Applied to the output
Redactions are burned into the rendered page rather than layered over it, so the underlying text is not recoverable by selecting it in a PDF reader.
For attorneys & small firms
Your client produces the record. You receive the bundle.
The client installs ScribeHold on their own Windows PC, and it reads the phone there — no Mac, no iTunes, nothing prepared beforehand, and no device in your custody. What reaches your office is a Bates-numbered PDF/A with a separate SHA-256 manifest, bound to your matter.
Whitfield v. Cardoso Properties: 7 of 95 messages on this page, 15 pages in all.
Bundle contents
What arrives, per export, per matter.
- Bates-numbered PDF/A
- Archival-format transcript with a stable numbering convention applied across the matter. Sample stamp: SMG-000412
- SHA-256 manifest
- A separate file hashing the transcript content and each attachment individually, so opposing counsel can re-hash the bundle independently of the PDF. 9f2c4b7e…da92fc58
- Affidavit-of-authenticity cover
- Ready-to-sign cover page recording how, when, and from which device the export was produced.
- FRE 902(14) certification page
- Signature block structured for certification by a qualified person, with hash values pre-filled. Awaits a human signer. Admissibility remains the court’s determination.
- Matter binding
- Case caption, case number, and attorney name and bar number stamped into the running header and footer of the transcript pages; jurisdiction is recorded on the affidavit cover.
- Per-message metadata CSV
- Timestamps, sender handles, direction, service and message state, and attachment references — sortable and filterable by a paralegal.
- Attachment bundle
- Photos, videos, audio, and documents preserved at original resolution alongside the PDF/A, not re-encoded thumbnails.
- Exhibit numbering
- A matter-level trial exhibit designation, tracked separately from the production-wide Bates page sequence.
- MD5 hashes
- Emitted in the manifest alongside SHA-256, for interoperability with review platforms that still expect them. SHA-256 is the verification primitive.
- Re-exports
- Unlimited per matter for as long as the subscription is active. No per-export fee.
Pages from a bundle, rendered by the export engine and reproduced here unaltered.
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Affidavit of Export — matter, source device, and the content digests.
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FRE 902(14) certification — the page prints UNSIGNED until a qualified person signs it.
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Transcript page — running header, paragraph index, Bates stamp in the footer.
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Document Integrity Manifest — provenance, digests, and how to re-verify them.
Redaction before production
Redact down to a single span of characters before you produce — with the bundle recording that something was withheld rather than hiding it.
Scoped to the request
Withhold privileged threads, third-party numbers, and material outside the scope of the request before the bundle leaves the client’s PC.
Still internally verifiable
The bundle is hashed as produced, so a redacted production remains consistent with its own manifest.
Why an attorney takes this seriously
The standards the bundle is built against, not the features that implement them.
FRE 902(14)
The rule contemplates electronic records authenticated by a process of digital identification, certified by a qualified person. ScribeHold emits the certification page in that structure with the hash values already populated; a qualified human signs it.
SHA-256 manifest, shipped separately
The manifest is a distinct file, so verification does not require trusting the PDF it describes. Re-hash the production and compare. MD5 values travel alongside in the manifest for interoperability only.
Bates numbering, matter-bound
A stable production sequence stamped into every transcript page, so a citation in a brief resolves to the same page on re-export months later.
ScribeHold is an export tool. It produces an authenticated archive of messages as they exist on the device at export time; it does not substitute for a forensic analyst where your case strategy requires one.
What ScribeHold does not claim
The fastest way to lose a foundation argument is to have promised more than the tool delivers. Here is the boundary, stated plainly, so nothing in this bundle surprises you at a hearing.
“Is this admissible?”
Only a court decides admissibility. No software can confer it, and any vendor telling you otherwise is selling you an argument you will have to make yourself. What ScribeHold produces is an export structured to support the foundation you lay: a Bates-numbered PDF/A, a separate SHA-256 manifest so any later alteration is detectable, and a certification page structured for FRE 902(14) that a qualified human still has to sign.
“Is this a forensic examination?”
