Backup your iPhone SMS and iMessage text messages.
Your iPhone stores a copy of all your SMS and iMessage text messages in a sqlite database. But, if you want to view them all on your iPhone, it's not so easy. Be prepared to do a lot of scrolling.
Or, you can you use sms-backup.py to backup all your messages in text
format, CSV format, or JSON, and then view them in the data viewer of your
choice.
Plus, sms-backup.py cleans up and allows you to transform your data, in
order to make your text messages easier to read.
Transformations possible with sms-backup.py:
-
Better date formatting.
-
Consistent formatting of phone numbers.
-
Replacement of phone numbers with names.
Each time you sync/backup your iPhone, the SMS sqlite db file is copied to your computer.
When you run sms-backup.py, it finds the backup db file, makes a temporary
copy of it, selects the text messages you want from the temporary copy, and
then exports them.
$ sms-backup.py
2010-01-01 15:31:44 | Me | (555) 555-1212 | I love donuts!!
2010-01-02 16:17:58 | (555) 555-1212 | Me | I love a man who loves donuts!!!
2010-01-02 17:01:19 | Me | (999) 999-1212 | I don't feel so good...
...
$ sms-backup.py --myname Tom \
--alias "555-555-1212=Michele" \
--phone "5555551212" \
--phone "1112223333" \
--date-format "%b %d, %Y at %I:%M %p" \
--format json
[
{
"date": "Jan 01, 2010 at 03:31 PM",
"from": "Tom",
"text": "I love donuts!!",
"to": "Michele"
},
{
"date": "Jan 02, 2010 at 04:17 PM",
"from": "Michele",
"text": "I love a man who loves donuts!!!",
"to": "Tom"
},
{
"date": "Jan 02, 2010 at 06:00 PM",
"from": "Tom",
"text": "Just checking in...where are you?",
"to": "(111) 222-3333"
},
...
usage: sms-backup.py [-h] [-q | -v] [-a ADDRESS=NAME] [-d FORMAT]
[-f {human,csv,json}] [-m NAME] [-o FILE] [-e EMAIL]
[-p PHONE] [--no-header] [-i FILE]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-q, --quiet Decrease running commentary.
-v, --verbose Increase running commentary.
Format Options:
-a PHONE=NAME, --alias PHONE=NAME
Key-value pair (.ini style) that maps a phone number
to a name. Name replaces phone number in output. Can
be used multiple times. Optional. If not present,
phone number is used in output.
-d FORMAT, --date-format FORMAT
Date format string. Optional. Default: '%Y-%m-%d
%H:%M:%S'.
-f {human,csv,json}, --format {human,csv,json}
How output is formatted. Valid options: 'human'
(fields separated by pipe), 'csv', or 'json'.
Optional. Default: 'human'.
-m NAME, --myname NAME
Name of iPhone owner in output. Optional. Default
name: 'Me'.
Output Options:
-o FILE, --output FILE
Name of output file. Optional. Default (if not
present): Output to STDOUT.
-e EMAIL, --email EMAIL
Limit output to iMessage messages to/from this email
address. Can be used multiple times. Optional. Default
(if not present): All iMessages included.
-p PHONE, --phone PHONE
Limit output to sms messages to/from this phone
number. Can be used multiple times. Optional. Default
(if not present): All messages from all numbers
included.
--no-header Don't print header row for 'human' or 'csv' formats.
Optional. Default (if not present): Print header row.
Input Options:
-i FILE, --input FILE
Name of SMS db file. Optional. Default: Script will
find and use db in standard backup location.
The backup sqlite db file is located
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/<phone ID>
and is named 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.
It's name is an SHA1 hash of the full path of the file on the phone, plus its Domain.
$ printf 'HomeDomain-Library/SMS/sms.db' | openssl sha1
3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
The schema of the key table: message:
CREATE TABLE message
(ROWID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
address TEXT,
date INTEGER,
text TEXT,
flags INTEGER,
replace INTEGER,
svc_center TEXT,
group_id INTEGER,
association_id INTEGER,
height INTEGER,
UIFlags INTEGER,
version INTEGER,
subject TEXT,
country TEXT,
headers BLOB,
recipients BLOB,
read INTEGER,
madrid_attributedBody BLOB,
madrid_handle TEXT,
madrid_version INTEGER,
madrid_guid TEXT,
madrid_type INTEGER,
madrid_roomname TEXT,
madrid_service TEXT,
madrid_account TEXT,
madrid_flags INTEGER,
madrid_attachmentInfo BLOB,
madrid_url TEXT,
madrid_error INTEGER,
is_madrid INTEGER,
madrid_date_read INTEGER,
madrid_date_delivered INTEGER,
madrid_account_guid TEXT);
The schema has changed dramatically with the introduction of iMessage in iOS5.
All of the *madrid* fields are new, and these are used for storing iMessage
messages.
The address field contains the phone number to which you are sending a SMS
message, but it is inconsistently formatted. Numbers can appear as (555)
555-1212, or 15555551212, or +15555551212. (For this reason, I normalize phone
numbers before attempting to match them.)
The flags field shows whether an SMS message was sent or received by the
iPhone:
2 - Message received by iPhone from address
3 - Message sent from iPhone to address
The madrid_handle field contains either a phone number or email address to
which you are sending an iMessage message.
The madrid_flags field shows whether iMessage message was sent or received
by the iPhone:
36869 - Message received by iPhone from address
12289 - Message sent from iPhone to address
- http://www.slideshare.net/hrgeeks/iphone-forensics-without-the-iphone
- http://damon.durandfamily.org/archives/000487.html
- http://linuxsleuthing.blogspot.com/2011/02/parsing-iphone-sms-database.html
- http://www.scip.ch/?labs.20111103
- http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sak_65536/20111017/1318829688
(The last two links are good for iOS5 schema discussions. Google Translate was a big help here!)
-
Won't find the backup sqlite db on Windows, but it should run if you pass in the db name with --input. (I haven't tested it, though...)
-
Assumes encoding of texts is 'utf-8'...and there's no way to change it.
-
Does not try to recover texts with photos. Just skips past them.
-
Does not handle group chats.
MIT License. Copyright 2011 Tom Offermann.