As real estate sales associates, it’s very important that we document everything that we do and say with our clients and often times with other sales associates. We are increasingly using text messages to communicate and these messages are difficult to keep track of and to back up and store. We keep copies of all of the forms used in our transactions. Email communication is easy to store in folders or to print and save. Even voice messages can be fairly easily saved as digital files. So what about our text messages? We generally don’t save or archive our text messages and they’re not usually backed up automatically by our phones.
This may not really be a problem until a legal issue arises. You may be asked to provide proof of a conversation that you had with your client via text that may help you to defend yourself and your company and you no longer have the messages because you accidently deleted them, lost your phone, switched phone providers etc.
It is possible to back up your phone text messages and depending on the type of phone that you have and you may need additional software to be able to access the stored data.
I have put together a a small resource of information gathered from across the web to help you through the process of printing and or backing up your text messages. Hopefully this will save you from losing your valuable message data and from having to do the research yourself.
Easy Print and Save
If you’re looking for an easy and free way to print and store messages from your iPhone or Android device by emailing screen shots (iPhone) or an entire conversation (Android), select the link below to access a step by step PDF tutorial.
How To Print and Save Your Text Messages (iPhone and Android)
These two apps will help you to back up your messages to your computer where you can then easily store and print them.
iPhone
SMS Export
Android
SMS Backup & Restore
IPhone – Reading A Regular Back Up File
If you currently back up your iPhone to iCloud or to your computer using iTunes and a USB connector, your backup files can be accessed but can not be read. These back up files are meant to be used to restore your phone if you accidently erase everything or to transfer all of your files to a new phone. The backup files can not be opened or viewed or separated without the use of additional software like the ones listed below. Using these programs will allow you to separate, print and store your messages from your regular iPhone backup file.
iPhone Free Solution
This link shows how to access your iPhone backup file and convert it by uploading the file to an online service site that converts it and sends it back to you. Some of you may not like the idea of uploading your file to convert it and may prefer one of the desktop installed programs or mobile apps listed above but this is the only free iPhone solution that I know of other than taking manual screen shots.
http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-backup-iphone-sms-text-messages-and-export-to-pdf-html-or-ms-excel/
Additional Information
8 Apps to Save and Back Up Texts on Android
Total Recall: How To Back Up All The Text Messages On Your iPhone
Sync Your iPhone, iPad and iPod with iTunes Using USB
How to Back Up Your Android Phone Logs and SMS to Google Drive Spreadsheets
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