Court Copy · Guides · Privacy

Export an iMessage conversation to PDF without a Mac

The Messages app has no “export” or “print conversation” button. The usual workarounds are screenshots, or desktop apps that cost around $30–60. Without a Mac, the route is a backup on a Windows PC.

The route

1. Back up the iPhone to a Windows PC with Apple Devices or iTunes (step by step). Encrypted is fine.
2. Open Court Copy, choose the backup folder, type the backup password if there is one.
3. Pick the conversation and the dates, then make the PDF. It has a cover sheet (people, numbers, dates, time zone, device, backup date, the source file's SHA-256), one entry per message with date and time, iMessage or SMS, reactions, edits and unsent markers, and the pictures.

Why not screenshots?

Screenshots are what most people do, and for a few messages they may be all you need. For a long conversation they are slow, they cut off dates and times, and they don't show when a message was edited. A PDF made from the phone's own database has every message, each with its full date and time.

Court Copy prints what is in the backup and says where it came from. Whether a court or the other side accepts a printout, and in what form, is for them and your lawyer to say.

Open Court Copy: free preview of any conversation, nothing uploaded.