Note: All of the heavy lifting is done by iphone-message-export from Seth R. Johnson; all i did was add the format.py file

Iphone Text Message Export and Format

Extracts messages from an iphone backup, converts it to a json format using iphone-message-export, and finally converts it to a readable html format using the format.py script.

worked on an iphone 6s using ubuntu 21

Motivation: I was having a lot of trouble finding a way to back up all my messages in a readable format from an iphone (particularly on linux); all the solutions were required buying software. I was able to get it working with the following instructions / scripts (mostly relying on iphone-message-export from Seth R. Johnson, which does all the heavy lifting). Posting it all here in case it helps anyone.

Usage

Step 1: Place an iphone backup in the backup/ folder

You can get an iphone backup using macOS.

On linux, options are more limited. I used the idevicebackup2 tool from the libimobiledevice library <-- HOWEVER!! I think it may have crashed my OS, so be extremely careful if you go down that route.

Step 2: Extract all the messages

Use the export.py, which is a slightly modified script from Seth Johnson's iphone-message-export repo, to convert all the messages to json format

open the export.py file, and change the backup & export folder variables at beginning of script if you need to

Then:

python3 export.py

^ or whatever you use to call python

Step 3: Convert to HTML

Finally, convert it all to html with the format.py file.

Open the format.py file and change the user variable at the top of the script to the phone number of the iphone you backed up

python3 format.py

And that's it. All in a readable format; images too. This is what it'll look like:

Roadmap

• have it use contacts to get actual names instead of numbers
• improve formatting in html
• convert to an electron app to put all those paid apps out of business