Ever since I upgraded to Lion, I've noticed that a lot of my older iChat logs are no longer readable. Won't work with Quick Look, as they used to, and when I try to open them, iChat claims the files are corrupted. I have another laptop with an earlier version of the OS on it and the files read just fine, even in Quick Look. Anyone know of an app available to read older iChat logs in Lion?
MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.4GHz, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
You're welcome.
7:35 p.m. Wednesday; July 22, 2015
Hi,
This is the first post I have seen on this subject.
Were these Saved Chats on this computer when it was running Snow Leopard ?
Go to your Home Folder/Documents/iChats (Or wherever you store your chats)
Highlight one that is older and then use Get Info (Finder's File Menu or Keystrokes CMD + i Keys together)
In the bottom section about Ownership and Permissions does your Shortname appear ?
Do you have Read and Write Permissions ?
If you open the Padlock and then click the cogwheel looking icon at the very bottom is the "Make shortname (me) the Owner" Greyed out ? (If it is then you Own it).
Higher up does it say they should be opened by iChat ?
Do you have a Time Machine Back up of these Chats ?
Can you open these ?
8:47 PM Monday; September 5, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously
Thanks for the quick response, Ralph.
Here are the answers to your questions:
These are all chats that were automatically logged through iChat. The more recent ones (from Snow Leopard, Leopard and Tiger) seem to read fine. It's the older saved chats that are no longer readable. This is back when the iChat logs had the extension ".chat" instead of ".ichat."
Yes, I have permission to read and write the files.
Yes, I am the owner.
Yes, it says to open it with iChat as the default app.
I do have a Time Machine backup of the chats but I cannot open them.
Finally, just for the heck of it, I attempted to change the extension to ".ichat." It didn't work.
Hi,
It seems they do not open in Leopard iChat 4 either - if opened as files
I have chats dated back to 2004 with the .chat ending.
Trying to open them directly says I can't run this App on this computer (Presumably it is trying to launch an earlier version of iChat which I have on another Boot drive)
If I launch iChat and drag the File to the DOCK Icon then the file will open.
I am not sure Logorrhea will work in Lion.
The Last update to it was in 2006 when it was written in Universal Binary (might work).
(it says 10.2 and Higher in the blurb on the page)
If I then Quit iChat and use the Right Click on the Chat file it says it is supposed to be opened with iChat 3.1.9 but offers me every version I have and I can open it with ichat 4.0.9 from there.
Does yours work this way ?
(The Info Panel just says iChat.app)
8:22 PM Tuesday; September 6, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously
I tried everything you suggested. Unfortunately, they didn't work. I only have one version of iChat on my machine, so that may be the difference. When I look at the default, it just says "iChat.app (default)." Doesn't list a version number.
I tried Logorrhea before, since I used to use it. Logorrhea was not able to read the files either.
I have Snow Leopard (10.6.6) on my machine at work and it can read the files without any problem.
I'm hoping Apple releases an update that fixes this problem. At the very least, some kind of converter app would be helpful.
Thanks again for your help.
Hi,
I am still a little surprised that iChat 6 cannot open them.
I can use the current iChat I use every day to Open the Saved then the Save Copy from the File menu to create new .iChat ending one.
(I had to do a second Save as it was set to another Drive)
For me it is only those files from August 2004 to May 1st 2005 and is only about 100 chats
Mass opening is the easy bit but I do not know enough about Automator to do a mass Save Copy. (or even AppleScript)
8:46 PM Wednesday; September 7, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously
I'm having the same problem as well.
Some of my old chat files open and some say they're corrupt: "The chat transcript could not be opened. This file appears to be corrupted and can’t be opened." but some of them open fine. They're all from 2005 and they have the old .chat extension and even if I change them to .ichat, I still get the same error.
Has anyone figured out a way to restore them?
Thanks!
HI,
http://spiny.com/logorrhea/ will open those Chats that are olde and that a newer version of iChat says the file is corrupt.
If you use the "export" function all the chats are converted in to one long .txt (Text Edit) document.
I am not sure what the Convert option was supposed to do.
If you have lots of Chats I would move them around (leave only the ones you want to work with) as Logorrhea automatically finds the Chats folders and lists all chats by Buddy name.
7:54 PM Wednesday; January 25, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously
Thanks!
So I downloaded Logorrhea, opened it up and nothing happens. I know it's supposed to automatically find chat logs, but the window is empty. Do I need to put the saved chat files somewhere specific? I went to the site to see if perhaps it's user error, but there isn't a guide or FAQ or anything.
Any ideas?
HI,
Saved Transcripts (As set in iChat menu > Preferences > Messages) are placed in a folder called iChats in the Documents folder of your Home Folder.
Long path:- Hard Drive/Users/(your account)/Documents/iChats
Within this folder in iChat 4 and onwards there are sub-folders with each new day a chat is made getting a new folder. (no chat to anyone on a specific day means no folder - multiple chats on the same day are in the same folder)
I just launched Logorrhea again and it found the Chats I have stored.
I know that iChat can allow you to "move" or rather create a link to another folder somewhere else to use to save the chats.
I am not sure this will then work with Logorrhea as there seems to be no way to set it to look elsewhere for a folder called iChats.
7:44 PM Wednesday; February 8, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously
Thanks!
I put the folders I had saved into Drive/Users/(your account)/Documents/iChats and they showed up in Logorrhea. I'll need to rename almost all of the files so that they show up chronologically, but I can read them now! It woud be great if Logorrhea had some filtering capability, like date created/modified, but this is a great start. Thanks so much!
HI,
I noted that in the earlier post as I have Chats going back to 2004.
I suggested that you might want to move all of them out of the iChats folder and move back just the ones you want Logorrhea to deal with.
If you have lots of Chats I would move them around (leave only the ones you want to work with) as Logorrhea automatically finds the Chats folders and lists all chats by Buddy name.
9:14 PM Wednesday; February 8, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously
I came searching the Apple discussions for a solution to opening old iChat logs and the Logorrhea app worked beautifully for me.
As others had found, my old iChat logs from 2004 became "corrupted" after I upgraded from 10.6. There were a lot of chats with my daughter from her first semester at college and I didn't want to lose those, so appreciate the suggestion to use Logorrhea! (I actually stopped using iChat after 2004 and have been using Adium ever since on my computer).
Thanks so much!
iChat 6 won't read old iChat logs
