Working on PC / Windows

[dennis-leeyinghui]

Hi everyone, I want to say thank you to the creator of imessage-exporter tool @ReagentX.

Also, if you are a novice like me, using a PC / Windows, and would like to use this tool to back up imessages, it's easy:

1. Use iTunes to backup the iPhone without encryption
2. Follow the instructions on installation and execution of imessage-exporter
3. Run imessage-exporter, using the -p flag to point to the root of the backup directory
4. The backed up messages will be exported to the default location (C:\Users<username>\imessage_export)

[ReagentX]

Cheers! You don't actually need to navigate to any folders inside of the iOS backup. From the docs:

-p, --db-path <path/to/source>
        Specify an optional 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

Further, you can manually specify the database type, though this is often not necessary:

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

Ideally, you should only point imessage-exporter to the root of an iOS backup, not to the database file itself. Doing so may lead to data loss as it may not be detected as an iOS backup. I have edited your post to reflect this so that other people do not get confused.

You can find more examples of how to run imessage-exporter here.

It's worth mentioning that this software should compile to any Rust target. As long as you can provide the relevant files, you can run an export, regardless of platform.

[biasply-casual]

First I want to thank ReagentX for developing this! It's a life saver for my situation.
I'm also a novice coder and have managed to get to a certain point in getting this to work on Windows (10), but I've hit the following error when running ...

C:\Users\STEVE>imessage-exporter -f html -p C:\Users\STEVE\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\dc988cbad65c7b6b65148debc3a7d30895a58abf -o C:\Users\STEVE\Desktop

thread 'main' panicked at C:\Users\STEVE\.cargo\registry\src\index.crates.io-6f17d22bba15001f\imessage-database-1.8.0\src\util\dirs.rs:26:21:
Unable to resolve user home directory: environment variable not found

Am I correct in assuming the cargo environment variable path is not set correctly and that I should set it manually, or should I try reinstalling rust/cargo/etc, or, have I given an incorrect command?

Edit: There appears to be a missing backslash between STEVE and .cargo when I view the post, but when I edit it the backslash is there... I can also confirm it is present in the terminal. Weird display bug!

[ReagentX]

I fixed this in #262 just now! If anyone was interested in why, we called home() when the Options constructor ran on this line:

imessage-exporter/imessage-exporter/src/app/options.rs

Line 338 in 915cd1a

.help(format!("Specify an optional custom path for the iMessage database location\nFor macOS, specify a path to a `chat.db` file\nFor iOS, specify a path to the root of an unencrypted backup directory\nIf omitted, the default directory is {}\n", default_db_path().display()))

[biasply-casual]

LMAO! My timing is perfect!
I'll un-/re-install and try again.
Thanks!

[ShiningN1ght]

After reading, following, reading again, and executing, I've gotten your wonderful application working in Windows 11, except with this error:

No HEIC converter found, attachments will not be converted!

Is there a command-line converter that needs to be in the folder for this to work? I appreciate your work on this. With a bit of work and common sense, it does for free what so many seemingly identical apps want US$40 or more to do. As a side-note, I found your utility via reddit/iphone.

[ShiningN1ght]

If useful, my command line is: >imessage-exporter.exe -p . -o .\exported-messages --format html

I have the compiled application in the root folder of the backup, for simplicity. I've tried a couple different versions of the -c, but no difference.

[ReagentX]

For -c compatible you have to have a supported converter installed on your system. Currently imessage-exporter supports sips (macOS default) and convert (ImageMagick):

imessage-exporter/imessage-exporter/src/app/converter.rs

Lines 33 to 45 in 915cd1a

	impl Converter {
	/// Determine the converter type for the current shell environment
	pub fn determine() -> Option<Converter> {
	if exists("sips") {
	return Some(Converter::Sips);
	}
	if exists("convert") {
	return Some(Converter::Imagemagick);
	}
	eprintln!("No HEIC converter found, attachments will not be converted!");
	None
	}
	}

The error means that we cannot convert files, however -c efficient will still copy attachments to your export directory. The error gets logged when you run because imessage-exporter checks if it can convert files when you launch it.

---

Edit: compatible and efficient have been renamed, see the documentation for examples and instructions.

[ShiningN1ght]

Thank you, ReagentX. I haven't used Imagemagick in years. This should be fun. Is it still just a drop-in executable?

EDIT: I have the IM executable. Does imessage-exporter look for a particular file name for it? Does it need to be in a particular location? Is there an addition launch argument?

[ReagentX]

When you install ImageMagick make sure to include the convert command:

Per the docs:

The "magick" command is the new primary command of the Shell API, replacing the old "convert" command.

imessage-exporter does not support this at the moment, but it should. I am tracking this in #263.

[dexteon]

Thank you! Is there any way you can add this to the github home for us windows users? It took me awhile to realized i had to WSL to run the cargo commands. Not going to tell you how long it took me to figure out how to get an imessage database lol. Awesome program btw

[ReagentX]

You don't need to use WSL, I've tested and used imessage-exporter on a vanilla Windows installation.

What do you mean by GitHub home?

[TrevorMay]

Has anyone here had luck getting the tool to export the imessage attachments (like photos and videos) as well?

[ReagentX]

Attachments are supported; how are you running the app and what is the source you are extracting the data from?

[TrevorMay]

Haha of course right after I comment, I realize I did the same thing above. I pointed it to the db not the root of the backup
Holy cow though thank you for the fast response and for this amazing application!
You're saving me money on iCloud and/or an iMazing license at a time every dollar counts. :)