How To Save iChat Messages Text and Attachments in OS X Mountain Lion
By Clifford P
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.
iChat Messages Preferences Save History
Step 2: Go to the Archive folder
Open Finder. In the menu bar, click on “Go” and click “Go to Folder…”.
Mac OS X Go to Folder – Shift Command G
Type in ~/Library/Messages/Archive and click the “Go” button.
iChat Messages Go To Archive Folder
This command will take you directly to the iChat/Messages Archive folder in the current Finder window.
iChat Messages Archive
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.
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.
iChat Messages Preferences Save History
Step 2: Go to the Archive folder
Open Finder. In the menu bar, click on “Go” and click “Go to Folder…”.
Mac OS X Go to Folder – Shift Command G
Type in ~/Library/Messages/Archive and click the “Go” button.
iChat Messages Go To Archive Folder
This command will take you directly to the iChat/Messages Archive folder in the current Finder window.
iChat Messages Archive
Step 3: Backup
Now that you’re in the right location, you have a few options:
iChat Messages Attachments Filter Just Images