Binary Documentation

The imessage-exporter binary exports iMessage data to txt or html formats. It can also run diagnostics to find problems with the iMessage database.

Installation

There are several ways to install this software.

Cargo (recommended)

This binary is available on crates.io.

cargo install imessage-exporter is the best way to install the app for normal use.

Uninstall steps

% cargo uninstall message-exporter

Homebrew

This binary is available via brew.

brew install imessage-exporter will install the app, but it may not be up to date with the latest release.

Uninstall steps

% brew uninstall message-exporter

Prebuilt Binaries

The releases page provides prebuilt binaries for both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs.

Uninstall steps

% rm path/to/message-exporter-binary

Installing manually

clone the repository
cd to the repository
cargo run --release to compile

How To Use

```txt -d, --diagnostics Print diagnostic information and exit

-f, --format Specify a single file format to export messages into

-c, --copy-method Specify a method to use when copying message attachments Compatible will convert HEIC files to JPEG Efficient will copy files without converting anything If omitted, the default is disabled

-p, --db-path Specify a custom path for the iMessage database location For MacOS, specify a path to a chat.db file For iOS, specify a path to the root of an unencrypted backup directory If omitted, the default directory is ~/Library/Messages/chat.db

-a, --platform Specify the platform the database was created on If omitted, the platform type is determined automatically

-o, --export-path Specify a custom directory for outputting exported data If omitted, the default directory is ~/imessage_export

-s, --start-date The start date filter. Only messages sent on or after this date will be included

-e, --end-date The end date filter. Only messages sent before this date will be included

-l, --no-lazy Do not include loading="lazy" in HTML export img tags This will make pages load slower but PDF generation work

-m, --custom-name Specify an optional custom name for the database owner's messages in exports

-h, --help Print help information

-V, --version Print version information ```

Examples

Export as html and copy attachments in web-compatible formats from the default iMessage Database location to your home directory:

zsh % imessage-exporter -f html -c compatible

Export as txt and copy attachments in their original formats from the default iMessage Database location to a new folder in the current working directory called output:

zsh % imessage-exporter -f txt -o output -c efficient

Export as txt from the an unencrypted iPhone backup located at ~/iphone_backup_latest to a new folder in the current working directory called backup_export:

zsh % imessage-exporter -f txt -p ~/iphone_backup_latest -a iOS -o backup_export

Export as html from /Volumes/external/chat.db to /Volumes/external/export without copying attachments:

zsh % imessage-exporter -f html -c disabled -p /Volumes/external/chat.db -o /Volumes/external/export

Export messages from 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 as txt from the default MacOS iMessage Database location to ~/export-2020:

zsh % imessage-exporter -f txt -o ~/export-2020 -s 2020-01-01 -e 2021-01-01 -a MacOS

Features

Click here for a full list of features.

Caveats

HTML Exports

In HTML exports in Safari, when referencing files in-place, you must permit Safari to read from the local file system in the Develop menu:

Further, since the files are stored in ~/Library, you will need to grant your browser Full Disk Access in System Settings.

PDF Exports

I could not get PDF export to work in a reasonable way. The best way for a user to do this is to follow the steps above for Safari and print to PDF.

`wkhtmltopdf`

wkhtmltopdf refuses to render local images, even with the flag enabled like so:

rust let mut process = Command::new("wkhtmltopdf") .args(&vec![ "--enable-local-file-access".to_string(), html_path, pdf_path.to_string_lossy().to_string(), ]) .spawn() .unwrap();

This persisted after granting cargo, imessage-exporter, and wkhtmltopdf Full Disk Access permissions as well as after copying files to the same directory as the HTML file.

Browser Automation

There are several chomedriver wrappers for Rust. The ones that use async make this binary too large (over 10mb) and have too many dependencies. The sync implementation in the headless-chrome crate works, but times out when generating large PDFs, even with an extreme timeout.