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ReagentX
imessage-exporter
Rust2023–2026
ReagentX / imessage-exporter

imessage-exporter

Export iMessage data + run iMessage Diagnostics

5Distinct people
18Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
5.7KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Export iMessage data + run iMessage Diagnostics

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year18 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2023-01-10 16:30:08 UTC to 2026-01-09 23:56:41 UTC.

02468102023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 9 mentions; 3 submissions, 6 comments20232024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 1 submissions, 4 comments20242025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC936
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC514
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110

What Hacker News says

18 sources
The California Poppy release [0] of `imessage-exporter` is the biggest update yet. Most notably, it implements a novel `typedstream` deserializer [1], allowing it to understand the data stored in `NSAttributedString` binary data that is stored in the iMessage database. I've spent a long time reverse engineering nearly every aspect of Apple's iMessage SQLite tables to build this program. As far as I know, there are no other tools that support the full corpus of iMessage features [2], including edited messages, app messages, reactions, text range formatting, and threads. [0]: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter/releases/tag/2... [1]: https://docs.rs/imessage-database/latest/imessage_database/u... [2]: https://docs.rs/imessage-database/2.0.1/imessage_database/me...
In Show HN: iMessage-exporter: a comprehensive CLI app and library
As someone who has moved between macOS+iOS and Windows/Linux+Android several times, this is doable. For technical people, it's just annoying. For non-technical people, this probably needs written into a more formal set of steps. If you have the need, one can setup your world to work on both systems transparently, but that takes more work. Caveats: iOS messages can be kept, but they'll be in files, not your new message app. Photo edits will be lost unless you take extra steps. Messages: if you are comfortable with it, use imessage-exporter (https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter) on your Mac to export your messages to disk. Copy to new machine. Validate you got what you wanted! Can also be used to decrease iCloud usage by backing up messages and deleting the originals from Apple Messages. Photos: three ways. 1) open up the macOS pho
Read the rest
tos app, select all photos, and export them. This will make any JPEG photos much larger than they originally were due to ridiculous default quality settings. 2) If you have access to a Windows machine, install iCloud for Windows, let the photos sync, and copy them to a new directory. 3) Use iCloud's web UI to download all the photos on the new machine. Mail: pick a new provider. Several ways. 1) Add the new provider account to macOS mail. Copy and paste your emails/folders between accounts. 2) Create an app-specific password for iCloud, use the provider's migration facility (most major players support this and it will move your contacts and calendars). Calendars: if you are sharing calendars with iOS users or will keep some Apple devices, keep iCloud as your primary calendar system. Use DavX5 (https://www.davx5.com/) on Android to setup a two-way mirror between your Android calendar app. Your email provider may provide calendar mirroring (Fastmail does, for one). If you aren't sharing / using your mail provider, export your calendars to ICS files from Apple Calendar and import into your new calendar app. Contacts: if you will continue using Apple products, keep iCloud as your primary contacts system and use DavX5. Otherwise, open macOS Contacts, select all, and export to a VCF file. Import this into your new Contacts app. Documents: copy to a backup drive from the machine, download them from iCloud on the web, use iCloud for Windows for the initial sync. Whatever suits you. If you are using Apple's office apps, be sure to load and save as a more universal format.
In iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

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