In the world we are living, every day we hear news about new smartphones are being launched. And, due to the human natural extinct, we are tempted to try out new things. For now, Android and iOS are the two popular mobile operating systems that dominate the world. If you switched from Android to iPhone, then it would be a headache to transfer data from the old phone to the new iPhone.
The next time you’re ready to update your iPhone to the latest version of iOS, now you know how you can do so — while ensuring that you retain all those precious text messages and iMessages in.
In here, I am going to share three effective yet simple ways to move text messages from Android to iPhone. All of the methods are tested on 2 Android phones (Galaxy S6 and HTC One M8) and iPhone 7. However, due to the diversity of Android devices, I am not sure the methods work on all devices. You should try them out accordingly.
Method 1: How to Transfer SMS from Android to iPhone with PhoneTrans
TunesBro Phone Transfer is a software utility developed in 2014, which is the only one solution at that time for SMS transfer between Android and iOS. In the past two years, there are at least 10 new features added to the program, so it is still the No.1 tool to transfer data between different mobile devices, including Android, iOS, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. Besides message, you can also use the program for transferring contacts, music, photos, video, calendar, call history or Ebooks.
The transfer using this utility is risk-free, and there is no quality loss as well. Most of the times, when you switch to a different phone, you sell out the old phone, and when you do it, you must need to delete all of your data from that old phone. This software utility makes it easy for you to erase everything from the old phone. So no one could recover any data from the Android phone.
Support Devices: iPhone X/8/7/6S/6/5S, Samsung Galaxy S8/S7/S6/S5, HTC U11/M10, LG G5/G4/G3, Sony XA/XZ, Moto Z/X/G, OnePlus, Lenovo, Xiaomi and other 2000+ model.s
Step 1Install and Run TunesBro PhoneTrans on PC or Mac
TunesBro PhoneTrans is available on Windows and Mac OS X. Please download the application on your computer and install it later. When installation is over, double click desktop shortcut to launch the program. From the four options, select 'Switch' to get started.
Step 2Connect Android and iPhone 7 to Computer
Take out USB cables of two phones and use it to connect the phone to computer. For Android phones, you need to turn on USB debugging on Android phone and install the latest USB driver if it was the first time attached to that computer. For iPhones, you should make sure iTunes is installed on the computer.
Step 3Select Messages You Wish to Copy
Once the two phones were well connected to computer, their names should be displayed on the main screen. Make sure Android is the original phone and iPhone is the destination phone. If the position was wrong, then click 'Flip' button to switch positions. As you can see from the program, there are a couple of content that can be copied from Android to iPhone. Kindly select the ones you wish to transfer.
4 Start Transferring Android Messages to iPhone 7
Click 'Start Transfer' button once the selection is finished. All selected items will be copied from Android phone to iPhone 7. You can see how the process goes with the progress bar.
Please keep the phones well connected during the transfer process. It usually takes less than 15 minutes to complete the task. After this, all selected items will be synced to iPhone 7 automatically.
Method 2: How to Transfer Messages from Android to iPhone with Move to iOS App
Apple released an app called Move to iOS in 2016, which is far behind TunesBro PhoneTrans. The main purpose of the app is to help people switching to iPhone more comfortably. It is free and recommended by mainstream media sources. But it is not the first choice because of bad reviews in Play Store. It only has average 2.7 scores in reviews, which is a pretty bad indicator.
There are many restrictions in using the app. For example, it only supports Android devices with 4.0+ and iOS 9.0+. So many of old devices are not supported by the app. On the contrary, TunesBro PhoneTrans supports 2000+ devices. However, there is no loss to try it out. The only price is the time you spent on it.
Step 1: Download Move to Android app from Google Play Store and turn on Wi-Fi Settings on Android and iPhone.
Step 2: Set up iPhone according to the wizard and select 'Move Data from Android' once you reached the section of 'App & Data'.
Step 3: Tap 'Continue' on both phones and there is a code generated on iPhone and enter it on your Android phone.
Step 4: On your Android phone, select the data you wish to transfer and tap Next. You can transfer camera roll, messages, Google Account, contacts and bookmarks within the app. A few minutes later, all the selected items will be moved to iPhone.
Method 3: How to Move SMS from Android to iPhone with Android App
Transferring text messages from Android to iPhone is just as easy as installing a new app. Yes, it can be done using an Android app called SMS Backup+, which automatically backups your SMS to your Gmail account. All you need to do is to enable IMAP in your Gmail Account, which you can do on your computer using Gmail.
On your computer, within your Gmail, go to Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and Enable IMAP. Before using SMS Backup, this IMAP enabling stuff should be done. If not, then do it, and then install the app.
Now, since your messages are backed up into your Gmail, you can access them on any device on which you use Gmail. So, when you start using iPhone and set up your Gmail on that, you will be able to get the access of your all messages there on your iPhone.
Note: However, you can only view the messages via Email attachment. The messages won't appear on iMessage app. So basically, it is not a valid solution for sms transfer.
