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How to keep your text messages when switching iPhones

Published October 10, 2026

Transferring messages to a new iPhone works well… most of the time. But an interrupted transfer, a phone handed back too soon, or a switch to Android, and years of conversations can disappear. The precaution takes a few minutes.

Before you part with your old iPhone

1. Make a full backup on your computer (with Finder or with PhoneScroll).
2. Check that it's readable: open it in PhoneScroll and make sure your important conversations are there.
3. Keep it somewhere safe, ideally on an external drive.

Only then should you reset the old phone.

If you're switching from iPhone to Android

iMessages don't come with you. With a readable copy on your computer, your history stays viewable, and you can export the conversations you want to keep to PDF.

If a message is missing on the new iPhone

Open the backup in PhoneScroll, find the message with search, then export it. With PhoneScroll Pro, you can also restore the backup to an iPhone (careful: restoring replaces all the content of the target iPhone).

Read next: How to save iPhone text messages to your computer (PC or Mac): 3 ways.