Guides

How to export text messages from iPhone

Save a conversation as a PDF, copy your whole message history to your computer, or keep a few messages as screenshots. Here is how each one works.

Joshua Z

Founder, My Forever Books

Turn your texts into a book (Your messages with loved ones. Printed. Protected. Forever.)

Can you export text messages from an iPhone?

Yes, though the Messages app has no export button. Pick the method that matches what you need:

• One short conversation as a PDF: open it in Messages on a Mac and save it as a PDF. Unreliable for long conversations.
• Your full history, safe on your computer: back up your iPhone to your Mac or PC.
• A few messages: take screenshots on your iPhone.

Table of contents

1. Can you export text messages from an iPhone?
2. Backing up is not the same as exporting
3. Export a conversation to PDF on a Mac
4. Copy your full message history to your computer
5. Save a few messages as screenshots
6. Turn the export into a book
7. FAQs

Backing up is not the same as exporting

An iCloud backup, or Messages in iCloud, keeps your texts safe and brings them back when you set up a new iPhone. It does not give you a file you can open, read, or print. Both are still worth turning on before you export:

• Keep old messages. In Settings, open Messages and check that Keep Messages is set to Forever, so old conversations are not deleted automatically.
• Back up to iCloud. In Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup, and make sure backups are on.

To get the messages out as something you can read, use one of the methods below.

Export a conversation to PDF on a Mac

If you have a Mac signed in to the same Apple Account as your iPhone, this can be a quick way to get a readable copy of a short conversation. It is not reliable for long ones, as the warning below explains.

1. On your iPhone, turn on Messages in iCloud: open Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, and turn on Messages. The exact menu names vary a little between iOS versions.
2. On your Mac, open Messages, choose Messages, then Settings, then iMessage, and select Enable Messages in iCloud. Let your history download.
3. Open the conversation and scroll up to where you want the PDF to start. Messages loads older messages only as you scroll up, so anything you have not scrolled back to may be left out.
4. Choose File, then Print, or press Command and P.
5. Open the PDF menu at the bottom of the print window and choose Save as PDF.

A warning about long conversations: this often does not work reliably. Messages can freeze or quit while you scroll back through months or years of history, or while it builds the PDF. When it does finish, the PDF can be incomplete, with messages missing, text cut off at page breaks, and photos replaced by grey boxes. Check the PDF before you rely on it, and if it fails, try a shorter stretch at a time or use a computer backup instead. To print rather than save a PDF, see how to print text messages from iPhone.

Copy your full message history to your computer

A computer backup saves everything on your iPhone, every conversation included, to your own computer. It is the safest copy to keep before you change phones or reset one.

On a Mac

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a cable.
2. In the Finder sidebar, select your iPhone. Tap Trust on the phone if it asks.
3. Click General, then select Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this Mac.
4. Click Back Up Now and wait for it to finish.

On Windows

1. Install the Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store. On older versions of Windows, use iTunes.
2. Connect your iPhone with a cable and select it in the app.
3. Choose to back up to this computer, then click Back Up Now.

A backup is a safety copy, not a readable file. To pull conversations out of it with their photos, use our free iMessage Exporter. It reads the backup, or the messages synced to your Mac, and runs on your own computer, so your messages stay on your device.

The exporter makes a file for our book builder, so it is the right choice when you want the conversation printed as a book. The steps are in the iPhone print guide.

Save a few messages as screenshots

For a short exchange, screenshots are the fastest export. Press the side button and volume up together (or the side button and Home button on older iPhones), scroll, and repeat. The screenshots land in Photos, where you can share them to Files, email, or a computer.

Turn the export into a book

Many people export their texts because a conversation matters: a relationship, a parent, a friendship, or someone who has passed away. If you want that conversation somewhere other than a screen, My Forever Books prints it as a book, with message bubbles, dates, and the photos you sent each other, in order.

I decided to make this book for my girlfriend who had recently had all her iPhone messages deleted and was really upset about it. The book was very well made and made for an extremely special gift. Her reaction was priceless.

- Vincent R., verified customer

See how it works on the iPhone message book page. If the messages are from someone who died, our guide to saving text messages from a deceased loved one covers the first steps to take.