How Do Apps Store Data In IPhone Backups: Filenames And Hashes

This article will help you find files belonging to a particular app inside an iPhone backup. It'll also help you build a better understanding of how files and folders are arranged on iOS.

The simplest approach for recovering files from an iOS backup is to use iPhone Backup Extractor: the free edition will help you find and extract the files you need, as it can do so without you needing to know the detail in this article. If you’d like to do that, you’ll find we’ve got a number of handy guides shown in the top menu of this site, which will guide you through that process.

If you’d like to dig deeper and get technical, we’ll share the locations used by some popular applications, and explain why they use them.

Understanding hashed file names in iOS backups

When an iTunes or an iCloud backup is performed for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, important data is saved into various files within the backup folder.

The filenames are encoded so they appear as strings of letters and numbers if you access the backup folder, using what is known as a hex-encoded SHA-1 hash. In many versions of the iPhone operating system the same names are used.

Here are some of the core SQLite database files found in the iTunes backup folder. The file names are the same for both iTunes and iCloud backups.

iOS 16, 15 and 14 iPhone backup file locations

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Reminders	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.sqlite	ca3bc056d4da0bbf88b5fb3be254f3b7147e639c
Notes	NoteStore.sqlite	4f98687d8ab0d6d1a371110e6b7300f6e465bef2
Call history	call_history.db	2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca
Call history	CallHistory.storedata	5a4935c78a5255723f707230a451d79c540d2741
Locations	consolidated.db	4096c9ec676f2847dc283405900e284a7c815836
Web history	History.db	1a0e7afc19d307da602ccdcece51af33afe92c53
Voicemail	voicemail.db	992df473bbb9e132f4b3b6e4d33f72171e97bc7a
Photos	Photos.sqlite	12b144c0bd44f2b3dffd9186d3f9c05b917cee25
Wallpaper (home screen)	HomeBackground.cpbitmap	b97b0c3bc8a6bb221d0849b450fbd92b5d06a301
Wallpaper (lock screen)	LockBackground.cpbitmap	86736007d0166a18c646c567279b75093fc066fe

iOS 13, 12 and 11 iPhone backup file locations

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Reminders	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.sqlite	ca3bc056d4da0bbf88b5fb3be254f3b7147e639c
Notes	NoteStore.sqlite	4f98687d8ab0d6d1a371110e6b7300f6e465bef2
Call history	call_history.db	2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca
Call history	CallHistory.storedata	5a4935c78a5255723f707230a451d79c540d2741
Locations	consolidated.db	4096c9ec676f2847dc283405900e284a7c815836
Web history	History.db	e74113c185fd8297e140cfcf9c99436c5cc06b57
Voicemail	voicemail.db	992df473bbb9e132f4b3b6e4d33f72171e97bc7a
Photos	Photos.sqlite	12b144c0bd44f2b3dffd9186d3f9c05b917cee25
Wallpaper (home screen)	HomeBackground.cpbitmap	b97b0c3bc8a6bb221d0849b450fbd92b5d06a301
Wallpaper (lock screen)	LockBackground.cpbitmap	86736007d0166a18c646c567279b75093fc066fe

iOS 10, 9, 8 and 7 iPhone backup file locations

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Reminders	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.sqlite	ca3bc056d4da0bbf88b5fb3be254f3b7147e639c
Call history	call_history.db	2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca
Call history	CallHistory.storedata	5a4935c78a5255723f707230a451d79c540d2741
Locations	consolidated.db	4096c9ec676f2847dc283405900e284a7c815836
Photos	Line.sqlite	2d711a1f5613f5259730b98328a3f7e816698f88

The paths to the WhatsApp, Snapchat, Kik, Viber and WeChat databases are mentioned in the table below. These filenames are available for iOS 8 and 9 but have different names for the older versions of iOS.

