Where Does Phone Link Store Messages and Photos?
Phone Link YourPhone package data with photos.db blobs on Windows, and why files stay in SQLite.
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Phone Link keeps synced content as binary blobs inside SQLite databases under its YourPhone package folder, not as plain photos or text files. Thumbnails and message bodies live in phone.db and photos.db under a LocalCache tree.
There is no export button. Recovery means SQLite extraction blob by blob, which is why this post exists alongside the normal usage docs.
Where Phone Link stores this, by platform
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.YourPhone_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Databases under LocalCache/Indexed subfolders (photos.db for images). Package suffix may vary by release; search Packages for YourPhone if missing.
Frequently asked questions
Can I recover full photos from Phone Link after losing my phone?
Sometimes partial: extract media blobs from photos.db with a SQLite tool. Thumbnails usually survive; full originals often never synced.
Where are Phone Link text messages?
In the same database tree as binary records, not text files. The app window remains the only readable viewer for most users.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.