Right now I am in a situation in which I need produce text messages in order to prove my story, the good part is that I been using DiskAid to save all my text messages the bad is that it was all saved in a editable text file. So right now I need to get these messages back on my iPhone so I can create screenshots. I know that iTunes uses a database to store the text messages in so my question is, would it be possible to add in text messages from the past and have it all work? If so what be the best method to do this?

Modifying the database that the SMS were in would be traceable (any forensics would indicate the changes made to the database), and would likely not be admissible in court (if this is court related). In any case, adding SMS to the existing SQLite database is very difficult, it's not as simple as just adding lines to the file -- you have to know the SMS triggers themselves and enter in all of the pertinent data.

I understand that you're on a newer iOS, but this will help you understand the process: http://www.hackint0sh.org/f128/26994.htm

I'm sure some things have changed that I'm not aware of, but it should act as a good starting point for you.

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

Modifying the database that the SMS were in would be traceable (any forensics would indicate the changes made to the database), and would likely not be admissible in court (if this is court related). In any case, adding SMS to the existing SQLite database is very difficult, it's not as simple as just adding lines to the file -- you have to know the SMS triggers themselves and enter in all of the pertinent data.

I understand that you're on a newer iOS, but this will help you understand the process: http://www.hackint0sh.org/f128/26994.htm

I'm sure some things have changed that I'm not aware of, but it should act as a good starting point for you.

yeah i read that thread bit afterwards. how would it be traceable? i understand that data that is deleted can be recovered until there is massive amount of overwritting done, but there is no auditing on that DB, so how can it be traced?

There are a couple ways it could be traced, but the simplest is that the carrier's log of sent and received SMS messages and their size will not match up with what your phone says. While I don't believe the carrier can provide the fulltext of the SMS messages, they can definitely provide the size and time/date to the second of a sent message. Unless your data matches up identically, anyone good at forensics would be clued in to the fact that the SMS database on your phone was suspect.

In any case, ianal, ymmv, etc., I'm not a forensics expert, just someone who has far too much experience with the legal system in the US.