Last Updated on December 8, 2020 by Ian McEwan

If you want to delete specific messages in Messages on your Mac, simply follow these steps: Open Messages on your device Look for the thread from which you want to delete a message Click on the message once to highlight it in a darker color than the other messages. But, there is a simple way by which you can follow up to delete all iMessages on Mac. You can only hold up the option key with the command key and keep clicking on the delete key. You will find that the messages are going deleted one by one. It will save your precious time as well as protect your workforce both.

There is so much trouble ahead to recover deleted iMessages on mac, but don’t worry, that’s what we are here for.

Last updated July 03, 2019 by Ian McEwan

It can be frustrating to lose conversations stored on your Mac in the iMessages format. No matter how careful you are about saving important chats and attachments, accidents can happen with everyone. A simple wrong tap on the sensitive screen or keypad is enough to erase your memories and crucial messages. If you are in the midst of such an issue, do not panic. This article is here to educate you on how to recover deleted iMessages on Mac.

Method 1: Use Time Machine to Recover Deleted iMessages on Mac

The Time Machine, as the built-in restore service of Mac is called, is true to its name. It takes your device back in time to when you had last backed up your messages. This method works only for those who are in the habit of regularly backing up their files. The advantage of using this service is that you do not need to pay anything additional, as it is built right into your system. The downside of this tool is that it restores your iMessages to the last stored version, so any changes that happened later than that date will be lost.

The procedure of using the Time Machine to recover deleted iMessages on Mac is as follows.

1. Sign out of iMessages and completely close it down.
2. Look for the Time Machine application on the system and open it.
3. From the ‘Finder‘ bar, select the ‘Go‘ menu.
4. You will find ‘Library‘ here, select it and go to the ‘Messages‘ folder. This is where all your messages are stored.
5. Next, look for the file ‘chat.db’. Be careful about choosing the file with the correct date so that you get to restore the iMessages from before the accidental deletion occurred.
6. Hit ‘Restore‘.
7. Close the Time Machine application and reopen iMessages.
8. Confirm you can see all the messages that you were worried about being deleted.

An important point to note about the Time Machine tool is that it cannot be used to restore a specific message from a specific contact, but only to restore the entire backup of conversations that exists on your system.

Method 2: Recover Deleted iMessages on Mac by Restoring Messages from Other Devices

How Do You Delete Imessages On Mac

If you have just realized that you have deleted a message from your Mac, stop using all your Apple devices such as iPhone and iPad, and immediately check if the deleted message exists on any of these devices. Until overwritten with fresh data, these messages will remain on the other devices. In this way, you may be saved the trouble of going through the whole recovery process and can dig out the message you lost from your other devices.

Method 3: Restoring Deleted iMessages With a Little Help from your iPhone, iTunes, and iCloud

You need to use your iPhone to use this method, considering earlier sync had ensured the messages you deleted from your Mac also existed on your phone. It is a way to recover deleted iMessages on Mac if you have backed up your iPhone data on iCloud or iTunes.

The iMessages recovery process from iCloud is as below.

1. Open ‘Settings‘ on your iPhone, and go to ‘General’
2. Choose ‘Reset‘ and then ‘Erase all Contents and Settings‘
3. Choose ‘Erase Now‘
4. Keep going through the on-screen instructions until you reach the ‘Apps & Data‘ page
5. Once the removal process is complete, choose ‘Restore from iCloud Backup‘
6. The page will prompt you to log in to iCloud with your valid credentials.
7. Once you are in, choose the backup you are looking for
8. Check for your recovered iMessages once the restoration process is complete

A crucial disadvantage of restoring data from iCloud is that you would lose all your existing data on the phone before restoring with the iCloud version. Hence, it is important to be certain before invoking this method.

The recovery process of iMessages from iTunes is as below.

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac, and open iTunes
2. Select your phone on the screen
3. Select ‘Summary‘ and choose the file with the latest backup date
4. Choose ‘Restore Backup‘

The downside of this method is the same as that of iCloud, namely, it deletes all your data from your iPhone and replaces with the last backed up version.

