How to export iMessages from iPhone (3 ways)
Updated October 2026 · 4 min read
Unlike WhatsApp, the Messages app on iPhone has no export button, and you can only copy one bubble at a time. You still have three good options. None of them notifies the other person.
1. Screenshots (fastest, iPhone only)
- Open the conversation and scroll up to where you want to start.
- Take a screenshot: side button + volume up.
- Scroll down about one screen, keeping a little overlap with the last screenshot, and take the next one. Repeat (AreWeToxic reads up to 10 at a time).
- On AreWeToxic, tap Screenshots and pick them oldest first. Overlaps are removed automatically, and you confirm which side is you.
Screenshots don't carry exact timestamps, so reply-time numbers are skipped instead of guessed. Everything else works.
2. A Mac (free, full history with times)
If your Mac is signed in to the same Apple ID with Messages in iCloud turned on (Messages, Settings, iMessage), it has your full history. The free, open-source tool imessage-exporter turns it into one text file per conversation.
- Give Terminal access to your messages: System Settings, Privacy & Security, Full Disk Access, turn on Terminal.
- Install it with Homebrew:
brew install imessage-exporter - Export as text:
imessage-exporter -f txt -o ~/Desktop/chats - Open the chats folder on your Desktop. Each conversation is a .txt named after the contact or number (for example
Jordan - 12.txt). Upload just that one file.
Please don't upload the Mac's message database (chat.db): it holds every conversation you have, so AreWeToxic refuses it.
3. iMazing on Windows or Mac
- Install iMazing (a paid app with a free trial) and connect your iPhone with a cable.
- Open Messages, select the conversation.
- Choose Export to CSV and save the file.
- Upload the .csv. Your messages are marked as Outgoing, so we already know which side is you.
Common problems
"The Mac only has recent messages"
Turn on Messages in iCloud on both the iPhone and the Mac and wait for it to sync (it can take hours for a long history).
"Terminal says it can't read the database"
Full Disk Access for Terminal is missing, or Terminal needs a restart after you turned it on.
"My screenshots are in the wrong order"
Tap "Wrong order? Reverse them" under the thumbnails, or remove and add them again oldest first.
"It's an SMS chat with an Android friend"
Green-bubble texts are in the same Messages history, so all three options work the same way.
What happens to the file
AreWeToxic counts the numbers in code (who texts first, reply times, apologies vs criticism) and holds the parsed chat for at most 20 minutes while you confirm which person is you. The chat text is deleted right after your report is built. We never ask for your Apple ID and never connect to your phone.
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