Retrieving deleted sms from sms.db

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Level 1

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Retrieving deleted sms from sms.db

I know there has been many questions related to retrieving deleted SMS. I apologize for redundancy but wanted to clarify what I have read on other internet sites. I understand SMS are not kept on the iphone sim card. I understand that if I both exchanged a conversation and deleted the conversation since my last sync, that SMS conversation will not be in the backup file and cannot be restored. From what I have seen on these forum's is that the conversation is gone and there is no way to retrieve it.

While searching on other sites, information was discussed about the deleted texts being stored in the /var/root/library/sms/sms.db despite being deleted previously. Also what I read was the only way to get to this database was to "jailbreak" your iphone, and is accessible only through a third party app, which I have no intention of doing.

My question is #1, is this information accurate that the sms are stored in the database despite being deleted?

#2 are there third party apps that allow users to access the iphone file system to get to this sms database that do not include this jailbreaking thing?

I do not want to do anything to the phone that would negate my warranty or go against what apple wants us to do, but if there are stored deleted sms on some database on the phone, and a way to get to them, i'd greatly appreciate any information on how to gain access. Thanks

Posted on Feb 17, 2009 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 17, 2009 2:46 PM in response to Middle1

Middle1,

Text messages saved to the iPhone backup:

iPhone and iPod touch: About backups
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

When you sync your iPhone and changes are detected for the specified backup content on the iPhone, iTunes will replace the older backup with the new one retrieved from the iPhone at that moment. If you want a text message to be included in the backup, it's not advisable to delete it from the iPhone.

Personally when I wish to save an SMS, I find it more reliable to take a screen capture of it:

Topic : iPhone: How to take a screen shot
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1634964

Beyond that, you can try searching the App Store for other apps that may provide additional functionality. I personally am not aware of any.

Hope this helps,

Raleigh

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Answer 2

doonoop

Level 1

8 points

Feb 24, 2009 10:35 PM in response to Middle1

Apple moderators will have to tell us if this is against the rules the same way jailbreaking is, but for now:

What you can do is extract files from the backup that iTunes keeps. As far as I can tell, the current version of iPhone doesn't actually keep deleted smses in sms.db. So what you would need to do is get ahold of an old copy of your iPhone backup (maybe using time machine if you're running OSX leopard; I'm pretty sure windows has a similar snapshot utility).

Then you need to extract the actual backup. Google for "iphone backup extractor". There are various programs to do it on mac, don't know about windows. That will dump your backup file to a bunch of files and folders; you can find sms.db inside /Library/SMS in the folders that pop out.

Good luck.

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