Use cases
Message Vault does one thing: it reads the Messages database on a Mac and the iPhone backups stored there, merges them, and keeps the result on a drive you own. People need that for very different reasons. Pick the one closest to yours.
Family memories
Keep a parent’s or grandparent’s texts before the phone that holds them is gone.
Corporations
A retained record of business conducted over iMessage, held on your own hardware.
Executive teams
The decisions and approvals that happened in texts, kept where they cannot be quietly edited.
Legal cases
Preserve a client’s messages as they exist on a Mac, with a record of what was captured and when.
Custody disputes
Your own complete record of what was said, kept before a phone is wiped or replaced.
Estate and executors
Settle an estate with the texts that record what was promised, and keep them for the family.
Journalists and researchers
Keep source conversations intact and searchable, on hardware you control.
Switching Macs or phones
Move to a new device without leaving years of messages behind on the old one.
macOS deleted my messages
The “Keep messages” setting was on 30 days or 1 year. Here is what can still be saved.
Small business owners
Customer texts, quotes, and approvals kept in one searchable place, without a subscription.