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Restore iMessage conversation from iPhone to MacBook

Hi all!


I deleted a conversation in iMessage on my MacBook - by accident obviously. I still have it on my iPhone. Is there a way to restore it on my MacBook?


Thanks in advance!

iPhone 6, iOS 9.1

Posted on Nov 27, 2015 2:29 AM

Reply
1 reply

Nov 27, 2015 1:04 PM in response to BobTheBrain

Hi,


Short answer.

No.


Long answer.

Technically they become two separate entities.

The iMessages server will "Copy" the original iMessage so that it can send those copies to each device that is registered.

The server then pushes those at the devices until they accept.

There is no link between them at this point. (reading it on one device does not mark another device as read - same for deleting as you have found)


Once delivered then the iMessages are deleted from the server. (Apple don't keep them much to the ire of several governments).


The iPhone can be backed up in iTunes and there are also tools fro extracting the actual text from the stored files in the iPhone data.

However it is not is a suitable form to integrate with Messages on the Mac.


In theory you could use Time Machine to "Restore" the contents of ~/Library/Messages to an older time but that tends to lose more recent iMessages and other chants if you have them.


NOTES.

iMessages is not like Mail where items are Fetched.

They are only Pushed from the Server to the registered devices.

There is no going back to get them as they don't exist as they are deleted once delivered.






User uploaded file

9:04 pm Friday; November 27, 2015


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 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

Restore iMessage conversation from iPhone to MacBook

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