Issue finding files

[the4leaves]

Hello! I just installed imessage-exporter via cargo on windows and any attempt to export from the plugged in iphone results in a invalid configuration error, database file does not exist at specified path. No command diagnostic or not can seem to find it, and specifying the path to the plugged in iOS device does nothing. I genuinely have no cluse what to do. I'm not worried about the HEIC thing.

[ReagentX]

imessage-exporter does not read from a connected iPhone directly; it reads the Messages database out of a local backup of the phone (detail on supported data sources is available here). The path you pass to -p needs to be the root folder of that backup, not the device itself. On Windows, the iPhone that appears in File Explorer only exposes photos, so there’s no database there to find.

Open the Apple Devices app, select your iPhone, choose Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this computer, and click Back Up Now. An iCloud backup won’t work; it has to be on your PC. Encryption is fine; you’ll be prompted for the password. Once made, you will point imessage-exporter at that directory:

imessage-exporter -f html -c clone -p "C:\Users\<you>\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\<UDID>"

You can find more detail about the supported arguments here.

[the4leaves]

Thank you so much! That solved my issue! People like yourself are the reason I love the internet youre fabulous!