When you buy a new phone, one of the biggest headaches is to transfer the contents of your old phone to a new phone. For iPhone users, the easiest way to do this is using iCloud backup. But this could be irritating sometimes especially if you have trouble with Wi-Fi and internet connection. So today we will discuss in this article how to transfer messages from iPhone to iPhone without iCloud.
1. Transfer messages from iPhone to iPhone with iTunes
iTunes is another apple app that you can use to backup and restore your data from one iPhone to another. iTunes supports all apple devices and is mainly used to manage media files in apple devices. But you can use it to create backups and restore them in other Apple devices too. But the big downside of using iTunes is that you cannot just create a backup of text messages. Your backup will include all the data in your phone and will be restored on the other device.
Before you begin to Transfer messages
To do this transfer you need a PC or a Mac with iTunes installed. You can download iTunes from this link. Download and install it on your PC. Then you need to connect your iPhone to the computer using a USB cable.
Also, before creating a backup, it’s better if you do some cleaning up. Delete all the unnecessary files and threads in your SMS app. This will help you to create a backup faster and to save the space in your new iPhone when the backup is restored.
Now to create the backup using the old iPhone,
- Connect your old iPhone to the computer using the USB cable.
- Once iPhone is connected, launch iTunes on your PC/Mac.
- You will see a small phone icon on the top bar in the iTunes app. Click on it
- Now on the left sidebar, click on summery.
- You will see details about your iPhone on the summary page, Find the backup section.
- Under the “automatically backup” section, select “This computer”
- Under the “manually backup and restore” section click on ” backup now”
This will take a while to create the backup depending on your phone storage and computer speed. After creating the backup you will get a prompt.
To restore the backup to the new iPhone,
- Disconnect the old iPhone and connect the new iPhone to the computer.
- Again go to summery and follow the steps about to go the backup section
- Now under the “Manually backup and restore” section click on the restore backup.
- This will restore the backup and take it will take a while.
As we said earlier this backup will contain all the files in your old phone including media files. So this may be a bit inefficient for you if you just need to backup text messages.
2. Transfer messages from iPhone to iPhone Without iCloud using Apps
Many apps give you the ability to transfer files from your old iPhone to your new iPhone. By using these apps you can transfer your text messages from your old iPhone to your new iPhone easily. You will have to download these apps to your computer and connect your iPhone then you will be able to transfer anything you need.
Mobile-trans
Mobile trans is popular third-party software that gives you the ability to transfer data between phones without any trouble. This app supports many file types and many devices including android devices too.
- To use this app, go to the official website and install the app, then connect both your devices to your computer at once.
- Now open the app and select the “Phone Transfer” option.
- Now you can see the source phone and destination phone, in the middle there is a list of things you can transfer between these phones. Select “text messages” and click on start.
- The transfer will begin and wait until it is completed. If you are just transferring text messages this won’t take more than a couple of minutes. After the transfer is completed you will get the “transfer completed” message. Then you can remove both devices from the connection.
You can read more about this app on their official website. This app supports almost all the iOS versions and there could be no trouble even if you are transferring data from a very old iPhone to the latest one.
iMyfone iTransor
iTransor is an app that is supported by iOS devices only. Also, this app does not support many file types as the previous app. But still, this is a pretty good app to use for the iPhone.You can download and install the app from the official website. The best thing about this app is that you can create and save a backup of your iPhone on your computer for later use.
- Launch the app after installing it on your PC. Go to “Aquire backup from device and iCloud”
- Now connect the phone and the app will detect the phone. Click on the items which you want to create the backup. Select the messages only if you want to backup text messages only.
- Now choose a destination to create your backup in the bottom right panel. It’s better if you create a new empty folder to create the backup.
- Now if everything is set, you can click on “backup” to create a backup.
- After finishing, you will get a prompt saying it’s done backup.
- Now to restore the backup into your new device, disconnect the old phone from the PC and connect the new phone.
- Click on “Restore the backup to device” and choose a backup to restore. (if you have more than one backup files all the files will be listed here)
- Now the app will detect your phone and now you will have two options to choose from, “directly restore” and “preview and restore”
Directly restore: the restoration process will begin directly
Preview and restore: all the messages you have backed up can be previewed. If you want to make changes you can do it here. - After that, you will get two options to select,
Merge: this will merge the data with the existing data, which means data already available in your iPhone will still be there
Replace: This will delete the old data and write the new data. - Now after selecting which option the restore process will begin and you will be notified when finished.
3. Transfer messages from iPhone to iPhone using airdrop
You can use airdrop to transfer text messages from your old iPhone to your new iPhone. While this could be painful if you have a lot of messages, there is one little advantage over other methods. That is, you do not need a PC to do the transfer. You can directly connect the two phones and transfer the text messages. But you will have to select the messages one by one and this could take a lot of time if you have a lot of text messages on your iPhone.
- Turn on wifi Bluetooth and airdrop feature on both phones. (turn the visibility of airdrop to “everyone” to avoid issues)
- Now open the messages app, then select the message. You can select a contact and select the whole thread.
- Now click on share and select AirDrop
- Now select the new iPhone then hit send.
- Accept the incoming data in the new iPhone to receive the text messages.
So we hope at least one of these methods will help you to transfer your text messages from iPhone to iPhone without using iCloud. We recommend you use the third-party app method for a faster and more customized transfer. But of course, you can do it by using any method given above.