Method 4: Using iMessage Recovery – Third-Party Software

If all else fails, there are always several third-party software available to help you recover deleted iMessages on Mac. The functions of these tools vary with the brands, but the general idea is to offer a customized approach to your recovery process. Some of these tools allow you to choose the messages you wish to restore, while others maintain the old data on your system even while restoring a backed up version. Either way, for a few extra dollars, you could find an easier way to restore your lost messages.

Here is the best Mac Data Recovery for your reference.

OneClick to Recover All/Specific Deleted iMessages on Mac with Ease.

The Final Word

Losing conversations from iMessages might sound like a big deal and it could be annoying to misplace a crucial piece of information through sheer accident. It is not impossible, however, to get back what you thought was lost, through the right use of technology.

Bring all messengers into one

Text messaging is so ingrained into our days that it’d be difficult to imagine our lives without it. One can say texting is the perfect form of non-disruptive, asynchronous communication, since you only participate in it when convenient for you, as opposed to other real-time alternatives like calling.

Eventually, simple text messages (SMS) evolved to incorporate images and audio (MMS). In the meantime, the use of instant messaging (IM) software online, with AIM and Windows Live, was growing rapidly as well. Those two words collided and essentially merged with each other with the release of the iPhone.

Right now, most of us use at least a few messaging apps: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Skype, Snapchat, etc. Apple’s own iMessage, both on iPhone and Mac, remains wildly popular too, as well as regular text messaging. But, with so many services, how much data do we generate? And what’s the best way to keep all this data private?

Safest way to delete messages

Install Setapp on Mac to keep your data safe. Get backup apps, data recovery tools, and more to always stay on the safe side.

Why Delete iMessage History On Mac?

First of all, the most secure way to ensure your conversations stay private on your devices is to only use apps that allow for end-to-end encryption, which prevents anyone (including the service provider) from eavesdropping on anything you say. Apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and iMessage are already using end-to-end encryption to protect your privacy.

Second, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Even with end-to-end encryption in place, someone who takes possession of your phone can read anything you’ve sent or received. That’s where knowing how to delete all messages on Mac or iPhone regularly can help. Let’s go through a somewhat comprehensive checklist for keeping your iMessage history clean from any unwanted correspondence.

How to enable iMessage across devices

As you know, regular text messages and iMessages share the same Messages app on your iPhone. One of the advantages of using iMessage then is not only getting the secure end-to-end encryption but also being able to use it across devices — on your Mac, for example.

To turn on iMessage on your Mac:

1. Open the Applications folder (⌘ + Shift + A) and launch the Messages app

2. Go to Preferences (⌘ + ,) and switch to the iMessage tab

3. Check “Enable this account” and “Enable Messages in iCloud”

4. Click Sync Now

Now your iMessages will synchronize on your Mac and iPhone, so you can read and reply to any text from either device. Additionally, you can check the boxes in the “You can be reached for messages at” menu if you want to allow people to text you just by knowing your email.

If you’re wondering how to turn off iMessage on Mac at any time, simply uncheck the “Enable Messages in iCloud” option.

How to delete iMessages on Mac

To keep your conversations private, iMessage has a simple way for how to delete messages on Mac. You can use this method to delete either yours or someone else’s messages:

1. Open any conversation within your Messages app

2. Find a message you want to delete, right-click on it, and select Delete…

3. Click Delete to confirm

Note: When you delete an iMessage on Mac, it only removes the message on your side. The recipient will still see all the messages on their devices.

How to delete multiple messages on Mac

While knowing how to delete text messages on Mac is crucial to being able to occasionally hide sensitive data, sometimes you might want to find out how to delete all messages on messenger to leave little trace of whole conversations.

Here’s how to delete all iMessages on Mac:

1. In Messages, click on the conversation you want to delete

2. Go File ➙ Delete Conversation… from the menu bar. Alternatively, you can right-click on the conversation on the left side and select Delete Conversation… from there. A third option is to highlight the conversation and then simply hit ⌘ + Delete.

