Export or Print iPhone Messages and WhatsApp chats for e-Discovery and legal purposes

Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Apple Messages have changed the way people communicate, steadily phasing out classic alternatives like email and post. But in many scenarios, a person could still need to put things on paper. Court cases are a good example of this.

Submitting iPhone messages as evidence in legal matters is becoming a more and more frequent occurrence. iMazing offers an affordable yet powerful solution for viewing, exporting and printing iPhone messages and WhatsApp chats on both Mac and PC. Winner of the TechnoLawyer 2021 Top Product Award.

In this guide, you will learn how your can easily personalize, export and print your iPhone texts for submission in legal matters. The instructions provided here feature screenshots from the Messages section of iMazing, but can be applied to print conversations from WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business in the exact same way.

Here's how to export or print your iPhone messages and Whatsapp chats:

1. Launch iMazing on your computer
2. From iMazing's Discover view, select Messages
3. Connect your device to your Mac or PC via USB
4. Select your device
5. Select backup options
6. Enable Show contact details & Show time for all messages options
7. Choose messages to be exported or printed
8. Click Export or Print
9. Review export or printing options
10. Finally, click Next to export or Print

Before you begin

Always make sure you are running the latest iMazing version, to do so select Check for Updates from the iMazing menu, or just download the latest available version for your computer below.

Download and install iMazing on your Mac or PC computer.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Launch iMazing on your computer

Download and install iMazing. For more details please refer to our guide available for PC and for Mac.

2. From iMazing's Discover view, select Messages

The first item, in the top left corner of iMazing is the Discover view. Make sure it is selected. In the main window, look for the Media and Communications section and click Messages.

3. Connect your device to your Mac or PC via USB

iMazing will prompt you to connect the device to your computer on the first time you're using it. To do so use a USB cable, and unlock the device using your passcode, Face ID or Touch ID, and follow the instructions for pairing.

💡 Tip: For more details on connections and pairing refer to this guide.

4. Select your device

iMazing will now display all available devices from which messages can be exported to your computer. Click the one you wish to select to begin.

5. Select backup options

iMazing needs to proceed to a backup to extract data. You can now decide if you want a full restorable backup of the device or only need to access the messages and conversations only. The first option uses less storage, the second is restorable.

Click the Start button to launch the operation, you will be prompted to enter the passcode on the device.

❗ Important: The first time a device is being accessed by iMazing the process will take a while, up to one hour or more, so please be patient.

💡 Tip: Learn more about data access and full backup options.

If there is a preexisting backup of the device, the previous screen will not be displayed and instead you will be be asked if you want to use this existing backup, or perform a subsequent backup to refresh the contents.

💡 Tips:

• Subsequent backups are incremental and much quicker!
• Learn more about backup snapshots.
• You can always request iMazing to make a newer backup with the Refresh button (the circular arrow) in the top navigation bar.

iMazing loads your device's messages in the main window.

6. Enable both Show contact details and Show time for all messages

Click the gear button top left to reveal advanced options. Make sure that a checkmark is displayed to the left of Show contact details and Show time for all messages just like in the screenshot below: This will detail every message with the sender's phone number as well as the time and date, plus the timezone from which the message was sent, thus increasing the legal value of your printout.

7. Choose messages to be exported or printed

When you select a conversation in the left column, you'll see it's corresponding messages and attachments displayed. If you only want to save certain messages, select them now. If you need to export multiple conversations in bulk, you can select them now too.

💡 Tips:

• To select all items in the list of chats or messages, simply select one item, then hold the CTRL key (Windows) or Command key (Mac) and press A.
• To select non-contiguous items, hold the CTRL key (Windows) or Command key (Mac), and then click each item.
• To select multiple sequential items, click one item, scroll down, and select another one while holding the Shift key.

You can select as many messages or conversations as you want in this way, and then click the Print button at the bottom right.

8. Click Export or Print

Click either the Export or Print button. If you choose Export, you'll see the following format options:

• PDF: preserves Messages and WhatsApp iconic visual styles, including text bubbles, emojis, and graphics, a format typically preferred by lawyers and courts
• Excel or CSV: exports messages in spreadsheet format compatible with Excel, Numbers, and Google Sheets
• Text: provides clean, unformatted text output
• RSMF: specialized format for e-discovery, archiving, forensics, and data analysis (more details)

10. Finally, click Next to export or Print

When exporting messages, you'll need to choose a destination folder on your computer and set a filename. If you choose to print instead, printing will begin automatically.

Going further

Chances are that you may need to print several very long chats or hundreds of messages in a same document. Here's an example workflow of how you can fit more information per page in order to save a bit of paper and improve the reading experience:

1. Follow steps 1 through 7 in the in-depth tutorial
2. Click the Export to PDF button under the conversation view
3. Customize your export, click Next and save to the location of your choice
4. Now open the file in your favorite PDF reader and click File > Print
5. Set your printout's settings to the booklet preset if it's available. If the preset doesn't exist, the following settings are a good starting point:
   • Number of pages per sheet: 2
   • Print on both sides: yes
   • Page orientation: landscape

Searching for specific conversations

iMazing's Messages and Whatsapp views offer text search fields designed to help you find and recover content as quickly as possible.

If you want to print a chat based on the context of a specific message:

1. In the content search field, at the top of iMazing's window, type in a word or phrase you would like to find
2. Select the relevant message bubble in the conversation view
3. Clear the search filter. iMazing will stay focused on the selected message and put it back in its original context
4. Select the texts you want to export and click Print
5. Customize print options in step 8 above and confirm

If you are looking for messages in a particular date range:

1. In the date range picker under the top left search bar, select the start and end days of the specific period you are looking for.
2. Select the threads from the filtered list and click the Print button
3. Customize print options in step 8 above and confirm

💡 Tips:

• If no results are showing up, consider refreshing the backup (see backup options section above). There could be newer data that have been added since then if it's an older backup you are using.
• If you are looking for a specific single day, pick that same day in both fields.

If you are looking for group chats or chats involving a specific person:

1. In the chat session search bar under the list of chats, type in the name of the group or person you would like to find
2. Select the chat in the filtered list and click the Print button
3. Customize print options in step 8 above and confirm