How to save text messages from your iPhone before you lose them

First, stop the phone deleting old messages

Open Settings, Messages (on iOS 18 and later, Settings, Apps, Messages) and find Keep Messages. If it says 30 Days or 1 Year, the iPhone deletes older messages and their attachments on its own. Set it to Forever.

Three ways to keep a copy

• A backup on your Mac: connect the iPhone with a cable, select it in the Finder sidebar and click Back Up Now. See backing up an iPhone with Finder.
• Messages in iCloud: keeps your messages in iCloud and on every device signed in with your Apple Account. Convenient, but a deletion on one device deletes everywhere.
• An export: a PDF, CSV or HTML file of a conversation that does not depend on any device or account.

Before you change phones

1. Back up the old iPhone on your Mac, and keep that backup after you set up the new phone.
2. If the conversation matters for a dispute, export it to PDF now, while the messages are in front of you.
3. Only then erase or trade in the old phone.

What to keep in mind

• An iCloud backup cannot be opened on a Mac; it can only be restored to an iPhone. A backup made with Finder can be read by an export app.
• If Messages in iCloud is on, messages are not part of the iCloud backup, because they are already stored in iCloud.
• Deleting a conversation removes it from every device that syncs with Messages in iCloud.

Questions