Backup macOS Messages to Gmail

Have you ever lost your phone and all your important text messages? Have you ever struggled with finding a very important message in your iMessage application? Is Gmail your main e-mail client? Check out i2Gmail!

i2Gmail is a Python utility which allows you to backup your iMessages from your macOS desktop computer to your Gmail account. If your macOS computer is configured to send and receive SMS messages, your SMS messages will be backed up as well. Messages are stored on Gmail as regular emails. They are already read, archived, labeled as Text and easily searchable.

Please note: i2Gmail is in beta. Expect hick-ups. Please report all the issues.

Installation

In order to use i2Gmail you will need to:

Clone the i2Gmail repository

git clone git@github.com:jakublipinski/i2Gmail-Backup-macOS-Messages-To-Gmail.git i2Gmail
cd i2Gmail

Install google-api-python-client

easy_install --upgrade google-api-python-client

Alternatively use virtual env

virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Create your client_secrets.json file

For i2Gmail to connect to your Gmail account you need to create a new application at Google APIs Console.

1. Go to Google APIs Console
2. Verify that Create a project is selected
3. Click the Continue button
4. Within a few seconds, your project will be created. Click the Go to Credentials.
5. Click the Credentials from the menu on the left side.
6. Go to the OAuth consent screen tab.
7. Enter i2Gmail into the Product name shown to users box. Press Save.
8. Go to the Credentials tab if not taken there automatically.
9. Click the 'Create credentialsblue button dropdown and selectOAuth client ID`.
10. Select Other from the list, enter Console client into Name field and press Create.
11. Close the pop-up window.
12. Click the Download JSON arrow located on the right side of the Console client label.
13. Save the file into the i2Gmail folder as client_secrets.json

Add your phone number and email to Gmail Contacts

Add your phone number and all your email addresses you use with iMessage to Gmail Contacts.

i2Gmail uses Text label

i2Gmail labals all the backed up messages with Text. If you already use such label, it's strongly recommened to change it to something else. You can change the label name in the config.py by modifing the GMAIL_LABEL variable.

Backuping your Messages

First backup

To start backup run:

python i2Gmail.py

A browser window will open asking to authorize the application against GMail. Choose the desired account and authorize the script. The backup procedure will start. The script will output its progress to the console. You can also follow the backup progress by searching for label:text in your Gmail account.

Subsequent backup

To start subsequent backup run:

python i2Gmail.py

i2Gmail stores the last backed up message id in the file settings.json and backs up only new messages.

Contacts Suggestions

i2Gmail outputs duplicate email addresses and phone number which are assigned to different contacts. It's recommened to fix these duplicates so that i2Gmail assigns correct contact details to each message.

Restarting backup

In order to start backup from scratch:

1. Remove the settings.json file

rm settings.json

2. Remove previously backed up messages from Gmail by searching label:text, selecting all messages and pressing Delete button

Changing the Gmail account

In order to change the Gmail account to which the backup is performed delete the credentials.storage file. You will be asked to choose and authorize your Gmail account next time you run the script.

Search your backed up messages.

You can search your backed up messages by ussing label:text search query in Gmail. You can combine it with other queries such as: label:text from:me, label:text to:John, etc

Security

Credentials needed

Application needs following Gmail permissions: Know who you are on Google - to use your first and last name to indicate sender of your messages View your email address - to use your email address to indicate sender of your messages Insert mail into your mailbox - to backup your messages Manage mailbox labels - to create Text label View your contacts - to translate phone numbers and email addresses to people names

Keep your files secured

Keep your clients_secrets.json and credentials.storage files secured. They give access to your Gmail account.

Under the hood

Original bearer

If you need to learn what was the original bearer of the message (SMS or iMessage) you can click Show original options from the dropdown menu next to your message and loook for X-Original-Bearer header.