Save a copy of a tag's memory
Memory dump copies a tag's pages into a .bin file and hands that file to the iOS share sheet. It only reads. The tag is the same afterwards. The dump takes one tap of the tag and never asks you to type the tag's UID back.
You need an iPhone with NFC, Hex NFC installed from the App Store and the tag in your hand. If you have not read a tag with the app before, start with Read your first tag. Memory dump lives on the Operations screen. That screen opens from the menu button at the top right of the Tag screen. The steps below scan a tag to get there. Scan a tag covers the scan on its own.
It works on the chips Hex NFC addresses page by page. Those chips are NTAG 210µ, NTAG213, NTAG213 TT, NTAG215, NTAG216, MIFARE Ultralight EV1, MIFARE Ultralight C, EM V10, EM V11 and EM V16. On any other tag the screen shows "This tag does not support that operation."
Tags that work with Hex NFC says how to tell which chip you are holding.
Dump a tag's memory
الخطوة 1Open the scan screen
In Hex NFC, on the home screen, tap Scan. The scan screen opens and begins looking for a tag.
الخطوة 2Hold the tag against your iPhone
Rest the top edge of your iPhone flat on the tag and keep it still for about a second. The Tag screen opens with what the tag holds.
الخطوة 3Open Operations
On the Tag screen, tap the menu button at the top right, the one to the left of Write. The menu holds two rows, Save as preset… and Operations…. Tap Operations….
الخطوة 4Start the dump
Tap Memory dump. The screen opens and starts scanning at once, with no confirmation in between.
الخطوة 5Hold the tag against your iPhone again
Rest the top edge of your iPhone on the tag once more. The status line reads "Hold the tag against the top of your iPhone." while it waits. It changes to "Reading…" once the tag answers. At the end it shows "Memory dump ready." with the number of bytes captured under it.
What the file holds
The file is the chip's memory copied page by page from the first page, 4 bytes to a page, with no header and nothing added. Locked, password-protected and reserved pages are all in it, wherever the chip allows them to be read. Pages the chip refuses to decode are left out rather than asked for. One refused read ends the session and would cost you the rest of the dump. On a MIFARE Ultralight C the copy stops before the last four pages, which hold the chip's key and answer no read at all.
A complete dump is a fixed size for each chip, so the count under "Memory dump ready." tells you whether you got all of it. The Tag screen names the chip at the top of the tag info card. It uses the same words as the first column below. A MIFARE Ultralight EV1 tells you there which of the two sizes it is.
| Chip | Complete dump |
|---|---|
| NTAG 210µ, EM V10, EM V11, EM V16 | 64 bytes |
| NTAG213, NTAG213 TT | 180 bytes |
| NTAG215 | 540 bytes |
| NTAG216 | 924 bytes |
| MIFARE Ultralight EV1 (48b) | 80 bytes |
| MIFARE Ultralight EV1 (128b) | 164 bytes |
| MIFARE Ultralight C | 176 bytes |
Hex NFC writes the file to temporary storage, under a name carrying the date and time of the read. Sharing it is what keeps it. The app has no list of dumps. Nothing on the Tag screen points back to the file. Send it somewhere before you leave the screen.
If the dump does not finish
A failed dump leaves the tag exactly as it was, so there is no cost to reading it again.
To read the same tag again, tap Try again. The screen starts a new scan.
To see what the tag answered, open Diagnostics under the failure message. The text inside can be selected and copied into a bug report.
"This tag does not support that operation." means the chip is not one of those listed at the top of this page. NTAG424 DNA, ICODE SLIX, ICODE SLIX2, the MIFARE DESFire chips and FeliCa all answer that way. The chip support matrix lists what each chip can do.
For a tag that drops out partway through a read, see If a tag does not scan or write. Go there too for a message this page does not cover.