How to save text messages from your iPhone to your Mac, 4 ways.

Quick answer

Switch on Messages in iCloud on your iPhone (Settings > [your name] > iCloud > See All > Messages in iCloud > Use on this iPhone) and on your Mac (Messages > Settings > iMessage > Enable Messages in iCloud). Your whole history downloads to the Mac, where you can print a chat to PDF or export it. Messages in iCloud is a sync, not a backup, so deleting a text on one device deletes it everywhere.

1. Sync your texts to the Mac with Messages in iCloud

This is the free way to get every conversation onto your Mac, including the ones from years ago. You only set it up once, and new texts appear on the Mac within seconds after that.

1. On your iPhone, open Settings > [your name] > iCloud > See All > Messages in iCloud > Use on this iPhone.
2. On your Mac, open Messages, then choose Messages > Settings > iMessage > Enable Messages in iCloud. Sign in with the same Apple Account as your iPhone.
3. Click Sync Now on the same screen.
4. Leave the Mac on and connected. Apple says it may take some time for all your messages to appear on each device, and years of photos and videos take longer.
5. Set Messages > Settings > General > Keep messages to Forever on the Mac, and Settings > Apps > Messages > Keep Messages to Forever on the iPhone, so nothing old is removed.

Once your texts are on the Mac, you can save any chat as a file. The free way is to print it to PDF, which our guide on exporting iMessages to PDF walks through.

Where it falls short

• It is a sync, not a backup. When you delete a message or a conversation on your iPhone, it is removed from your Mac too.
• It leaves iCloud Backup. Apple says that with Messages in iCloud on, your messages sync to iCloud and aren't included in your daily iCloud Backup.
• Photos can stay in iCloud. When your Mac runs low on space, macOS removes its copies of older photos and files and keeps only a preview, with the original in iCloud.
• It uses iCloud storage. A history with lots of photos and videos can fill a free 5 GB plan.

2. Back up your iPhone to the Mac in Finder

A Finder backup copies your iPhone's data to the Mac with a cable, without iCloud. It's a good safety net, but your texts sit inside it in a form you can't browse.

1. Connect your iPhone to the Mac with a cable. If the iPhone asks whether to trust this computer, tap Trust and enter your passcode.
2. Open a Finder window and click your iPhone in the sidebar, under Locations.
3. On the General tab, choose Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this Mac. Tick Encrypt local backup if you want passwords and health data included, and keep that password somewhere safe.
4. Click Back Up Now and wait for it to finish.

Where it falls short

• You can only restore it, not read it. Finder has no way to show the texts inside a backup. Apps such as iMazing, Decipher TextMessage and the free imessage-exporter can read messages from it.
• It is a snapshot. Texts that arrive after the backup aren't in it until you back up again.

3. Screenshot the texts and AirDrop them to your Mac

For a handful of messages, screenshots are the quickest way and need no setup.

1. Open the conversation on your iPhone and press the side button and the volume up button together. Scroll and repeat until you have every part.
2. Open Photos, tap Select and pick the screenshots.
3. Tap the Share button, tap AirDrop and choose your Mac. They land in the Downloads folder.

To join them into one file, select them in Finder, Control-click and choose Quick Actions > Create PDF.

Where it falls short

• It does not scale. A long conversation becomes dozens of images.
• The text is a picture. You can't reliably search or copy it later.

4. Keep and export every chat with Textlore

Textlore is a Mac app that works on top of way 1. Once Messages in iCloud brings your iPhone texts to the Mac, Textlore keeps its own copy of every message, photo, video and file, and lets you export any chat. It only reads: it never sends, edits or deletes a message, and nothing leaves your Mac.

1. Install it. Download Textlore, open it and switch on Full Disk Access when it asks. macOS keeps your Messages history in a protected folder, and this lets Textlore read it. About 100,000 messages import in under a minute.
2. Leave the archive on. Textlore saves each message and each attachment while it is on your Mac, into ~/Library/Application Support/Textlore. If you later delete a chat on your iPhone, or Messages clears photos to save space, Textlore's copies stay. Settings > Archive shows its size and a running count.
3. Export any chat. Open a conversation and press ⇧⌘E, or pick a date range, or click Select and choose a few messages. Save it as PDF, HTML, plain text, Markdown, CSV or an image.

Phone numbers and emails are hidden in exports unless you switch them on, so you can share a chat without giving away anyone's details.

Textlore reads the history on your Mac, so your iPhone texts need Messages in iCloud to get there. You never need to plug the iPhone in. Photos that were already only in iCloud before you installed Textlore show as a preview with an Open in Messages button.

Keep your iPhone texts safe on your Mac in a few minutes. Every feature is free for 14 days. No account, no email, no card.

Download free14 days, no account Buy Textlore, $39 $20Buy Textlore, $39Launch price until 28 OctoberOnce, for 2 Macs