https://entorb.net//wiki/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Signal_Messenger_Migration_Android_to_iPhoneSignal Messenger Migration Android to iPhone - Revision history2026-05-06T11:30:57ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.1https://entorb.net//wiki/index.php?title=Signal_Messenger_Migration_Android_to_iPhone&diff=4955&oldid=prevTorben at 21:04, 30 October 20242024-10-30T21:04:28Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[Category:Android]][[Category:Apple]]<br />
===Supported Migration Paths===<br />
see [https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007062012-New-Number-or-New-Phone]<br />
Android -> Android<br />
iPhone -> iPhone<br />
Problem: Android -> iPhone is not supported. Therefore on 21.06.2020 I chose this path:<br />
Signal@Android -> Plain-SMS@Android -> iMessages@iPhone<br />
<br />
===Steps===<br />
on Android:<br />
* use Signal app to create backup on SD card<br />
* copy backup to PC<br />
<br />
on PC<br />
* decrypt backup<br />
** use [https://github.com/xeals/signal-back signal-back] to decrypt the backup<br />
** example used on Mac: ./signal-back_darwin_amd64 format -f XML -o backup.xml signal-2020-06-20-17-53-30.backup<br />
* Cleanup and fixing<br />
** In my case multimedia messages where broken after import into Android, therefore (and because of the occupied spaces) I decided to delete them (<mms entries), keeping only plain text messages (<sms entries)<br />
** As signal uses pseudonymization on the telephone numbers by replacing them by IDs, one needs to search and replace them back :-(<br />
** Here is a [https://github.com/xeals/signal-back/issues/67#issuecomment-554660621 Python Script] that supports this job<br />
<br />
on Android<br />
* copy the resulting XML file to Android<br />
* use app [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&hl=en SMS Backup & Restore] to import messages as SMS/MMS <br />
* install [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.movetoios&hl=en Apple's Move to iOS]<br />
<br />
on iPhone<br />
<br/> in order to import messages to the iPhone the migration today is only possible on a reset/empty iPhone.<br />
* I used iTunes on the PC to do backup the iPhone<br />
* reset iPhone to factory default, deleting all data<br />
* setup the iPhone and choose migration from Android phone<br />
* I select only messages/conversations for migration<br />
* afterwards I checked that the messages have been transferred correctly<br />
* in iCloud settings: enabling iMessages Sync and wait until the sync is complete<br />
<br />
on Mac<br />
* check that the iMessages now show the Android SMSs<br />
* restore the above created backup to iPhone <br />
<br />
on iPhone<br />
* in iCloud settings: enabling iMessages Sync and wait until the sync is complete</div>Torben