The Messages application is a default app on Mac. Generally speaking, once you connected to the Internet, you can receive the iMessages once people send you by apple ID or phone number. It’s an awesome way to communicate with people without paying. However, there are still problems you might face, like how to view old iMessages on Mac and how to recover deleted iMessages on Mac. Here in the following, we’re going to talk about where are iMessages saved on Mac and how to recover Messages on Mac.
Generally, there are 2 simple ways to recover deleted text messages on Mac, including iMessages on Mac. One way is to check out the old messages archives and another way is to scan and recover deleted messages on Mac by scanning your Mac hard drive. Let’s see how to do it.
- Quick Navigation
- Part 1. How to Find Deleted iMessages on Mac by Restoring with Message Archives
- Part 2. Recover Deleted Messages on Mac by Scanning for Them
Part 1. How to Find Deleted iMessages on Mac by Restoring with Message Archives
Here is how to recover deleted emails on mac from the trash folder. Step 1 Locate the trash folder on the left pane of your open Apple mail client and click on it. This will open your trash folder containing all your deleted emails. Step 2 Locate the email you want to recover. Manual reindexing of Mail messages is the only way to go if the application has become so unresponsive it barely works at all, search is not functioning correctly or the app won't launch. Choose Apple Mail in the first Import screen and click Continue. Navigate to the location at which you copied the mailbox or mailboxes you want to import, and select one or more, then click Choose.
To view old iMessages on Mac, you must know where are iMessages saved on Mac. Whether you deleted the iMessages or not, there is an archive file that contains the content of your messages. If you want to find old messages on Mac, the first way you might do is by checking out the archive file, looking for the messages. Here are the simple steps for how to find deleted iMessages on Mac by history.
Step 1. On your Mac, launch the iMessage application. After then, click 'Preferences'.
Step 2. Next, please make sure you’ve enabled the option 'Save history when conversations are closed' in General. ONLY with the option enabled, you can see the old deleted iMessage. Otherwise, please check out the way in part 2 to recover deleted text messages on Mac.
Step 3. Launch Finder, click on 'Go' in the menu bar, and then click 'Go to Folder'. Type in ~/Library/Messages to to view old iMessages on Mac.
Step 4. In the folder, you can see the Archive, Attachments and a file named 'chat.db'. The archive covers the past messages, and Attachments refer to photos, videos sent or received. And the 'chat.db' file covers all the history of all active conversations. You can copy them to a new Mac for viewing.
To be honest, this way is not 100% useful to view old iMessage or text messages. If you’ve enabled Time Machine backup, you can restore files from Time Machine backup which contains the messages. However, it will erase all current data and replaced with the old data on your Mac.
Part 2. Recover Deleted Messages on Mac by Scanning for Them
The very useful way to recover deleted text messages on Mac is by scanning for the iMessages directly after you find you’ve lost them. It’s the simplest and most straightforward way for how to recover/restore deleted messages on MacBook Air/Pro, iMac. To make it done, a tool is needed, like iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Why a tool is needed to scan for deleted text messages on Mac?
Deleted text messages are not permanently removed from your Mac right away. They’re still on your Mac, waiting to be replaced by new data. It’s the theory followed by all computers and storage devices. Before replacing by new data, you can try your best to recover deleted text messages on Mac, the sooner the better. The following are the simple steps for how to recover deleted files on Mac.
Your Effective Recover iMessages Mac Software
- Find deleted/lost messages on Mac after deleting, formatting drive, emptying trash, reinstalling/upgrading Mac OS, etc.
- It can also recover deleted photos, videos, music, documents, bookmarks, emails, archives and other files on Mac.
- Only 3 steps to restore any drives data with a high success rate.
Step by Step to Restore Deleted iMessages on Mac
Download and install the latest version of the tool which will scan your Mac for the deleted text messages. It’s fully compatible with all the macOS. But, please make sure you’ve set it up as preferences to install apps from a trustworthy source and the App Store since the software is not available at App Store yet. Feel free to use it. It’s virus-free and stable.
Step 1. Launch the messages recovery Mac software. From the very first window, please select the file type(s) you’ve going to recover from your Mac and uncheck the other extra file types. By doing this, it will shorten the scanning process looking for deleted text messages on Mac. After then, click 'Start' to recover deleted text messages on Mac.
