Manual iPhone backup data locations
If you want to manually copy or backup iPhone data, you will need to know the locations of the database files on your iPhone. We’ll cover where to find SMS messages, Notes, pictures, videos, call history, voicemail, address book, and the calendar, they are all located within your iPhone /private/var/mobile/Library directory.
Remember, you will not be able access these locations directly unless your iPhone is jailbroken! Without a jailbreak you have to backup your iPhone normally since you can not access these files.
iPhone data backup locations
These are all located on the iPhone. In most cases you are looking for a database backup file named something like “sms.db” and “call_history.db”:
iPhone SMS/Text Message backup
/private/var/Mobile/Library/SMS
(If you want to, you can access and read iPhone SMS backups directly on your computer)
Notes backup
/private/var/mobile/Library/Notes
Call History backup
/private/var/mobile/Library/CallHistory
Voicemail backup
/private/var/mobile/Library/Voicemail
Voicemails are stored as 1.amr, 2.amr, within this directory. The custom greeting is stored as Greeting.amr
Contacts/Address Book backup
/private/var/mobile/Library/AddressBook/
Mail backup
/private/var/mobile/Library/Mail
Pictures and Video Recordings
/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/
Calendar backup
/private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar/
This is really only relevant to those who have an iPhone with jailbreak, since you can’t access these directories on the iPhone without an SSH/SFTP client. Without a jailbreak, you probably just need the local Mac/PC iPhone backup location so check that out instead.
I want Apple to release a way to access these files directly, even if its through the SDK. Jailbreaking to access parts of my phone make no sense to me, it’s my phone and my files. I want direct access.
He, He… But the iphone is their design and if you don’t like it you don’t have to use it…
By that logic none of us should live because we don’t enjoy suffering.
He has reason to want access to every part of something he purchased and telling him after the fact that he purchased it that he simply shouldn’t do so is pointless. Furthermore your response is childish and ignorant, and if their actual sale point was that stupid they’d have a lot less sales. There’s a reason they hide these things initially from customers, and there’s a reason that because of it many people then go onto to jailbreak and modify said items.
I want to use a tool, can support back up or export only SMS ? what apps can i use ?
[...] If you’re curious about more technical details, iPhone voicemails are stored as .amr files on the phone itself at: [...]
Im wanting to backup my iPhone to my external drive. I found some blogs to help if i were running a more recent operating system. Windows 2003 i believe is what im working with.
how can i set the path to my external drive?
Please help,
Thanks.