Past iMessage Conversations Missing

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Level 1

11 points

Past iMessage Conversations Missing

Hey,

I just noticed that all but old iMessage conversations are missing from my iMessage on my MacBook Pro. This is frustrating because I have around 9 years of iMessages saved. The earliest iMessage I have saved dates back to 01/23/2019, around the time I updated to Mojave. It is updating new conversations that take place in my iPhone so it is synching new conversations. I could re-synch my messages from my iPhone to my iMessage on my MBP but the past conversations saved from my older iPhone from years ago will not be there. I also do not utilize time machine of iCloud for my iMessages or MBP. What happened to my iMessages? Can I get them back?!

MacBook Pro 13", 10.14

Posted on Feb 16, 2019 1:34 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 11, 2019 10:44 PM in response to Neodc

With so little details, it is hard to say exactly what happened to all of your old messages from years ago. However, there is at least a way to determine if those old messages are even still on your hard drive. What you need to do is navigate on your hard drive via the Finder -- or else use the "Go" menu and the "Go to Folder" option -- to go here:

~/Library/Messages

Inside that main "Messages" folder, you will find a variety of subfolders, the first one of which is called "Archive". All of the subfolders inside of the "Archive" folder are dated, so you will be able to quickly tell how far back your messages go.

To find out the actual contents of each archive, just double-click it, and the archive will launch the Messages app, and show a separate window containing the contents of that particular archive.

If this info has been helpful to you, and/or resolved your issue, please let me know. Thanks! :)

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Answer 2

Mar 12, 2019 12:58 AM in response to Neodc

Hi Neo. I've had a similar issue in the past. The article below helped me fixing it. The issue could be caused by multiple reasons. I advise you to go though each of the possible causes described on the article.

https://www.imobie.com/support/iphone-text-messages-imessages-disappeared.htm

Having said that, in my particular case the issue was that I had the "delete messages after X days" option enabled. I simply changed that setting and the issue went away

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Answer 3

Neodc Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 12, 2019 12:00 AM in response to WordWeaver777

Yup it is all there like you said, thank you! However two things:

How did it all get there, why is it not in my iMessages like normal?
How do I get them back into my iMessages with attachments and having all the texts searchable?

Thanks!

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Answer 4

Mar 12, 2019 12:41 AM in response to Neodc

Regarding your first question, I think that the Messages app automatically archives all conversations when you have the "Keep messages" option set to "Forever" on the "General" tab in its preferences. At least that seems to make sense to me. :)

As far as how to get everything back into Messages, I am totally clueless. I found nothing under any of the Messages app's menus, and dragging one of those archives over an open Messages window doesn't work either. In short, I see no way to import the archives back into the app.

But at least I helped you to discover that you still have all of your messages on disk. :)

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Answer 5

Neodc Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 12, 2019 1:07 AM in response to scotty225

@WordWeaver 777

I always had my messages saved in iMessage on my Mac, since 2012, it had to be the update or something of that nature that auto-set the delete or archive of those messages, without even prompting me to make a choice, which is really annoying. Furthermore if there is no way to reload those archived messages back into iMessage (similar to backing up old email accounts and loading the old emails onto a new email account) where I can have the option to search through them for key phrases and see attachments etc., then that is ridiculous. The pop-up message box you get is not functional and is ridiculously cumbersome. Yes it is great I still have the old texts but they are not usable if they aren't able to be placed back in iMessage.

@Scotty255

Thank you but this inquiry is for iMessage on OSX.

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Past iMessage Conversations Missing

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