How can I locate and perform a bulk extraction of accumulated photo and video attachments within each conversation in Apple Messages app? Running macOS Big Sur 11.5.1 on a 2015 MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.4
Actually there is no "Details" link in the upper right corner of the Messages window when I am inside a conversation. There is a small "i" inside a circle up there, that I assume means "information". And when I click that a small window opens with photos as one of three tabs at the bottom. When I click that, it populates the rest of that window (down out of sight below the window's bottom edge) with all the photos. When I click to highlight the first photo, pressing Command-A does NOT highlight the entire group. I have to highlight the first photo, then scroll down to the bottom of the very long series of icons that represent each photo, and press Shift and click the mouse on the last photo...highlights them all. Then I can drag that group over to an open Finder window set to a folder I created for the images.
Hey there!
Thanks for updating us and for clarifying what you wanted to do. The same steps would apply. Once you've selected the photos, instead of deleting them, you can drag them to the desired location you want the photos to appear. If it's a folder or external hard drive, you can drag them there from the "Details" section of the conversation. There isn't a built-in feature that auto syncs those photos to a different location. You'll have to manually drag them once you've selected them.
We hope this information is helpful. Cheers.
Thank you for your prompt reply. I actually do not want to "delete" all of the photos and attachments in Messages. I wrote "extract" which I intended to mean to remove them (in bulk) from Messages in such a way that I can file them elsewhere on my laptop's storage drive. My apologies for not making that clarification.
Hello BigGuy1949.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you'd like to remove photos and videos that are within an iMessage conversations on your Mac. If so, allow us to assist in any way we can. You'll want to open the Messages app, go to the specific conversation you wish to remove photos from. Then select "Details" on the top right corner of the conversation. This will populate photos at the bottom of the "Details" menu. You can select multiple photos by holding down the Command key on your keyboard. If you wish to select all of them, click on the first photo then press Command + A on your keyboard. This will select all the photos and allow you to delete all of them at once. For more information, check out the resource below:
Use Messages with your Mac - Apple Support
We hope this information is useful. Best of luck.
Bulk extraction of photos and videos from Messages on MacBook running macOS Big Sur
