Saving iChat IMs - what gets saved & where?

Question

Saving iChat IMs - what gets saved & where?

I was looking for information that I received in an IM this past week and when I went to look for the saved IMs - I could only find a few. I thought all IMs saved as default, or are only ones that I initiated saved? Or maybe I am looking in the wrong place. I found the random saved messages in user>myname>documents>iChats. I IM to several family members each day, so should have a huge folder of saved IMs!
Geraldine

iMac G4, MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.4), 8GB iPhone

Posted on Feb 22, 2009 7:35 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 22, 2009 9:13 AM in response to Geraldine Dwyer1

Hi,

The Setting is in iChat menu > Preferences > Messages (Save iChat Transcripts)

The Place is the one you have found (Users/(your account)/Documents/iChats
In Leopard they are also in Dated Folders if Auto Saved.

If you did not hit the save Key or use the Save Menu item in the File Menu than you can not get them back (Unless your Buddy kept a Copy)

Pictures sent during chats that you want to keep have to be dragged to the Desktop then can not be "grabbed" out of saved Transcripts.

5:12 PM Sunday; February 22, 2009

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Answer 2

Feb 22, 2009 12:42 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Ralph - thanks - that solved it - that box was not ticked in preferences. Do not know how some random messages did end up in that folder.
Geraldine

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Answer 3

Feb 22, 2009 12:53 PM in response to Geraldine Dwyer1

It is not so much as being random but the pre-set default place to Create the folder and put the chats if you save them Manually or by setting the "Save Transcripts" option.

You are supposed to be able to change it similar to a Save As function and select a folder in advance of your choice.
I have never bothered with this to be able to comment on it.

Thanks for the Points.

8:52 PM Sunday; February 22, 2009

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Answer 4

Feb 22, 2009 12:54 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Ralph,
I was just cleaning out some old folders and one IM had photos in it - it was from Jan '08 and I was still able to drag the photos onto the desktop and view them thru Preview. Not sure if that would be true for all old IMs, but it did work for this one.
G.

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Answer 5

Feb 22, 2009 1:20 PM in response to Geraldine Dwyer1

Hi Geraldine,

Interesting.

I used to try with ichat 2 and iChat 3 and can not remember if I have tried it with iChat 4

It may be a change within the Application's software.

After some random testing I found I can pull my own pictures for 2004 iChats and at least one I found as an incoming pic from around the same time.

I also tried some that were marked as File downloads in the chats and they seem to be stored in /Private/Var somewhere. (it's a support sort of folder that is Hidden normally)

I shall remember this. Thanks for the heads up.

9:20 PM Sunday; February 22, 2009

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