Reader Amy Campbell has all the right reasons for extracting data from an iPhone . She compose :

A Mac - using congeneric recently passed off , and there are some samarium and voicemail messages on her phone that we ’d care to have copies of . I do n’t see any way to extract those things . Is this potential ?

It is , and if you have access to her Mac , you’re able to do well still . Here ’s how :

When you back up an iOS equipment to your computer , SMS and voicemail messages are part of that backup . The accompaniment resides inyouruserfolder / Library / app Support / MobileSync / Backup . Do n’t disoblige take root around in that leaflet , as you wo n’t receive anything usable unless you ’re closely familiar with SQLite databases ; the file look like so much gobbledygook to most mass .

rather , change state to a tool that can pull up the information you desire , either directly from the phone or from one of the iPhone backups . For this form of thing , I routinely plow to Ecamm connection ’s $ 30PhoneView .

If you ’d like to find information directly from the phone , secure it into your Mac using the sync cable . PhoneView will launch and show you a concealment that looks a bit like iTunes . In the unexpended column under the Data heading , you ’ll see entries for Disk , Contacts , Notes , Call Log , Messages , Web , Voicemail , and Apps . ChooseMessages , and you ’ll see a list of SMS and MMS subject matter in the second tower . When you select a message , the contents of the conversation appear in a third column . To create a transcript of that conversation , just drag the name or routine from the second column to the desktop ; it becomes a PDF file , and contains the entire conversation . too , if you desire to copy a voicemail message from the earpiece , select that entry and drag it to the desktop . When you do , the voicemail subject matter appear as an AAC audio file that you could take on in iTunes .

If you have entree to this person ’s Mac and their account , PhoneView can provide even more assist . From PhoneView ’s File menu , chooseiTunes Backupand then , from the submenu , selectView Call History iTunes Backups , View Message iTunes Backups , orView Voicemail iTunes Backups . The windowpane that come out will list , in a pop - up menu , every iOS equipment back up on that figurer . opt the one you want , and you ’ll spy a list of indorse - up datum . Again , just drag whatever you like to the screen background to turn that data into something you may take or mind to .

The reward of overstretch information from an iTunes backup is that if your relative had multiple iPhones over the yr , it ’s probable you ’ll find all the accumulated voice mail and SMS message rather than just those stored on her last earpiece .