How to Save iPhone Text Messages to Computer (2 Ways)

Your iPhone messages contain all kinds of communications with your family, loved ones, friends, and colleagues. Some of them mean a lot to you that you will never want to lose, so you tend to save iMessages to computer as backup. Or you may need to first save iPhone messages to computer and print them out for legal purposes.

Whatever the reason, you definitely want to find a simple and straightforward solution to save iPhone text messages to computer. You may think of using iTunes, the default iDevice management tool to help you make it. However, it’s not a good choice, because it will make a full iPhone backup that contains your messages. Well, the good news is that there’s one third-party tool that can help you only backup iPhone messages to PC. Next, I’ll show you both the two methods in detail.

Method 1. Save iPhone Messages to Computer without iTunes

AOMEI FoneBackup is one free iPhone backup manager for Windows PCs. It helps you backup iPhone text messages and iMessages to computer with amazing speed. It also provides an easy way to restore the backup content.

★ Selectively Backup – It lets you preview and select the messages you want to backup.
★ Check Backup Files Any Time – It allows you to view the backup messages anytime you want.
★ Flexible Restore – It enables you to restore selected messages to any iPhone, iPad, iPod.
★ No Data Loss During Restore – It will not erase any existing messages or other data on the device.
★ Supports More Files – Besides messages, it also supports contacts, photos, music, videos, etc.

This tool supports most iPhone models from iPhone 4 to the latest iPhone 16 and is fully compatible with the latest iOS 18. Download the tool on your computer and follow the steps below to save iPhone messages to computer.

Overview Steps to Backup iPhone Messages to PC

1. Launch AOMEI FoneBackup > Connect your iPhone to computer via USB cable > Tap “Trust” on the home screen to give your computer access to your iPhone.

2. Choose Phone Backup > Go to Selective Backup > Click Messages icon to view and select the text messages or iMessages you want to backup > Click OK to continue.

3. Select the storage path to save the messages> Click Start Backup button to save iPhone messages to computer.

4. When the process is finished, you can check the backup task on the Backup History screen. Here you can choose to locate, browse or delete the backup files.

Note: You can click the triangle to run the incremental backup next time. It will only backup the newly added messages to save both space and time.

Method 2. Save iPhone Messages to Computer via iTunes

iTunes is another way you can try to save iPhone text messages to computer. But as we mentioned, it’s an indirect way. The following are its disadvantages:

● It will backup all the iPhone content including messages. In other words, you cannot choose to backup the messages only.
● Because of the data-encryption limitation, you are not allowed to check the backup files.
● What’s more, if you want to perform a restore, you have no choice but to restore the whole backup files to iPhone and all the existing iPhone content will be erased.

So if you want a simple way to make it, you’d better choose Method 1. If you still want to try iTunes, here is how to backup iPhone messages to PC with iTunes:

1. Download, install and run iTunes > Connect your iPhone to computer via the USB cable.

2. Tap “Trust” on the iPhone home screen. (Enter the device password if asked.)

3. Click the Device icon > Choose Summary.

4. Click This Computer > Backup Up Now to run a backup at once.

Note: You can locate the iTunes backup location in: C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup. If you can’t find AppData, it might be hidden. You need to click View at the toolbar in Windows Explorer and check Hidden items.

Conclusion

That’s all for how to save iPhone text messages to computer. If you prefer the easiest way to achieve the goal, pick AOMEI FoneBackup to help you. It provides an easy way to backup iPhone messages to computer and also lets you restore the backup to any device without data erase.

Besides, you can also take advantage of the backup and restore feature to transfer messages to new iPhone as well as other data when you buy a new one. Go for it now and discover more!