Wrong command?

[Pseptemberpogo]

Hi ReagentX! First of all I want to say thank you for all you do with this project everyone is so thankful for all the time and effort you put into this!

Secondly, I am not sure if it is because I am slow or dumb or both, but I tried so many commands and it wouldnt work. I am trying to figure the correct command to export the full conversation (doesnt matter what format) with attachments to my plugged in external hard drive. Can you please help me and let me know what it is!

Also is there a discord server for this?

[Pseptemberpogo]

UPDATE: the command I tried was

imessage-exporter -f html -c full -o /Volumes/Macbook/iMessage Backups/Kate/ -t "number"

And result was :

Found argument '-c' which wasn't expected, or isn't valid in this context

If you tried to supply `-c` as a value rather than a flag, use `-- -c`

Am I doing something wrong? I am trying to export texts from a certain number to my hard drive folder and have web-compatible format attachments

[ReagentX]

What version of imessage-exporter do you have? What is the output of imessage-exporter -h and imessage-exporter -d?

[Pseptemberpogo]

What version of imessage-exporter do you have? What is the output of imessage-exporter -h and imessage-exporter -d?

I will let you know when i get home in a few hours thanks! In the mean time what would you put if you wanted to :

1. export texts from a certain number in html and compatible attachments exported to my external hard drive

OR

2. Export all texts in html with compatible attachments exported to my external hard drive

[ReagentX]

1. imessage-exporter -f html -c full -t "NUMBER" -o ~/Volumes/DRIVE_NAME
2. imessage-exporter -f html -c full -o ~/Volumes/DRIVE_NAME

[Pseptemberpogo]

It says version is 1.3.0

When i do diagnostics it says

[Pseptemberpogo]

1. imessage-exporter -f html -c full -t "NUMBER" -o ~/Volumes/DRIVE_NAME

2. imessage-exporter -f html -c full -o ~/Volumes/DRIVE_NAME

I just tried the command you suggested and still same issue, I have all attachments for that contact downloaded from icloud to imessage on my mac so i dont know whats the issue

[ReagentX]

1.3.0 is very old—you need to use the instructions provided locally by imessage-exporter -h or the instructions for that version tag.

Support for some of the features you are trying to use were only added in more recent versions, so to use them you will have to update to the latest version.

---

Also, in your commands, you are passing -- -c, you only need -c.

[Pseptemberpogo]

I ran & cargo uninstall imessage-exporter

Than after i reran cargo install imessage-exporter

And I am still on version 1.3.0, how can I update it to most recent version?

EDIT: I just tried to run cargo install imessage-exporter and it gave me an error saying "v2.2.2 is already installed", but if I run the command to check the version, it says i am currently on 1.3.0

[Pseptemberpogo]

1.3.0 is very old—you need to use the instructions provided locally by imessage-exporter -h or the instructions for that version tag.

Support for some of the features you are trying to use were only added in more recent versions, so to use them you will have to update to the latest version.

---

Also, in your commands, you are passing -- -c, you only need -c.

I fixed it! I remember when i used imessage-exporter 2 years ago I downloaded via homebrew, that is why when i downloaded via cargo it said i was on old version still! I uninstalled via cargo and home and did a fresh install and it worked!

[Pseptemberpogo]

@ReagentX Thanks for all of your help and patience with me this week! I have one more issue. It's not 100% related to the iMessage exporter.

Basically, my MacBook and iPhone have iCloud Messages synced, and I realize yesterday that 90% of the text messages between me and my bestest friend who passed away are gone on my conversation with him on my iPhone. But it's all 100% there on my conversation with him on iMessage on my MacBook. Is there anyway I can put the messages back onto my iPhone? I tried syncing in the iCloud and turning on and off iMessage on my phone, but I only have the partial messages.

Any ways you can suggest would be appreciated so much! Maybe download some kind of explore and copy and paste the messages file from Mac to iPhone? Like I explorer or something I don't know I'm not smart.

[ReagentX]

That is not possible, imessage-exporter is read-only. Possibly you need to enable iCloud for Messages, and ensure your phone is not set to automatically delete old messages, but it still isn't guaranteed to synchronize them.