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iPhone Backup and restore just Messages

chrisoldroyd

chrisoldroyd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2016
18
3
I want to setup my iPhone 8 Plus as new as I have been using a backup for years now and have a few little issues that it may help with. Anyway, I have years of messages that I do not want to lose so was wondering if anyone knew of a way to backup the messages app only, setup my phone as new then restore just the messages?

If anyone has done it before and it worked please let me know what you used.

Thanks
Chris
 
I have not tryed this method but;

I helped a friend to move from samsung s5 to iphone 6s. There was official app on playbutik called move to ios. It moved apps, measssge , photos and you could chose what you want to move.

Now i was thinking if there is mYbe some official andriod app for moving to samsung.
You could then move only messages to android phone and then move them back to ios device.

There should be something like this.
 
chrisoldroyd said:
I want to setup my iPhone 8 Plus as new as I have been using a backup for years now and have a few little issues that it may help with. Anyway, I have years of messages that I do not want to lose so was wondering if anyone knew of a way to backup the messages app only, setup my phone as new then restore just the messages?

If anyone has done it before and it worked please let me know what you used.

Thanks
Chris
Click to expand...
Apple announced a feature that would allow you to sync messages in iCloud and said it would be added in a future update to iOS 11. You could wait and see if that comes.
 
iMazing is supposed to do this. Have not tried it myself. Believe they have a 30 day trial of it.
 
Well from what I remember u have to pick contacts and messages together as there some how linked. But worked well.
Just restored them U can pick what u want to restore. It’s something I think iTunes should of had years ago
 
If you use a MacBook or and iOS & have used iCloud to back up messages, those messages are still there. Just search on your Mac and find them. After you find them, save them to your computer.
 
mofunk said:
If you use a MacBook or and iOS & have used iCloud to back up messages, those messages are still there. Just search on your Mac and find them. After you find them, save them to your computer.
Click to expand...

How does this work please ?
 
Spotlight search on your MacBook for a person's name. Scroll down til you the folder "mail and messages". Click on the message to open it. Click File - Print. Then save as a PDF.

Also, after you type in name in Spotlight, scroll all the way down the left column to "Show All in Finder" . Click on that and your messages will open in Finder.

Another route Library - Messages - Archive

The third one is hard to get too. If you use Spotlight to show all in Finder, you can click once to highlight the path to the folder, and locate the route in the bottom bar.
 
Great thank you And u can restore them back in if u wipe you Mac ? I did read somewhere that soon ur iMessage will sync Mac and iOS so they will be the same on all devices. Bit like telegram does
 
That part I don't know? With the restoring.

My Messages are synced on all devices. Awhile back I could look on an older iOS for old Messages. I have to check and see if I can do that.
 
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Start Messages app on the Mac and go to Menu bar and than Preferences. Check "Save history when conversations are closed".

Start Finder, in the Menu bar, find "Go" and "Go to Folder" and type ~/Library. You will get window where is the Messages folder. Copy the folder to the dafe place.


After clean install, before you start Messages app for the first time, copy saved folder on the same place and overwrite the existing folder.

Restart Mac, start the Messages app and you are done.
 
mofunk said:
That part I don't know? With the restoring.

My Messages are synced on all devices. Awhile back I could look on an older iOS for old Messages. I have to check and see if I can do that.
Click to expand...


that option that you can restore only messages or contact or...etc.. should be in itunes long time ago..
but would be nice if you could sync between ios and macos all messages as restore mode.
 
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The setting on my iPhone is set to save all. When I got my last MacBook, the messages that are stored are backed to when I logged in to my MBP. I'm guessing if I had synced my previous MBP with the current one, then there would be more messages. I didn't think those Messages are that important to save. I do have voice messages saved from relatives who are no longer here, just to hear their voices. Maybe for those who use Time Machine, there would be more Messages stored?
 
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since i changed to iphone X, my mac have not synced anything since that day.. Now i think i fixed it so it syncs between BUT o dont get the messages in that gap (since iphone X and now that i fixed it ) ?

How to do that?

EDIT: How do get all messages from iphone to macos.. i have messages 2 years old but they are NOT synced for that long back in time, only since i got macbook, couple of months ago.
 
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