Step 2. The next step is choosing the drive from which your text messages once saved and click 'Scan', letting the software scan for the deleted text messages on Mac for you.
Step 3. When it finished the scanning process, you can filter out the useful files by deleting file types, then the file extension on the left side. When finding the 'chat.db', 'chat.db-shm', or 'chat.db-wal', select them all and click 'Recover' to save them on your Mac.
Copy the recovered files to the ~/Library/Messages directory and restart iMessages to find deleted messages on Mac.
It’s the Quick Scan mode you’ve used by default. It’s quick but with less scanning result. You can try the Deep Scan in the result window to scan carefully for the deleted iMessage or text messages on Mac.
Related Articles
The common issues and query faced by the Apple Mail users are that how to recover deleted emails from Apple Mail. They search for some original and easy method when it comes to recovering their data. However, it’s not easy to find the method that is the accurate one. If you are facing the same issue, then you must be alert while searching for the method or recovering the deleted messages. Do not worry, here you will find the easy and the appropriate method to recover deleted emails from Apple Mail.
Since Apple Mail is also available for Windows user other than MAC, an easy way to keep in touch with others. But sometimes, those emails with important messages might be get deleted or lost by mistake. When such a disaster happens, don’t worry! The deleted email messages can be recovered even they are permanently deleted when you find this reliable MBOX Recovery Solution. Luckily, there are 3 possible methods to recover and restore Apple Mail Emails. Now Keep your eye on this blog and try any one of the methods to retrieve deleted email files from Apple Mail in different data loss situations.
Where Apple Mail Locate its Files
Apple’s Mail locally stores its data in ~/Library/Mail prefix with user home folder. It maintains all the email in a proper folder structure which begins with a folder for your account and a special folder ending in MBOX inside for each email folder you have in your account.
NOTE: If you are trying to restore email from an IMAP account then it is recommended to just set up your account again and download your email messages again from the email server. An IMAP account downloads your folders if they were stored on the server.
Now, let’s move forward to ways to how to recover deleted emails from Apple Mail.
Method 1. Recover deleted Apple Email messages from Trash
Many Mail applications are fitted with a Trash folder where you can keep all the deleted emails. And Because of “trash”, you have a chance to recover deleted Mac Mail messages.
To proceed with the steps of recovery, you need to have Apple Mail in your system. Now
1. Open Apple Mail Application.
2. Click on the Trash folder which is located in the left panel of the Apple Mail Client Platform.
3. Now, choose the folder or email that you wish to restore and drag that email to the “Inbox” tab.
Like this, you will restore the deleted emails from Apple Mail.
Method 2. Recover deleted Mac Mail messages from Time Machine Backup
Method 1 might not be helpful for permanently deleted emails from Mac Mailbox. But if you have used Time Machine Backup to store your files safely.
With this, you can easily find and recover permanently deleted email from Apple Mail
1. In your Applications section, double-click Time Machine to run the Time Machine Backup.
2. From the timeline choose the Backup according to the date.
3. Examine your mailboxes to make sure that your deleted messages are present,
4. Now, click on “Restore” to retrieve deleted Mac Mail messages from Time Machine Backup.
Download Messages App For Mac
Now, what happens if both the above Method fails to recover your Apple Mail Emails. Use method 3 to restore and repair Apple Mail MBOX files.
Method 3. Recover Apple Mail files with MBOX Recovery Tool
Recovered Messages Mail App Mac
You need not worry if you find the above methods un-useful. Because sometimes it is difficult to restore permanently deleted email from Apple Mail; users must go for a third party solution in such a situation. The Apple Mail stores all its data in MBOX format, therefore, users can use the Apple Mail Recovery Solution, an effective tool by which the recovery of all the deleted messages possible without any other loss. Moreover, the MBOX Recovery Application has a very simple interface and even a novice can run this. It is compatible with all versions of Windows Operating System.
Final Words
Reset Mac Mail App
All the method discussed above does work that also depends on you to work and try out these methods in recovering your Apple Mail emails created on MAC or Windows OS. If you are in the need to change your MBOX files into another platform then I suggest the conversion of Apple Mail into Microsoft Outlook. The outlook is the most popular Email Application for Windows users.
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