A Python library to fetch content from the iMessage database on macOS 10.14 and above.

The following information is currently being read from the database:

• Sender (phone number or email address)
• Message
• Date and time
• Service (iMessage or SMS)
• Account (destination caller ID)
• is_from_me
• is_read

Received messages (iMessage or SMS) and attachments will be saved in ~/Library/Messages. This directory contains a chat.db file (SQLite3) with two tables of interest: handle and message. The handle table contains the recipients (email address or phone number). The received messages are in the message table.

The following simplistic example shows the library in use to fetch messages:

from imessage_reader import fetch_data

DB_PATH = /home/bodo/Downloads/chat.db

# Create a FetchData instance
fd = fetch_data.FetchData(DB_PATH)

# Store messages in my_data
my_data = fd.get_messages()
print(my_data)

Of course, the chat.db file is only created under macOS. Nevertheless, this program can also be used under Linux. In contrast to use under macOS, the path to the chat.db file must then be specified (see below).

On macOS you need access to the ~/Library folder in order to read the iMessage database file. You can grant access for your terminal in:

> System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access