Chat app	Stored to	Backup filename
WhatsApp	App Domain/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp/, Documents/ChatStorage.sqlite	1b6b187a1b60b9ae8b720c79e2c67f472bab09c0, 275ee4a160b7a7d60825a46b0d3ff0dcdb2fbc9d, 7c7fba66680ef796b916b067077cc246adacf01d
Snapchat	App Domains/com.toyopagroup.picaboo/, Documents/chats.plist (private messages) or stories.plist (public snaps)	1cd3cd2b412f7b045dd479b617cb2a4f99ffdfee, 7cdb9af6c5352b97cc0f87369df43c49a45c99f3
Kik	App Domain/group.com.kik.chat/, cores/private/…/kik.sqlite	8e281be6657d4523710d96341b6f86ba89b56df7
Viber	App Domain/com.viber/, Documents/Contacts.data	b39bac0d347adfaf172527f97c3a5fa3df726a3a
WeChat	App Domain/com.tencent.xin/, Documents/DB/MM.sqlite	(Varies dynamically)
Line	Photos.sqlite	12b144c0bd44f2b3dffd9186d3f9c05b917cee25

iOS 6 iPhone backup filenames

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Reminders	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.sqlite	ca3bc056d4da0bbf88b5fb3be254f3b7147e639c
Call history	call_history.db	2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca
Locations	consolidated.db	Removed from iTunes backup, not iOS

iOS 5 iPhone backup filenames

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Reminders	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.sqlite	ca3bc056d4da0bbf88b5fb3be254f3b7147e639c
Call history	call_history.db	2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca
Locations	consolidated.db	Removed from iTunes backup, not iOS

iOS 4 iPhone backups filenames

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.sqlite	ca3bc056d4da0bbf88b5fb3be254f3b7147e639c
Call history	call_history.db	2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca
Locations	consolidated.db	4096c9ec676f2847dc283405900e284a7c815836

iOS 3 and 2 iPhone backup filenames

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858
Notes	notes.db	740b7eaf93d6ea5d305e88bb349c8e9643f48c3b
Call history	call_history.db	ff1324e6b949111b2fb449ecddb50c89c3699a78

iOS 1 iPhone backup filenames

Contents	Real filename	Backup filename
SMS	sms.db	3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
Contacts	AddressBook.sqlitedb	adb8c77534444e97c31ff15924d50f3ed1fbd3b1
Calendar	Calendar.sqlitedb	14ee8cdc3e6e0220399ff210246e1c92b7df89a0
Notes	notes.db	740b7eaf93d6ea5d305e88bb349c8e9643f48c3b
Call history	call_history.db	a49bfab36504be1bf563c1d1813b05efd6076717

As you’ve seen, it’s rather difficult to work with files named like this. If you'd like an easier way to tell what's in your iTunes or iCloud backup, we provide a tool that does all this decoding for you. Take a look at iPhone Backup Extractor.

Understanding expert mode and iOS domains

When building apps for iOS, authors have a number of decisions to make around how and where they store data. (We’ve written separately on the trade-offs app authors face in deciding where to store user data.) The best way to explore and build familiarity where each app stores its files in iOS is to use the free edition of iPhone Backup Extractor. If you load it up, select a backup in the left-hand navigation menu, and then choose “Expert Mode” from the main part of the screen, you’ll be presented with a list of around 18 folders, likely beginning with “Application Groups”. Strictly speaking, these top-level groupings are known as “Domains”.

Many domains are only tangentially used by apps. For instance, the “Keyboard” domain may have some data from third-party keyboards, but not from regular apps.

Some domains -- such as “Media” and “Camera Roll” -- are used heavily by the built-in Messages and Camera apps. However, it’s the “Application Groups” and “Applications” domains that we’re most interested in when tracking down data from third-party apps.

What’s in a namespace?

If you expand the “Applications” domain to list the folders it contains, you’ll see a number of strangely named folders. Here’s an example:

• com.apple.Health
• com.burbn.instagram
• com.facebook.Messenger
• snapchat.picaboo
• com.spotify.client

These folders are the primary place for an app to store its data, and they’re usually named using the same format. Back in 1996, Sun Microsystems published a programming language named Java. Java’s documentation laid out a way for third-party software publishers to publish their software without it conflicting with other authors' software. The trick was to take the name of the company’s site -- such as apple.com -- and to reverse it, before adding the name of the product. Thus, Apple’s Health app falls under com.apple.Health, and iPhone Backup Extractor rightly belongs under com.reincubate.iPhoneBackupExtractor. These names became known as “namespaces”, and Sun published a number of additional rules for them.

Apple adopted this as a best practice when designing iOS. Of course, the naming standard is only a guideline. As you can see in the example of Snapchat (snapchat.picaboo), not everyone plays by the same rules. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but consistency can be helpful when one is trying to recover data!

In some cases, an app’s namespace can reveal an interesting historical quirk. Instagram’s namespace is com.burbn.instagram because, well… back in 2010, Instagram was known as Burbn.

Where do popular iOS apps store their data?