3. Confirm Delete

How to delete all messages on Mac automatically

As you can see, deleting occasional messages or whole conversations is easy when you have to do it just a few times here and there. But the process is still largely manual and it’s very easy to forget to delete a specific message if you can be bombarded with new ones all the time.

Luckily, it’s possible to set a sort of destructive timer on your iMessage on Mac, which would automatically delete everything past a certain date. Here’s how:

1. Open the Messages app and then Preferences (⌘ + ,)

2. Click the “Keep messages” dropdown and select whether to let your messages stay in the app for 30 days, one year, or forever

Now you don’t have to worry about any messages lingering on for longer than they should.

How to clear iMessage transcripts

Sometimes, you might be having a private rapid-fire conversation with a few people at the same time and want to periodically delete all the messages so far but still keep the discussion going. Deleting the conversation outright wouldn’t be optimal here as it would close the tab completely, interrupting the flow.

Surprisingly, iMessage has another function for that called Clear Transcript, which simply deletes all the messages in any given conversation but keeps the window open. To use Clear Transcript:

1. Open any conversation in the Messages app

2. Select Edit ➙ Clear Transcript (⌘ + Option + K) from the menu bar

How to close conversations temporarily

Another option that the Messages app on Mac offers is to simply hide or close conversations without deleting any content in them. That way no one would see that conversations ever took place, but you’d also get the full history back once someone in the chat sends a new message.

To close any conversation in Messages:

1. Go to Preferences and then check or uncheck “Save history when conversations are closed”

2. Hover over the conversation on the left side and click the X symbol just below the date

How to delete all iMessages on Mac forever

Using any of the options above should be more than enough to help you keep your life private. But if you want to absolutely make sure that no trace of your messages is left behind, you might wonder where are iMessages stored on Mac?

Fortunately, your Mac makes it easy to dive straight into your Library folder and delete the Messages files (or back them up somewhere safe) manually:

1. Open Messages ➙ Preferences ➙ iMessage and then Sign Out

2. Quit the Messages app

3. From the menu bar, choose Go ➙ Go to Folder (⌘ + Shift + G)

4. Type in ~/Library/Messages and then Go

5. Delete Archive and Attachments folders as well as chat.db, chat.db-shm, and chat.db-wal

6. Restart your Mac

It might take some time for Messages to reconfigure itself the next time you use it, but all the files and conversations should now be gone.

What are the best messaging apps for Mac

Even though knowing how to turn off messages on Mac is quite invaluable, iMessage is just one type of an instant messaging service out there, and most of us use at least a handful of its competitors. What apps should we install to rule the messaging world?

ChatMate for WhatsApp is a powerful and blazing fast WhatsApp client for Mac that cares about your privacy by letting you hide text previews, tweak notifications, and enable Stealth Mode, which only displays messages when you hover over them. The app also locks itself, provides Touch ID supports, and features a truly customizable interface.

Grids is a lightweight Instagram app for Mac that lets you DM friends and do anything you usually do in your mobile app. Upload multiple photos and videos, add captions, locations, and emojis, search, post Stories directly from your Mac’s desktop, and more. In addition, Grids supports multiple profiles, so you can maintain both personal and business accounts just by switching a single toggle.

Avoid deleting messages with IM+

How To Get Imessages On Mac

Bring all messengers into one and forget about digging into separate apps. IM+ is a handy utility that safely unites all your chats.

Deleting Messages On Mac

IM+ is the dream for those who need to use multiple messengers and social media, and simply can’t manage dozens of various apps at once. With IM+, you can add any messaging service you like, from Skype to Instagram to Slack, and then use all of them from one straightforward interface. What’s more, you can define notifications for work and personal accounts, use shortcuts to switch between services, and update your status with ease.

Best of all, ChatMate, Uplet, and IM+ are available to you right now absolutely free during the trial of Setapp, a rapidly growing platform with more than 180 popular Mac apps to cover any problem you might have. Start by keeping your iMessages private, get a few apps to manage your other accounts, and see the immediate difference at no cost!

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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