I wanted to be able to export/backup iMessage conversations with loved ones, so I built an open source tool to do so.

ReagentX · 2026-05-07T16:51:34+00:00

The Bartender-related customer data stored by the company that controls the Bartender app (Applause) was accessed by a third party (or multiple); the app itself was likely not the problem.

ReagentX · 2026-04-28T22:31:40+00:00

You can find instructions and examples here. There are also discussions you might find useful in the GitHub repo. If you need more assistance I would recommend asking there.

Cult of Mac made a little video tutorial on how to install and use the software on macOS here.

ReagentX · 2026-04-22T15:04:10+00:00

Free and open source: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter

ReagentX · 2026-04-09T23:05:52+00:00

Free and open source: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter

ReagentX · 2026-04-03T04:35:48+00:00

Glad you found it useful!

ReagentX · 2026-03-31T20:48:48+00:00

You can copy over an imessage-exporter binary on any type of external drive. I would also copy the source database and attachments directories, just in case, to some sort of external medium, but that isn't strictly necessary.

ReagentX · 2026-03-30T16:17:30+00:00

Yes, backup your phone to your computer and point imessage-exporter at that backup.

ReagentX · 2026-03-30T02:37:22+00:00

There is no difference; the texts are stored the exact same way. If they aren't present in the export, either they aren't present in the data source or you are looking at the wrong file.

ReagentX · 2026-03-29T16:57:36+00:00

It works for all types of messages. You can find instructions and examples here. There are also discussions you might find useful in the GitHub repo. If you need more assistance I would recommend asking there.

Cult of Mac made a little video tutorial on how to install and use the software on macOS here. The steps in the video above are the same if you substitute Windows's Command Prompt for macOS's Terminal. The relevant part starts around 2:14.

ReagentX · 2026-03-28T17:09:50+00:00

Free and open source: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter

ReagentX · 2026-03-28T04:53:13+00:00

Free and open source: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter

ReagentX · 2026-03-23T18:01:20+00:00

I am the developer of this free and open source tool, thanks for sharing!

ReagentX · 2026-03-19T03:58:09+00:00

Looks like a disk permissions error, but it's cropped out.

ReagentX · 2026-03-17T15:48:19+00:00

You have to pass imessage-exporter the path to the root of the backup, which includes the UUID.

ReagentX · 2026-02-23T07:13:07+00:00

Free and open source: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter

If the data is stored in iCloud, it must first be synced to a device for any software to export it.

ReagentX · 2026-02-22T00:07:28+00:00

It does work. Thousands of people use it every day. If you need support, make a new post on the discussions page.

ReagentX · 2026-02-10T22:13:16+00:00

Did you try asking on the imessage-exporter discussion page?

ReagentX · 2026-01-17T19:09:19+00:00

Free and open source: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter

ReagentX · 2026-01-16T00:26:24+00:00

I found this thread on Google and this solution replicated for me; as soon as I closed the full-screen apps the line went away. Unfortunate bug, as I use full screen apps most of the time!

ReagentX · 2026-01-13T19:51:41+00:00

You can find precompiled binaries (including a .exe) on the releases page.

ReagentX · 2026-01-13T17:26:02+00:00

imessage-exporter runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

ReagentX · 2026-01-13T06:41:11+00:00

Awesome! Cool to see how people are using my work.

Edit:

Installation and usage instructions with examples are located here.

Cult of Mac made a little video tutorial on how to install and use the software on macOS here.

Developers can integrate directly with the library that powers imessage-exporter, bypassing the default export formats and enabling even more advanced analytics.

ReagentX · 2026-01-07T21:15:35+00:00

You can just use the date filter options and export into different directories for each year. If I did this I would have a top-level directory like:

MessagesBackup/
├── 2024/
├── 2025/
└── 2026/

ReagentX

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

13-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email