(The files have the contact’s name, the date, and then the 24-hour-clock time stamp from that particular slice.)Īttachments, such as photos or any other files sent via Messages to another party, are also saved when you opt to keep transcripts. Double-click a file, and it will open in Messages as a view-only conversation.
ichat file format as its predecessor did. Any contact may have multiple files split up across a day by time, as well. Messages sticks chat transcripts here, organizing them into folders by date within those folders, transcripts are sorted into individual files by contact name. In the Finder, choose Go > Go To Folder and enter ~/Library/Messages/Archive/. You can also examine individual files in the Finder by navigating to the hidden Library folder. (The transcripts preview in Spotlight, but can be far too small to view.) You can then add a contact’s name to your search terms to drill down more precisely. Click that, and the Finder window will show all matching transcripts. In a Finder window, start typing chat in the field the option Chat transcript will appear. You can find the files containing these transcripts with a bit of effort. Command-Shift-G and Find Previous let you reverse direction.įind chat transcripts via Spotlight by picking ‘Chat transcript’ as the file kind. Use Command-G or Edit > Find > Find Next to cycle through matches in the transcripts. Messages applies the term against any contact in the sidebar and all stored history for each contact, and hides contacts for which it finds no match. Search: Click the Search field and type in a term. The Messages app automatically loads previous days and conversation sections as necessary. Scroll back: For a given session-or, with saved transcripts, all sessions ever-you can select a contact in the conversation sidebar and then start scrolling “backward” (upward) to go back in time. You can interact with conversation histories through the Messages sidebar in two ways. For other chat services, such as AOL Instant Messenger, the text recordings are saved only on the machine from which you conducted the chat. If you have set up Messages with Apple’s iMessage system so that it uses the same Apple ID you’re using on other devices and computers, the transcripts of conversations you had on those other devices will also be saved. But that record will be deleted when you close a conversation using the X button that appears when you hover over it with your pointer, or when a conversation is selected and you choose File > Close Conversation.) (If the option is unchecked, quitting the program doesn’t delete all record of a current conversation. Check it, and the app writes all conversations to disk. If this option remains unchecked-its default setting-no transcripts are saved. Under Messages > Preferences in the General view, check Save history when conversations are closed. In iChat, you could set an option to save a transcript for every chat that option is preserved but relocated in Messages.
Entries in this list represent both active chats with a contact (across all the services they may use) and the historical record of those chats, if you’ve chosen to store it. Instead, the app organizes conversations in the main Messages window: In that window (the one labeled Messages), chats appear in a conversation sidebar on the left. The key difference is embedded in the Messages interface: Chats are no longer things that live in their own tabbed pop-up windows.