To do a work, there are various ways available nowadays because technology is growing rapidly but which one is the best for you is something you should care about, and that is the reason we made TunesBro Phone Transfer, which is the best tool for transferring messages from Android to iPhone. Use it, and share your experiences here with us. In case you get some issues, do let me know, I will try my best to help you out to solve your issues.
Dec.20, 2016 15:20 pm / Posted by Candie Kates to Android Solution
Related Articles & Tips
Wondering how to save text messages on your iPhone? All those short missives you've written are mostly ephemeral, but some of them can be important, especially if you need them as proof in a dispute. Even if the only reason you want to save your messages is just to preserve your priceless nuggets of wit, you should be able to do so. Apple—frustratingly—offers no easy way to export your texts and Messages, and we'd argue the company should offer tools to do this. Still, there are workarounds and simple ways to save your Messages and texts. Here are the five best methods.
Find and Open the File Containing All Your Texts
Apple saves your text messages in its iPhone backups—whether they're saved locally on your PC or they're part of an iCloud backup—which you should have. That's good! Unfortunately, the file containing your messages doesn't appear separately within the backup. However, you can access them through the filesystem. If you back up locally on an Apple computer, you can find the file under Library > Application Support > MobileSync > Backup. You should find multiple folders in there, each with a different backup image of your phone. Each of the folders should have a file named:
3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata.
Those are your texts, in SQLite database form. Note that the file could have the extension 'mdbackup,' or no extension at all. Also note that Apple hides the Library folder from users, so if you can't access it, go to the Finder > Go menu and hold down Shift while the Go menu is open. That will force the Library folder to appear in the list. If you still can't locate the file, try just searching for the filename using Spotlight.
On a Windows machine, you can find that file in __C:Users[username]Application DataApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup[user id] __.
Unfortunately, you can't open up that file in a text editor—you'll either need a SQLite editor or a special third-party viewer. But at the very least, if you copy that file and keep it somewhere safe, you've got an archive of your text messages. There are two onlineservices where you can upload that file and download the content and metadata in either PDF or CSV form. Of course, it's totally up to you whether you want to give an unfamiliar website access to your private messages.
Use an App like PhoneView or CopyTrans
Many different programs can not only decipher the SQLite file Apple uses to store SMS messages, but can also simplify finding and archiving them. PhoneView is commonly recommended for Mac, and CopyTrans seems to be the application of choice among Windows users. There's a variety of similar utilities. Most of them cost between $15 and $30, and there doesn't seem to be a free, open source option that's 'good enough' to have popular appeal.
Another recommendation is iExplorer, which we've covered in the past. It costs money, but the demo version will allow you to read through the .mddata file and copy/paste the text. If you want to export the messages into a PDF or text file, you'll have to pay.
More Useful iPhone Tips
Print Your Messages Chat Log
To this point, we've been treating SMS and Messages as the same protocol, because the aforementioned methods cover both. But if you sync Messages on your Mac and your iPhone, your computer should get the same Messages your phone does and save them in the Messages chat logs. You can print a complete conversation in the Messages app or find the chat logs in Library > Messages > Archive. Of course, since Messages only works between two Apple devices, this method requires that the person you're corresponding with also uses Apple products.
Screenshot Your Texts
If you're using the texts to actually settle a dispute, you'll probably want to just take screenshots. To take a screenshot on an older iPhone, hold down the sleep/wake and home buttons at the same time until you see the screenshot drop into your photo roll. To take a screenshot on a newer iPhone—the models without a home button—press and hold the button on the right side of your phone, then click the volume up button on the left. Release both buttons and you should see your screenshot drop into your photo roll.
So here's how to archive a conversation. Scroll down to the most recent messages in the chat in question. Screenshot. Scroll up. Repeat as many times as necessary. Sure, this is the most time-consuming solution for how to save text messages on iPhone, but it's also the only method that you can do completely on your iPhone without a computer, and it's most likely what a lawyer will want to see. Don't forget—if you want timestamps for each message, swipe from the right side of the screen to expose the delivery times. You can also select multiple messages by tapping and holding a message bubbles to select more than one, and forwarding those to your email address. However, you'll lose all the metadata, and as the NSA has shown us, sometimes the metadata is more important than the content of the messages itself.
Bonus for Android Users
Not using an iPhone? You're in luck. This is one of the many circumstances where the openness of the Android ecosystem results in increased functionality on the device. Because Android allows a wide selection of non-system apps to send and receive SMS messages, there are a variety of easy archival apps that run on your phone itself. SMS Backup & Restore is simple, well-reviewed, and most importantly, free. Start there.
This post was updated on June 11, 2019. It was originally published on November 5, 2013 by Kif Leswing.
More on iPhones
- Your iPhone has all kinds of sensitive and important data, which is why you should know how to back it up
- You probably don’t want to talk with everyone that calls you. Blocking them might help
- Did you just join the iPhone/iPad life? Here’s how to set it up
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