Can I force macOS to fully download my iCloud iMessages, including images?

[WarmWinterHat]

I’m wanting to clean up my iMessage in the cloud, as it’s well over 5gb now. Can I force macOS to download the entire messages, along with images/videos/etc, so I can archive them?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I don't believe you can from there. What you need to do is go to appleid.apple.com, login, and scroll down about half way (or so) and tap on request data. You can then tap on the areas you want do download. Once you do that, Apple will confirm your identity and when that is accomplished, you will receive an email alerting you that your downloads (in zip format) are ready.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I don't believe you can from there. What you need to do is go to appleid.apple.com, login, and scroll down about half way (or so) and tap on request data. You can then tap on the areas you want do download. Once you do that, Apple will confirm your identity and when that is accomplished, you will receive an email alerting you that your downloads (in zip format) are ready.

Interesting! I thought that was all metadata and such. Thanks for the tip! I’ll report back.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Well, I tried that and it had options to download pretty much everything, except iMessage data. Not quite sure where to go from here? Why doesn't Apple have a simple way to pull iMessage out of the cloud and keep it local?

If you turn off imessage in the cloud, it says you have 30 days to download the data before it's purged, but there is no way to download, other than endlessley scrolling up and up for eternity.

From their FAQ:

Why don’t I see my Messages content as part of my data request?


Your messages are encrypted on your device and can’t be accessed by anyone without your device passcode.