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Backup SMS (sms.db) on your iPhone the easy way (openSSH)

9 August 2008 46 Comments

We all love SMSs from our loved ones, don’t we? I always had issues with SMS since I tend to loose them with so many different firmware installs and I always have issues with setting up the iPhone from a backup (it just messes everything up!).

Anyway, openSSH comes to your rescue! Make sure you have openSSH installed via Cydia or installer and boom, use Fugu, Cyberduck or any FTP tool (Windows and Mac) and login to your iPhone (ip address from WiFi settings, username : root, password : alpine, port: 22).

This is the path you have to check for SMS.db file which has all your SMSs!

var/Mobile/Library/SMS

Copy the SMS.db file locally and make sure you update the cop before and after you restore a new firmware! Told ya its easy 🙂 Lemme know if you have any issues with this process…

46 Comments »

  • javen said:

    i did the same thing.. but when i tapped on "send" button, the SMS app closed automatically..

    iPhone 3GS, version 3.1.2 (7D11), Window 7

    # 23 February 2010 at 1:52 pm
  • brian said:

    I had the same problem – delete the SMS directory on your iPhone. Send a message. REBOOT. Then upload the old sms.db file

    # 4 May 2010 at 12:59 am
  • Har du uppdaterat din 3GS till 3.1.3 av misstag? Se hit! - Sidan 32 - iPhoneinfo.se - iPhoneforum i Sverige said:

    […] […]

    # 18 March 2010 at 3:47 am
  • Backup your SMS messages when you get the iPhone 4 said:

    […] two different ways: Try This or This. If you have a jailbroken phone you just need to backup /var/root/Library/SMS/sms.db […]

    # 18 June 2010 at 9:59 am
  • adfafae said:

    plzzzz plzzzz tell me how to change permissions to 644

    # 6 November 2010 at 9:25 pm
  • Waritis said:

    Nice tips. Thank you so much. I have an iPhone iPhone SMS Backup program to copy sms from iphone to computer for backup. Now I know how to do the backup with SSH.

    # 1 December 2010 at 12:16 am
  • longercheng said:

    Sounds good!

    # 27 December 2010 at 7:43 am
  • Catherine said:

    I'm trying to get in via Terminal on a Mac and keep getting this error?

    ssh: connect to host xxx.xxx.x.xx port 22: Connection refused
    [Process exited – exit code 255]

    (The x's are my I.P. address)
    I'm not exactly the most experienced in using stuff like this, any ideas?

    # 16 January 2011 at 12:32 pm
  • Kiran said:

    I am hoping you jail broke your iPhone already. Did you install openssh from cydia?

    # 16 January 2011 at 12:51 pm
  • angelo said:

    Hi guys! I've done the whole process and it works great, I get back all my SMS but… when I delete one sms it disappears from the sms APP but when I close the SMS app on the Iphone and enter again the SMS app… the SMS I had deleted appears again!! It seems I can delete no SMS anymore!

    Can anyone help? Thanks in advance!

    # 18 February 2011 at 1:42 am
  • Thanos said:

    change the rights of the sms.db

    # 27 December 2011 at 6:37 am
  • hallaryduff said:

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    # 28 February 2014 at 6:12 am

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