launch it. Connect your iPhone to a Windows PC and click "Trust" to allow your computer to access your device data.
Step 2: Click the "phone" icon on iTunes, then you will see more details about your iPhone in the left sidebar.
Step 3: Click "Summary" > "This Computer" > "Backup Now", and then you can save all the data on your iPhone (including text messages) to PC.
Tip: If you are not sure where the iTunes backup file is stored on your computer, you can open File Explorer and navigate to the following path: %appdata%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup.
If you only need to save some specific conversations and don't want to make a full backup, then you can email important SMS conversations to yourself and then save them to the target device. Although this solution is only suitable for saving a small amount of text messages, it doesn't require any software in the whole process, and you can conveniently organize and backup your precious text message records on iPhone to computer.
Step 1: Open the Messages app on your iPhone and select the conversation you want to transfer and save to your computer.
Step 2: Copy the text messages you want to save to your computer one by one, and then send the selected text messages to yourself via email.
Step 3: Open the mailbox on your computer to view and download the conversation, and save the SMS content to a suitable file for later viewing.
That's all in this guide, you can see that transferring text messages from iPhone to computer is not that complicated! Whether you use iSyncGenius, iTunes/iCloud, or send them "manually" by email, there's always a method that works for you. If efficiency and flexibility are more important to you, then specialized third-party software such as iSyncGenius is definitely the ideal choice to save you time and effort in taking care of SMS backup.