The following table shows the namespaces for a number of popular iOS apps. Don’t forget, iPhone Backup Extractor has this list built into it (and it knows about the changes between different versions of the apps, and of iOS), so it always knows where to look when assisting you with recovering iOS data.

App	iOS namespace
Facebook	com.facebook.Facebook, com.facebook.Messenger
Instagram	com.burbn.instagram
Snapchat	snapchat.picaboo
Messages	Home/Library/SMS
Spotify	com.spotify.client
Pinterest	pinterest
Skype	com.skype.skype
Shazam	com.shazam.Shazam

If you’d like to know where a particular app stores its data, and it’s not on this list, why not tweet us @reincubate? We’ll let you know. 👩‍🔬

How do iOS apps store their data, and how can it be read?

App authors are free to store data in whichever format they like in their applications. Users of iPhone Backup Extractor will tend to run across three formats if hunting for data manually in their backups:

• XML Plists
• Binary Plists
• SQLite databases

Both XML and binary Plists are often identified by having the “.plist” file extension. However, many other extensions can also indicate a file being a Plist, such as “.cookies”. Plist is an abbreviation of “Property list” and they are Apple’s preferred file format for storing a collection of simple data. XML Plists can usually be read by eye, as they are stored in plain text, but binary Plists aren’t normally understandable if plainly viewed.

Fortunately, the free edition of iPhone Backup Extractor has a Plist viewer and editor built-in: choose “View/Edit Plist” from the File menu, and you’ll be able to examine the contents of any Plist file. Alternately, in Expert mode, users can right-click on a file and choose “View as Plist”.

SQLite databases are what you might expect: collections of structured data. They are often indicated by “.db” or “.sqlite3” file extensions. These files can’t be read without a special editor, but iPhone Backup Extractor has the technology to query them for you.

What does each domain contain in an iPhone backup?

iOS backup domain	Data found in this domain
Application Groups	Data stored here by apps is able to be shared slightly more freely on the device. Many applications will store a small amount of data here, but rarely will you see valuable content.
Application Plugins	Apps that store data here usually do so as part of an iOS extension. That may be as a Watch plugin, a third-party keyboard, a widget, a sharing extension, or an Animoji. This domain rarely contains user data.
Applications	This is the core domain for apps to store user data on an iPhone. Each app has its own namespace, as described in the “What’s in a namespace?” section above.
Camera Roll	The camera roll domain includes all photos, videos and metadata stored on an iOS device. If the device is configured to “Optimise Storage”, and not to store all photos locally, this domain may contain less information than one expects.
Databases	Little information is stored here on modern installs of iOS.
Health	HealthKit and medical data is stored in the Health domain, along with activity data being shared with a paired Apple Watch.
Home	The Home domain is a goldmine of information for many of Apple’s built-in applications, such as Messages, Notes and Calendar.
HomeKit	This domain stores a limited amount of information on the state of Apple HomeKit configuration.
Install	The Install domain contains metadata to indicate which built-in Apple apps are installed on the iOS device.
Keyboard	Language and keyboard configuration is stored in this domain.
Keychain	The iOS device’s keychain (a collection of user passwords) is stored here, in a SQLite file.
Managed Preferences	This domain contains data around the management of the iOS device. If your device is enrolled in an MDM (mobile device management) program, perhaps by your school or employer, some metadata will be stored here.
Media	Many types of media are stored under this domain. For instance, users will find attachments to SMS messages, recordings, and PhotoStream data here.
Root	The root domains contains fundamental configuration files for the setup of the iOS device.
System Containers	The system containers domain contains limited metadata from the App Store app, and some other iOS processes.
System Preferences	This domain contains low-level information on an iOS device’s status. For instance, you can learn about its networking configuration, or about the wi-fi networks or VPNs it has recently connected to.
System Shared Containers	Some iOS system processes which can share data across iOS store their data here. It is a good place to start when looking to learn more about Bluetooth activity on a device, for instance.
Wireless	The wireless domain contains a rich set of information on iOS’s use of cellular and wi-fi networks, and of its recent IP address assignations.

What to do next

Why not download iPhone Backup Extractor, or read more about Reincubate and how we help customers around the world recover their data?

If you’d like to learn more about iOS or iPhone Backup Extractor, this site has a rich set of guides and articles on making the most of your data. A good place to start might be our article on what is and isn't stored in a backup. Our support centre contains a number of additional knowledge-base pieces with answers to frequently asked questions.