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I'm trying to switch from an iPhone 3GS to a Galaxy SII and got multiple questions. This one concerns migrating text messages (SMS). I've found quite some articles, basically, they fall into two categories:

  1. Getting the text message SQLite database from the iTunes backup and exporting stuff manually to CSV files.
  2. Importing the SQLite database directly with tools.

Most pages link to this article.

Problem: Apparently, this only works in iOS < 5.0 or iTunes < 10, don't know. With newer backups, the SQLite database can not be opened anymore, and the Android tools mentioned do not work anymore.

So I'm looking for any other suggestions on how to correctly migrate the text messages to Android.

Note: I'm aware that maybe this is more an iPhone question than an Android. Nevertheless, I hope to find someone here who faced the same problems. This is exactly the reason why I'm migrating in the first place.

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  • 1
    Thanks for all the answers. Actually, for everyone still interested in this or facing the same problem: The newest version of Samsung KIES supports direct import from IPhone backups! It's too late for me so I haven't tried it out and I know it's specific to Samsung but hope someone can use the info anyway.
    – pgruetter
    Commented Apr 30, 2012 at 12:24
  • See also: How do I migrate my SMS (text messages) from iPhone to Android?
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Feb 6, 2023 at 5:53

1 Answer 1

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Worked like a charm for me with the 2nd option (web service conversion) on this page: https://legacy.isms2droid.com/#converter. I´m running the latest iTunes 10.5.2.11 and Windows 7 32-bit Enterprise. My iPhone runs iOS 5.0.1 and my Android is an Xperia Arc with Android 2.3.3.

What I did was basically create a PC backup (used to run iCloud but changed that option in iTunes), look up the needed DB file (according to the guide), convert it with the web service, and then load it onto the Android phone memory card, and then use the SMS backup and Restore to restore the SMS database.

The only problem I had, was that all the SMS that had been sent or received with iMessage was corrupted. Apparently, they don't store phone numbers with these posts, and therefore all these messages were put in an "Unknown" thread, with no date connected to them.

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  • The problem with faked.org/isms2droid is that it doesn't correctly extract the iMessages correctly. It gets the wrong timestamp, and leaves the address empty and the type (which represents sent or received) is always 1 (received).
    – user17324
    Commented Jul 24, 2012 at 5:05

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