Exporting Mac iMessages

Question

Level 1

3 points

Exporting Mac iMessages

Hey all! I have a quick question regarding "messages" for Mac. I browsed the site & didn't really find an answer to my particular question. I want to know if I can export messages from my [OSX iMessage app].

Here's the deal, I recently got a new phone & lost the iMessages that had been sent & exchanged from it. I didn't want to do a restore from backup, but I did lose some messages. Thankfully these are still stored in the "Messages" app on my mac.

I was just wondering if there was some way to export or save the iMessages that are on my computer, for archival reasons. I have found endless tutorials and suggestions on how to retrieve them from a phone, but not necessarily on my computer itself.

Thanks in advance! Any and all input is welcomed 🙂

iPad 2, iOS 5

Posted on Jul 15, 2013 12:01 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Ralph-Johns-UK

Level 9

76,789 points

Jan 17, 2017 1:53 PM in response to ZinWarrior

Hi,

As it has been raised.

Later versions have the Save Folder in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Messages/Archive

The Archive folder itself saves Chats and Conversations is sessions (mainly by date but if your quit and restart a chat part may be in two folders of the same date).

The database items in ~/Library/Messages now keep a summary of these saved chats and help with displaying them as the "history" to a current Chat (AIM or Jabber/Google) or Conversation (iMessages)

9:53 pm Tuesday; January 17, 2017

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Sierra)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone 6 iOS 10.x and an iPad (2)

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 17, 2017 8:21 AM in response to tfrigoli

I am on Mac Sierra as of course this post is a little dated.

On Messages, choose the Print function.

Lower left hand corner select click the drop down menu where it states PDF.

Select Open PDF in Preview.

Select File and Export as PDF.

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 15, 2013 2:24 PM in response to tfrigoli

Hi,

In previous version (iChat) there have been different forms of Save Chats.

These were saved in the Users/(your account)/Documents/iChats (Or ~/Documents/iChats for short)

In Mountain Lion this has changed

They are in ~/Library/Messages/Archive

~/ means the Home Folder of the Logged in User.

In Mountain Lion this Library Folder (and it's contents) is Hidden.

Go to the Finder > Go Menu and Hold the ALT key down to see the Library item appear.

Select this and navigate to the Messages Folder.

The Chat.db item is a data base of all iMessages conversations

The Archive folder will hold dated folders if you have Save on closing Conversation in Messages Menu > Preferences > Messages pane.

If you have left the main Messages window open with the same chats in them then some Dated folders may in fact be blank if there was no new chat on that day.

Just having the chats in Messages and On display does not "Save" them.

10:24 PM Monday; July 15, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply