OpenExtract is a free, open-source tool for reading iPhone backups. It exists because the gap between "my data is on my computer" and "I can actually use my data" shouldn't cost $50.
I wanted to get to my own data. Apple supplies no easy way to do that, which — the more I thought about it — seemed both wrong and frustrating. It's my phone. It's my data. There should be a path to it that doesn't involve a subscription or a screenshot.
So I started digging. I'm a retired technologist, 25 years in the industry, and even for me this was not easy or straightforward. iPhone backups are a directory of hex-named blobs indexed by a SQLite manifest, with encryption layered on top and the actual content scattered across domains and app sandboxes. If it's that hard for someone who's spent a career in this, regular people don't stand a chance.
People deserve a free, trustable, easy way to read data they already own. No one else was going to build it the way it should be built — no paywall, no cloud, no account — so I did.
OpenExtract is what came out. It's built on well-documented file formats Apple publishes to their developers — no jailbreaks, no exploits, no magic. Just code that reads a folder and writes files.
An independent developer, with help from contributors who've sent in code and from the people who report bugs and suggest features. The project is maintained in the open on GitHub. Many replies on GitHub issues are written by Claude, an AI assistant, and are marked as such. Pull requests are welcome.
If the tool helped you and you want to give back: say thanks from inside the app (Settings → Say thanks), star it on GitHub, tell a friend, report a bug you've hit, or chip in toward code signing and development. Every feature stays free either way.