Messages from previous MBP to new MBP

[ChrissyAA3]

Good Evening all,

Basically, I went and purchased a new MBP today, downsized to a 13MBPr from a 15MBP.

Now, I wanted a fresh start so I have not cloned my previous MBP on to this new one, however something I am keen to have is all my Messages, onto this new MBP. Can anyone help me with this please? My current situation is this:

MBP A still continues to receive my messages and SMS texts to it and work as intended, MBP B just receives the new messages. MBP A has a lot of messages and pictures on that I would like to keep. Is there a database hidden somewhere that I need to pull over? On MBP B I have setup iCloud with the same credentials used on A, and under preferences in Messages they look the same on both machines.

I hope I have explained this well, please do ask for further information if needed.

Thank you all,

Chris

 

[chscag]

Basically what you want to do is copy your messages from MBP "A" to MBP "B". Not going to be easy to do because of the data base structure of the messages (format).

Here's where the messages and any attachments are located:

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Messages/

(Note: your user library is hidden so you'll need to unhide it by pressing Go from the Finder and then Go to Library.) I don't believe you can just copy the message data base from your old MBP to the new one. It may result in corruption of both.

Are the messages still on your mobile device? (iPhone or iPad) If they are, you can use something like "iExplorer" to extract and copy them.

 

[ChrissyAA3]

Hi chscag,

Thank you for your speedy response.

Basically what you want to do is copy your messages from MBP "A" to MBP "B".

This is exactly what I am attempting to do.

They are still on my iPhone, so I guess I will use this iExplorer, anything further you can tell me that will help me to pull them off my iPhone and onto my MBP B.

Im quite surprised, I entirely expected that once I entered my iCloud password for Messages it would just pull them all down from the Cloud

All the best,

Chris

 

[chscag]

Pulling them from the cloud is not possible once you have them on two separate devices and merging the data bases together may cause corruption. Use iExplorer which is a bit pricey at $34.99 to buy, but it has saved me from losing messages with attached photos or GIFs. It also lets you reverse sync from your iPhone, iPad, back to your Mac or PC.

iExplorer buy and download

 

[ChrissyAA3]

So, just to clarify before I purchase it, will this enable me to extract them and have them appear under my Messages app, from what I understand on their website I can only extract and save them as PDF, CSV etc?

Thanks for your help with this,

Chris

 

[ChrissyAA3]

Just an update chscag, I literally lifted the contents of my Messages folder on A on to B and it seems to of worked fine. Theres a couple of messages and images missing from a couple of the threads I've looked through, but for the most part, all good

Thank you for your help!

Chris

 

[chscag]

Thanks for posting back. Good to hear that you were able to copy from A to B without getting corruption. As far as iExplorer is concerned, keep it in mind for any future emergency you may run into. There's always those times when you have something on your iPhone or iPad that you need to sync back to your Mac. Although it syncs back messages as PDF, at least you haven't lost them.