How to View iPhone Messages on your computer

Viewing and searching messages can be difficult on the relatively small screen of an iPhone. With TouchCopy, you can access your device's messages from the big screen of your computer.

Using TouchCopy's search function, you can pinpoint certain messages from your conversation history. In this way, you can easily view the messages in the familiar messaging format, copy the messages to your computer, or even print them out.

You can view and search your iPhone SMS, MMS, iMessages, LINE and WhatsApp conversations at once using a TouchCopy free trial. You'll need a TouchCopy license if you wish to copy or print your iPhone messages.

Viewing your iPhone messages in TouchCopy

To view SMS, MMS, iMessages, LINE and WhatsApp conversations on your iOS device, follow the steps below.

  1. Download and install TouchCopy on your PC or Mac.
  2. Launch TouchCopy and connect your iPhone using your USB cable.
  3. Click on the "Messages" feature in TouchCopy.
  4. TouchCopy will now display a list of contacts with whom you've had conversations.
  5. Click a contact to view your messages with them!
Transfer iPhone messages to your computer

Clicking a contact in the list will display your conversation in the preview window to the right. This shows all of your messages sent and received in that conversation as well as other important data:

  • Texts sent and received.
  • Attached media (emojis, reactions, photos, videos, GIFS, etc.).
  • Contact details: name, image (optional) and number (optional).
  • Times and dates on which the messages were sent/received.

Group Messages - TouchCopy even treats and organizes group messages, so they retain their format. Your group messages are displayed and copied by TouchCopy as they are displayed on your iPhone.

Viewing encrypted messages (requires data backup password)

If you previously created an encrypted iPhone backup in iTunes or Finder on your computer, TouchCopy will require a password for this backup before it will be able to read your messages. This password is only used for TouchCopy to access messages on your iPhone and the app does not save or share this.

Save messages to PC from iPhone backup

If you prefer not to use encrypted backups with TouchCopy, so that a backup password is not needed when accessing your messages, please remove encryption from your iPhone backup, and then try using TouchCopy again.

Search for iPhone Messages

Search through your iPhone messages - Using the search box in TouchCopy Messages, you can quickly navigate to a particular conversation based on the contact's name. For example, I can type "Honor" in the search box, then hit Enter/Return on my keyboard to quickly find my conversation with Honor.

You can even search for certain search terms within your messages. For example, I could search for "wedding" to quickly find my messages about a wedding to look back on. This feature is available in the Mac version of TouchCopy and you may need to enable message searching within Preferences.

Search iPhone Messages with TouchCopy

Set a Date Range

You can filter your messages using the "Filter Dates" (PC) or "Set Date Range" (Mac) button in TouchCopy. Setting a date range will return only messages sent/received within the range specified.

This is great if you don't want to print out a huge thread of messages. You can narrow down your date range to include only the messages you need - saving you time (and paper)!

Set Date Range

Simply choose your desired dates, and click Apply. Now, only the encompassed messages will be shown in the preview. As such, if you choose to copy or print a conversation, only the messages shown in the preview will be copied/printed.

You can cancel this filter by clicking "Clear Filters" on PC (or on Mac, click "Date Range", then "Clear" and finally "Apply").

Publisher: Wide Angle Software