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Mike Johnson
Founder and Editor of sync-iphone.com has a sincere desire to provide readers with honest and useful solutions for their iPhone
More about him on Google+
How to Transfer iPhone Text Messages to PC
- Start by synchronizing your iPhone with iTunes
- Your iPhone sms will be stored in a file with extension .mdbackup or .mddata at the following location depending on your operating system
- XP
C:\Documents and Settings\your_name_here\Application Data\ - Vista / 7
C:\Users\your_name_here\AppData\Roaming - Mac
User -> Library -> Application Support -> Mobile Sync -> Backup - > [ID]
- XP
- You can open the file with the Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac
Transfer SMS from Old iPhone to New iPhone
So you just got that brand new iPhone ? Pretty cool
Now, let's see How to Transfer SMS messages from iPhone 3G to iPhone 4S for example
- First off, make sure you have the latest iTunes and iOS versions
- Connect your current iPhone to your computer and synchronize it with iTunes
- Unplug it and connect your new iPhone to your computer
- Choose "Restore from a Backup" and select the backup of your old iPhone ( in case iTunes does not prompt you for this, use iTunes to restore iOS on your new iPhone and try again ). Be patient and don't cancel operations, even if the progress bar sometimes stops
- Your iPhone will restart
- When it appears back in iTunes, select it in the Devices section of the left panel and check that everything is in place: info, music, photos and so forth ). Edit items if required
- Click Apply in iTunes lower-right corner
- Finally, check that your SMS have well been transferred to your new iPhone
Notes & possible issues
- This solution works for both Mac and PC
- If your SMS messages do not show up on your new iPhone, the backup of your old iPhone may have failed. Try to back it up again and then sync your new iPhone with iTunes again
Mike Johnson
Founder and Editor of sync-iphone.com has a sincere desire to provide readers with honest and useful solutions for their iPhone
More about him on Google+
Whatever you attempt with your iPhone Contacts synchronization experiments, it's definitely a good idea to Backup iPhone Contacts to PC first
Indeed, every situation is different and even the most proven procedures can fail due to specific configurations
Accidental iPhone Contacts deletions are not uncommon, they are actually quite frequent, for example during synchronizations with Outlook or Gmail, and always regrettable and disastrous
Hereafter is the most standard procedure on How to Backup iPhone Contacts to Computer
Backup iPhone Contacts
- Open iTunes and connect your iPhone
- Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories and open the Address Book
- In iTunes, click your iPhone in the "Devices" section on the left, then click the "Info" tab
- In "Contacts", check "Sync Contacts with" and select "Windows Address Book"
- Select "All Contacts"
- Finally, click "Sync" in iTunes lower-right corner
You will be asked whether to Merge or Replace
Make sure to select "MERGE", otherwise Contacts on your iPhone would be deleted
All your iPhone Contacts should now be safely backed up in your Windows Address Book
( Note that from then on, any contact added to your iPhone will automatically be added to your Windows Address Book and the other way around )
Pretty neat, huh !
At this point, you can also sync iPhone Contacts with Gmail or Yahoo!
For even more safety, you can Backup Windows Address Book Contacts to a .CSV file ( that doubles security, which is never a bad idea when it comes to protecting such precious information as your iPhone Contacts )
- In Address Book, go to File -> Export and click Address Book ( WAB )
- Locate and select the Windows Address Book file you wish to export to and hit the "Open" button
Save this .CSV file to a safe place such as a USB Flash drive and / or an external hard drive
You can even send it to yourself as an attachment to an email
Notes & possible issues
Once done with the above tutorial, you can proceed to
All your iPhone Contacts got deleted by an unwanted synchronization with Outlook or Gmail ?
They might not be lost forever
Let's try to Recover iPhone Contacts
Restore iPhone Deleted Contacts
- In iTunes left panel, right-click on your iPhone in the "Devices" section and select "Restore from Backup"
It might allow you to Retrieve iPhone erased Contacts, if it doesn't, then we are out of hints
Good Luck !
Notes & possible issues
- This solution works for both Mac and PC
Mike Johnson
Founder and Editor of sync-iphone.com has a sincere desire to provide readers with honest and useful solutions for their iPhone
More about him on Google+
You either purchased a new computer, reinstalled your system or just reinstalled iTunes
Now, if you connect your iPhone to your Computer, you may lose all your iPhone data, because synchronizing an iPhone with an empty iTunes library can erase its whole contents
There are manual ways to Copy iPhone
songs to a Computer and then import
them to iTunes
Unfortunately, this does not preserve what makes your iPhone unique and priceless: all the personal settings you've built over time:
- Playlists
- Ratings
- Play counts
- Album artwork
- Date last played
- Date last skipped
- Date added
- Skipped count
- Default volume
- Start time
- Stop time
- Artist
- Album
- Podcasts & subscriptions
- Audiobooks
- Videos
- Contacts
- Games
- Apps
- Skip when shuffling
- Remember playback position
- Episode ID
- Episode number
- Season number
- Etc...
That's a lot of precious stuff !
Now, to Rebuild iTunes based on your iPhone including all your personal settings, you need a third party program
- Start by getting it from here
- Install it
- Open the program with the shortcut on your Desktop
- Just hit the "Start Backup" button
After a couple of minutes, all your iPhone data are back in iTunes !
From now on, you can sync your iPhone with iTunes again, just the way you always did !
Notes & possible issues
- This procedure will also Transfer purchased songs from iPhone to iTunes
- It will Update iTunes Library based on iPhone, which means if some of your songs are already in iTunes, it will skip them and not create duplicates
- The above procedure is based on the automatic mode ( recommended )
For more advanced users, this program offers all expectable fine-tuning options
Just hit the "Manual Backup" button and you get access to a full range of advanced settings:
- Filter the elements you wish to transfer by:
- Song
- Playlist
- Artist
- Album
- Genre
- Etc...
- Customize the way your songs are imported to both your Computer and iTunes:
- Automatic song renaming options based on combinations of Artist, Album, Name,...
- Folder / sub-folder structure creation based on Artists, Albums,...
- Metadata ( personal settings ) to be imported or not: Ratings, Play counts, Date last played ( see full list above )
- Etc...
Mike Johnson
Founder and Editor of sync-iphone.com has a sincere desire to provide readers with honest and useful solutions for their iPhone
More about him on Google+
Note: if you encounter problems with iTunes trying to erase your iPhone from the new computer, read our Prevent iTunes from syncing iPhone instructions
Probably the biggest limitation with iTunes is the one-way transfer allowing to synchronize iPhone and Computer only from the PC to the iPhone
What if you want to transfer your iPhone the other way round: from iPhone to Computer / iTunes ?
The only way to Copy iPhone to Computer is to use a dedicated program
We describe the iPhone to PC procedure in our Sync iPhone to iTunes tutorial
Notes & possible issues
- This solution works for both Mac and PC
- In case you only want to copy your iPhone files to your Computer and not import them to iTunes, select the "Manual Mode" described in the "Notes & possible issues" section of the Sync iPhone to iTunes tutorial
Mike Johnson
Founder and Editor of sync-iphone.com has a sincere desire to provide readers with honest and useful solutions for their iPhone
More about him on Google+
