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How to save text messages from someone who has died

We're sorry for your loss. Messages from someone we've lost can feel like the closest thing to hearing their voice. Here's how to keep them safe, step by step, at your own pace.

First: protect what's there

  • Don't reset, update or trade in the phone that has the messages until you've made a backup.
  • Check "Keep Messages". On iPhone, go to Settings › Apps › Messages › Keep Messages (or Settings › Messages on older versions) and make sure it's set to Forever, not 30 days or 1 year.
  • Don't delete the conversation to "clean up" while you decide what to do.
  • Voicemails are easy to lose too. On iPhone, open the voicemail, tap Share, and save it to Files.

Then: make a backup on a computer

A backup on your computer is a full copy of the messages, separate from the phone. Even if the phone is lost or broken, the messages are safe.

If you have Messages in iCloud turned on, older messages may only be in iCloud. Turning it off on the iPhone downloads them so they're included in the backup.

Keep them in a form you can read for years

A PDF is easy to keep, print and share with family, and it will still open in twenty years. TextTranscript's Memory style prints the conversation as chat bubbles, grouped by day, with photos where they were sent. You can look at a free preview first.

Your messages are processed on your own computer and never uploaded.

See a memory sample

Keep more than one copy

Save the PDF in at least two places, for example on your computer and on a USB drive, or in cloud storage you trust. Many families also print a copy to keep in a folder or have it bound.

Take your time

You don't have to read everything at once, or at all right now. Once the messages are backed up, they're safe, and you can come back to them whenever you're ready.