What ScribeHold does not do

ScribeHold does not undelete messages

ScribeHold reads what your iPhone still holds. It does not carve deleted data out of storage or reconstruct messages the phone has finished erasing — if iOS has purged it, it is gone, and nothing here will bring it back.

One exception worth knowing, because it surprises people in both directions: iOS keeps messages you delete in Recently Deleted for about 30 days before erasing them for good. Those are still on the phone, so ScribeHold can read them, and a legal export includes them by default. You can turn that off before you export. The same switch covers messages ScribeHold copied in an earlier backup that you have since deleted. Anything iOS erased before ScribeHold copied it is beyond our reach.

If messages your phone has already erased are what your case turns on, you need a forensic examiner, not us. That is a real profession with real tools, and it is worth the call.

ScribeHold does not read encrypted backups

If your iPhone has a backup password set — the “Encrypt Local Backup” option in Finder or Apple Devices — ScribeHold cannot read what comes off the phone. Turn that option off before your first run and everything works normally.

If you leave it on, the run will fail rather than quietly give you half your messages. Support for encrypted backups is on the roadmap; it is not here yet.

ScribeHold needs Apple’s USB driver

ScribeHold talks to your iPhone through Apple’s USB driver, which Windows Update installs automatically the first time you plug in an iPhone. If Windows Update is blocked on your PC, install the free Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store instead — it includes the driver.

Wi-Fi works only on the same network, and only after the cable

The first connection needs a USB cable, because pairing cannot happen over Wi-Fi. After that, and once you turn Wi-Fi on in Settings (it is off by default), ScribeHold can read your iPhone over Wi-Fi, but only when the phone and the PC are on the same network. It cannot reach the phone from the office while the phone is at home. The phone also has to be unlocked when a run starts; a locked phone stays on the network and refuses to begin. The PC has to be switched on as well. ScribeHold keeps it awake while a run is in progress, but it cannot wake a PC that is asleep, so a run that falls due overnight waits until both are available. Guest networks, networks that keep connected devices apart from each other, a VPN on the PC, and a Windows network set to Public can all block it.

Wi-Fi is slower than the cable, and a dropped connection can stop a run, so make the first full copy over the cable. Some iPhones refuse a backup over Wi-Fi; if yours does, ScribeHold goes back to the cable. We have tested Wi-Fi on three iPhones on one home network, so yours may behave differently. Over Wi-Fi, the copy goes from the phone to your PC across your own network. It does not go to the internet or to us.

ScribeHold needs your passcode every single time

Since iOS 16.1, your iPhone asks you to tap in your passcode before it will hand over a backup — every run, not just the first. That prompt comes from Apple, and no tool on Windows can skip it or remember it for you. If you were hoping to set this up once and walk away, that is not possible on a modern iPhone. Wi-Fi takes away the cable, not the passcode. That includes the automatic copies: if you miss the prompt, ScribeHold waits for the next scheduled time, or for you to press Back Up Now. It annoys us too.

ScribeHold is not a backup or restore tool

ScribeHold copies your messages so you can read, search and export them on your PC. It cannot put anything back onto a phone, and there is no restore feature planned. To back up the device itself, use iCloud or Finder.

ScribeHold also does not keep a full copy of your phone. As it works, it holds on to your messages, attachments and contacts and discards the rest — notes, app data, settings, photos outside your messages. That keeps the space it uses reasonable, and it is on by default. Your messages on the iPhone are not changed, and nothing is uploaded anywhere.

ScribeHold does change one setting on the phone: Wi-Fi sync, the switch that lets a computer reach it over Wi-Fi. It changes that switch only while the phone is plugged in. With Back up over Wi-Fi on, it turns the switch on. With it off, it turns the switch off again, but only if ScribeHold was the one that turned it on. Versions before 1.4 turned it on whenever the phone was plugged in, whatever the setting, and 1.4 does not turn it back off on those phones. You can turn it off yourself in Apple Devices or iTunes.

ScribeHold does not decide what a court accepts

The Legal Export Pack produces a tamper-evident archive an opposing party can check for themselves. Whether that record is admitted is still the court’s decision, not ours, and ScribeHold is not a substitute for a forensic examiner.