How To Save iChat Messages Text and Attachments in OS X Mountain Lion

Whether for fun or documentation purposes, you may want to save your iChat / Messages app history. Here’s how to:

Step 1: Enable History

Make sure Messages app is setup to save your history.

Step 2: Go to the Archive folder

Open Finder. In the menu bar, click on “Go” and click “Go to Folder…”.

Type in ~/Library/Messages/Archive and click the “Go” button.

This command will take you directly to the iChat/Messages Archive folder in the current Finder window.

Step 3: Backup

Now that you’re in the right location, you have a few options:

• Create a full backup
  • Right click the Messages folder
  • Click Compress “Messages”
  • Move the created .zip file to your desired backup storage location
• Find the one or few items you’re specifically looking for and copy/paste or compress
• Navigate to the Attachments folder (located in the Messages folder, alongside the Archive folder — see previous screenshot) to browse for image and other attachment files
  • To filter for all attachments (since they’re nested pretty deeply), type Command+F, click Search: “Attachments”, and specify Kind is Image.