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good evening today I'm going to show you
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how to back up your text messages and
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iMessages using iMessage exporter a free
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tool for the Mac iMessage exporter will
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create a local backup with your full
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conversation history that you can search
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and read through by creating a local
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backup of your messages you can then
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save space by deleting your message
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history from your iPhone your Mac and
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from iCloud so to get started you can
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click here to find the link to download
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exporter now if you have a newer Mac
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with an apple silicon chip you're going
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to download this link here Arch
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64. tar.gz if you have an older
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intel-based Mac you're going to download
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64. tar.gz this link here if you're not
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sure you can go to the Apple menu and
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open about this Mac if you have an apple
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chip then you'll download this first
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link here I have a newer Mac with an M2
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Chip and so I'm going to download this
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one and you'll see this in your
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downloads folder double click
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it to expand it you should see a black
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icon that says iMessage exporter double
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click on it and you'll see this pop up
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done now you'll open system
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settings scroll scroll down to privacy
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security scroll down again and click
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anyway now iMessage exporter is a very
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popular open- Source app that means that
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it's been checked and double checked
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anybody can look at the source code
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anybody can verify that it doesn't do
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anything suspicious so you're going to
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click open anyway then you'll have to
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password after it launches you'll get
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this window here this window is just
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explaining how to use iMessage exporter
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it tells you how to use it and it tells
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you all of the different options you're
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going to open a new terminal window by
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hitting command n on your keyboard and
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now we're ready to create a
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backup you're going to type in CD for
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change directory and type in downloads
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and hit enter Because iMessage exporter
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folder you're going to type in slash
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HTML that's telling it that you want
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Rich formatting you're going to add
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in- M and type in your first
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name that makes the data easier to read
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finally you're going to choose whether
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or not you want to include attachments
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if you choose to back up your iMessages
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including the attached photos and videos
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it'll take up much more space on your
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hard drive but but it will be more
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complete if you want to include
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attachments you'll type in-
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c clone if you don't want to include
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attachments and you want to save
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space you'll leave it out now just hit
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enter and it'll make your backup you can
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find your backup inside your home folder
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iMessage export and you can browse
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through your entire message history you
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can double click any of these to open it
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or click the search field to search for
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something specific here's an example of
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what the results look like as you can
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see it formats them in nice blue Bubbles
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and gray bubbles just like the original
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conversation it has date stamps
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including read receipts Rich links and
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previews of all the original attachments
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it's a really friendly way to read
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through your old conversations and that
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is how you can archive your messages I'm
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dein Jones with Cult of Mech