This dos not apply to the archive folder - it just seems it is tucked away in th Sandboxed area. plists) that is different from the plain route to where they are stored. route is used to Sandbox some of the Apps and provides a Read/Write route to certain items (mostly. These may or may not included your iMessages depending on your Save settings.Īs you probably know the ~/Library/Containers. The Saved Chats are in ~/Library/Containers//Data/Library/Messages/Archive In Yosemite iMessages are stored in one place in chat.db items in ~/Library/Messages. "Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously I have collected iMessages up to two days later on my Mac after using my iPhone on a hotel Wifi whilst away. There is a limited time frame that a device that has been Off (or using a different Apple ID) can Sync conversations that it has not received.
On the iPhone the "Saved" Messages are the ones you don't delete. I have not tried if the Contact is unable to respond - the iMessage tends to have to been Delivered for the process to work. Of course it will not show until you send a Message to a contact. It is this bit that allows you to see the "history" to any iMessages conversation on a Mac. Separate to this iMessages are stored in a chat.db data base that is also in the ~/Library/Messages folder. To access them you have to use the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Folder and enter the Path above into the Dialogue box. In Messages the Saved Messages are saved to ~/Library/Messages/Archive in the same Date and Time format Since iChat 4 the iChats folder has contained Date and Timed folders (if you turn Off iChat then when you tunr it on for a second Session there will be a new folder - otherwise there is only one). IChat through to iChat version 6 stores Saved Chats ( A setting in the Preferences) to a folder in your Home Folder/Document/iChats Open Messages, your old chats should all be there.
DO NOT START THE MESSAGES APP and restart your computerġ0. This step is trickey: Copy all the files that contains "iChat" or "iMessage" from /.path to backup/Library/Preferences/ into the corresponding directory in ~/Library/Prefrencesĩ. Copy /Volumes/Old Macbook Pro/users/name/Library/Message to your ~/Library folderĨ. Copy /Volumes/Old Macbook Pro/users/name/Library/Containers/ to your ~/Library folderħ. Be sure to remember where you copied them from!Ħ. Find all the files in ~/Library/Preferences that contains the string "iChat" or "iMessage" and cut them into a separate folder. ~/Library/Message -> ~/Library/Message_oldĥ. ~/Library/Containers/ -> ~/Library/Containers/_old Locate the following folders in ~/Library (ON THE NEW MAC): Open a separate Finder window, go to ~/Library (Hold down option and click on Go in Finder)ģ. path to your old home folder/Library (For me it is on a removeable disk so I had to do Finder-> Go -> Go to Folder-> type in "/Volumes/Old Macbook Pro/users/name/Library"Ģ. Your new Macbook Pro, cleanly installed.ġ.
Your Time Machine back up of ~/Library/ or your old computer that you want to port the chat history from.Ģ. (Recovered my iChat history/iMessage history on my Mac from my old backup files)ġ.