Modifying SMS messages?? anyone done this successfully?

**Lumiera** · 12-26-2009 08:28 AM

Hi,

Im trying a little experiment... I want to be able to go into my SMS backup log and modify strings of text in SMS, then restore that back to the iPhone with the changes in place.

Seems its easy enough to change the strings of text in the backup file, however when the phone is then restored form a backup the text messages do not show up at all.

I assume there is some degree of Checksum in operation here forbidding the modified files to be read. Anyone have any ideas how this may be worked around?

Thanks!

**Olethros** · 12-26-2009 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by Lumiera

Hi,

Im trying a little experiment... I want to be able to go into my SMS backup log and modify strings of text in SMS, then restore that back to the iPhone with the changes in place.

Seems its easy enough to change the strings of text in the backup file, however when the phone is then restored form a backup the text messages do not show up at all.

I assume there is some degree of Checksum in operation here forbidding the modified files to be read. Anyone have any ideas how this may be worked around?!

The SMS database is a sqlite3 database, there are a number of GUI based editors that can modify this format.

Regarding the backups and checksums, read the following articles. In summary, yes there are some signatures/checksums. Files that don't match checksum are skipped in restore.

iPhone Backups: Part 1 - Inside iPhone Blog
iPhone Backups Part 2 - Inside iPhone
iPhone Backups: Part 3 - Inside iPhone Blog
iPhone Backups: Part 4 - Inside iPhone Blog
iPhone Backups Part 5: Even more about Backups - Inside iPhone Blog

**Lumiera** · 12-27-2009 02:07 AM

hey, thats most helpful... is there a good editor you can recommend for OS X?

will this take care of the serialization and de-serialization of the files for upload?

Thanks!

**Olethros** · 12-27-2009 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Lumiera

hey, thats most helpful... is there a good editor you can recommend for OS X?

will this take care of the serialization and de-serialization of the files for upload?

Thanks!

Menial Base is nice and very mac like

I generally use the free and cross platform SQLite Database Browser | Get SQLite Database Browser at SourceForge.net

I don't understand the serialization part of your question.

**Lumiera** · 12-27-2009 01:36 PM

Hey,

thanks again... however seems neither of those programs recognize the SMS database as a Sql file?

**Olethros** · 12-27-2009 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by Lumiera

Hey,

thanks again... however seems neither of those programs recognize the SMS database as a Sql file?

I have opened the SMS.db file with the second program I mentioned.

Normally I transfer a copy of this file directly from the phone using sftp or scp and then open it on my mac.

**Lumiera** · 01-06-2010 12:45 PM

will my phone need to be jailbroken for that to work?

**Olethros** · 01-06-2010 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Lumiera

will my phone need to be jailbroken for that to work?

Yes it will

**Lumiera** · 01-06-2010 01:02 PM

great, thank you very much: best jailbreak for 3.1.2?

**Olethros** · 01-06-2010 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by Lumiera

great, thank you very much: best jailbreak for 3.1.2?

Best overall jailbreak - pwnagetool!

However for your purposes. Blackra1n is a better choice.
The reasons I recommend blackra1n are:

It sounds like you don't need hacktivation (which blackra1n is pretty crap at)
You want to keep your existing SMS database, this is harder to do with pwnagetool jailbreak.

iClarified - iPhone - How to Jailbreak Your iPhone, iPod Using BlackRa1n [Windows]