Use cases

Message Archive does one thing: it reads the Messages database on a Mac and the iPhone backups stored there, merges them, and keeps the result on a drive you own. People need that for very different reasons. Pick the one closest to yours.

• Family memoriesKeep a parent’s or grandparent’s texts before the phone that holds them is gone.
• CorporationsA retained record of business conducted over iMessage, held on your own hardware.
• Executive teamsThe decisions and approvals that happened in texts, kept where they cannot be quietly edited.
• Legal casesPreserve a client’s messages as they exist on a Mac, with a record of what was captured and when.
• Custody disputesYour own complete record of what was said, kept before a phone is wiped or replaced.
• Estate and executorsSettle an estate with the texts that record what was promised, and keep them for the family.
• Journalists and researchersKeep source conversations intact and searchable, on hardware you control.
• Switching Macs or phonesMove to a new device without leaving years of messages behind on the old one.
• macOS deleted my messagesThe “Keep messages” setting was on 30 days or 1 year. Here is what can still be saved.
• Small business ownersCustomer texts, quotes, and approvals kept in one searchable place, without a subscription.