No. ScribeHold reads the messages as they exist on the device at export time and records their hashes. That includes anything sitting in iOS Recently Deleted, which you can exclude before you export. It does not undelete, carve unallocated space, or perform the chain-of-custody handling a retained examiner provides. Where your case strategy calls for an examiner, ScribeHold does not replace one.
“What is actually running?”
A .NET 10 Windows Service reading the device’s message store through the libimobiledevice protocol stack, storing messages in SQLite with an FTS5 index, and rendering exports to PDF/A. That read happens on your PC. Messages, attachments, and hashes never reach ScribeHold infrastructure, because there is no ScribeHold infrastructure in the path — nothing to breach, and nothing to subpoena from us.
How ScribeHold compares
| Your question | ScribeHold | TextExhibit | iMazing | Decipher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will my export hold up if opposing counsel objects? | Yes. Bates-numbered PDF/A, separate SHA-256 manifest, affidavit cover, and per-message metadata CSV — all matter-bound to your case caption and case number | Partial. Bates numbering and a SHA-256 and MD5 verification report over the source and every output PDF — but no affidavit, no PDF/A and no case caption * | Partial. Signed PDF and a SHA-256 backup checksum — but Business subscription only, and the checksum requires an encrypted backup. No Bates numbering, no affidavit cover, no redaction, no PDF/A in any tier * | No. Exports PDF, CSV, HTML and TXT; no hash manifest, no signature, no affidavit cover * |
| Can I redact what should not be produced? | Yes. Redact privileged, irrelevant, or third-party content before export. Redactions are applied at render time and disclosed in the bundle rather than applied silently | No. The only redacting it does is to its own trial output, as copy protection * | No. No redaction capability * | No. No redaction capability * |
| Can it get my messages off the phone by itself on Windows? | Yes. ScribeHold reads the device directly on Windows — no Mac, no iTunes, and nothing you had to create beforehand [1] | No. Reads a folder Apple Devices or Finder wrote earlier; making that copy is documented as step 1 of 3 * | Yes. Creates its own device backup on Windows * | Partial. Requires iTunes installed to obtain the backup * |
| Does it sync automatically in the background? | Yes. Windows Service — plug in + tap your passcode once; ScribeHold detects the device, copies the new messages, and indexes them automatically. No app to open. [1] | Not established. No publicly documented capability found as of the review date [3] | Partial. iMazing Mini provides background backups on Windows * [2] | No. Manual; requires iTunes installed and the app open * |
| What does it cost? | $4.99/month or $49/year ScribeHold Complete ($39/year on renewal) · $149/year Legal Export Pack ($119/year on renewal, includes everything in Complete) · Free searches everything, opens the last 90 days, exports the last 30 days | $19.99 once for one iPhone on up to three computers, or $14.99/month or $99.99/year for each computer seat * | Annual subscription only since June 2025 — no monthly tier. One personal tier; the evidence tooling needs the separate Business subscription. We could not verify a current price from a published page * | $29.99 one-time, two device activations — no subscription, updates included * |
| Can I find any message in seconds? | Yes. Full-text search (SQLite FTS5) across iMessage, SMS, MMS, RCS | Not established. No publicly documented capability found as of the review date [3] | Not established. No publicly documented capability found as of the review date [3] | Yes. Search within the app, across one or all conversations * |
[1] USB connection and a passcode tap on the device are required each time ScribeHold reads the phone (Apple requires this on iOS 16.1+). [2] iMazing Mini's background-sync behaviour on Windows has not been independently verified by ScribeHold. Claim sourced from imazing.com/mini. [3] “No publicly documented capability found as of the review date” does not mean the competitor was technically audited — only that we found nothing published either way, and would rather say so than mark the row against them. Each claim carries its own source and verification date in its footnote marker; competitors change their products, so we re-check and re-date rather than asserting one blanket date. Where we could not verify a fact from a published page, we say so instead of estimating. A fuller side-by-side against TextExhibit, including the rows it wins, is on ScribeHold vs. TextExhibit. Sources: textexhibit.com, imazing.com, deciphertools.com.