Export iMessages to PDF on your Mac — the whole conversation, exactly

Save an iMessage or SMS conversation as a PDF you can keep, print or send: every message with its date, time and sender, photos where they were sent, page numbers. Textbound reads the Messages history on your Mac, read-only, so there are no screenshots to stitch, no hours of scrolling — and nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Free for the newest 100 messages of any conversation · macOS 14 or later

Three ways to save a conversation, side by side

Messages has no “Export” command. People usually reach for screenshots or File › Print. Here is what each gives you.

For a few messages, a screenshot is fine and quicker. Textbound is for when you need the whole conversation, or a period of it, complete and readable.

How to export an iMessage conversation to PDF

1. Download Textbound and open it. It runs on macOS 14 or later.
2. Allow Full Disk Access once. macOS keeps the Messages history in a protected place, and this is the only permission that lets any app read it. Textbound opens it read-only.
3. Pick the person or the group. The whole thread appears at once: photos, reactions, replies, edits and unsent messages marked. iMessage and SMS with the same person are one thread.
4. Choose the dates and a layout. Book — bubbles as you remember them, photos large, a chapter for each month. Record — one row per message with the time to the second and the sender, page numbers and a cover with the participants and the time zone.
5. Export. Choose where to save the PDF. With Pro you can also export HTML that opens in any browser, a CSV with one row per message, or many conversations at once.

Messages from your iPhone, exported on the Mac

Turn on Messages in iCloud and your Mac has the same history as your iPhone, SMS included. On the iPhone: Settings › [your name] › iCloud, then turn on Messages in iCloud. On the Mac: Messages › Settings › iMessage › Enable Messages in iCloud. Wait until it has synced, then choose File › Reload Messages in Textbound. Older photos may stay in iCloud when Optimize Storage is on; Textbound marks them in the export instead of leaving them out silently, and they come back when you open the conversation in Messages.

A PDF that keeps the conversation safe

A PDF on your disk is a copy of a conversation that no longer depends on a phone, an account or a sync setting: if a phone is lost or a thread is deleted, the PDF still reads the same. Textbound itself keeps nothing and makes no copy of its own — it writes the files you export, where you choose. It is not a backup of your Mac or iPhone; for that, keep using Time Machine or iCloud Backup.

Private, because nothing leaves your Mac

• No server sees your messages. Textbound has no server for them: it reads the history on your Mac and writes the PDF on your Mac. There is nothing to leak, sell or hand over.
• Read-only. It never changes, deletes or sends a message.
• No account, no analytics, no crash reports. It goes online only to check for updates — and, once you enter a Pro code, to check that code. Never with your messages.
• Check it yourself: turn Wi-Fi off and export. It works the same.

When Textbound is not the right tool

• You don't have a Mac. Textbound runs only on a Mac. On a Windows PC, an app that reads an iPhone backup made on that PC is the way.
• The messages aren't on the Mac. Textbound exports what Messages on your Mac has. With Messages in iCloud off, a tool that reads an iPhone backup can reach messages the Mac never had.
• Deleted messages. Textbound is not a recovery tool: a message deleted from Messages isn't in what it reads.
• WhatsApp, Signal or other apps. Textbound reads Messages only: iMessage, SMS and RCS.

Questions