Guides to the text messages on your iPhone

Building a case

• Are screenshots of text messages enough for court?

  A screenshot proves what your screen looked like, not what was sent, when, or by whom. What a screenshot leaves out, the question opposing counsel asks about it, and what a fuller record of the same conversation carries instead.

• How do I screenshot text messages on an iPhone?

  Press the side button and volume up together. How to show the send times, capture a long thread, get the pictures onto a PC, and when a screenshot is all you need.

• How do I print text messages for court?

  Print from a copy of the conversation taken off the phone, not from the screen. The iPhone cannot print a whole thread, so the copy has to come off it first.

• How do I export iPhone messages to PDF?

  Four ways, and they are not equally good. Screenshots, email, a Mac, or reading the phone from Windows, and where each one breaks.

• If you edit a text, can other people see the original?

  Yes. The bubble is marked Edited, and tapping that word opens every earlier version, in both directions. Unsent messages are taken back from both phones.

• How do I go through thousands of text messages without losing my place?

  Not by scrolling on the phone; one wrong tap sends a long thread back to the newest message. Search lands you in place, and a PC can jump to the first message.

Finding something old

• Why can't I search my old text messages on iPhone?

  Search on a long iPhone thread often returns nothing because the messages aged off the phone or were never indexed. How to tell those apart, what to try on the phone, and how to search the whole history on a PC instead.

• How do I find an old text message on my iPhone?

  Search Messages for a rare word from the text, not the contact's name, then tap the result. If it comes back empty, the text may no longer be on the phone.

• What does the "Keep Messages: 30 Days" setting actually delete?

  Everything older than 30 days, permanently and on a rolling schedule. Nothing it has already deleted is coming back.

• What is the difference between iMessage and SMS?

  Blue bubbles are iMessage, sent over the internet between Apple devices. Green bubbles are SMS or MMS, sent over your carrier's phone network.

Getting messages onto a PC

• How do I transfer iMessages from an iPhone to a PC?

  Three of the four ways people try cannot move years of messages. The one that works starts with a USB cable and asks for your passcode every time.

• How do I see the messages in an iTunes or Apple Devices backup on Windows?

  Not with the app that made it; neither iTunes nor Apple Devices shows a single text. It takes a third-party tool, and an encrypted backup needs its password first.

• How do I back up an iPhone without iCloud?

  Plug the iPhone into a computer over USB and back it up there. The folder that backup writes cannot be read as conversations without other software.

• Why are my iPhone messages taking up so much storage?

  Almost always the photos and videos inside the threads, not the text. Where iOS shows the breakdown, and what each fix deletes.

• What is the MobileSync folder, and what is safe to delete?

  MobileSync is where iTunes and Apple Devices keep iPhone backups on a Windows PC. What is inside it, and what you lose by deleting each part.

• Is there a free way to export iPhone messages on Windows?

  Yes, with limits. What the free options do, where they stop, and what the paid tools charge for.

Reading the whole history on a PC

Search is free across everything still on the phone. Download ScribeHold for Windows.