Journalists and researchers
Keep source conversations intact and searchable, on hardware you control.
The problem
Source conversations happen over iMessage and then live at the mercy of a retention setting. When a story is challenged a year later, the exchange has been trimmed, and a screenshot from the time is all that is left.
Why Message Vault helps
- Archives every message and attachment locally. No third-party service sees the contents.
- Full-text search across years of conversations in one place.
- Raw handles are kept beside names, so a source’s messages are traceable to the actual number or address.
- The manifest shows the archive has not changed since it was sealed, which is useful when a quote is disputed.
- The optional off-site backup is encrypted with a key held in your Keychain, not by us.
How to do it
- Install on the Mac where you message sources and grant Full Disk Access.
- Scan, then let the background agent keep the archive current on a schedule.
- Seal the manifest when a piece is filed and keep the chain head with your notes.
Message Vault reads the Messages database on a Mac and the iPhone backups made on that Mac with Finder or iTunes. It does not pull messages from a phone over the air. The manifest proves the archive has not changed since it was sealed. It does not prove the archive was complete or truthful at that moment, and its timestamp is the Mac’s own clock, not a trusted time source. It does not protect the contents from anyone who has access to your Mac.
$29 per year, per Mac. 14-day free trial. Cancel any time. Requires macOS 14 or later.
Other use cases: Family memories · Corporations · Executive teams · Legal cases · Custody disputes · Estate and executors · Switching Macs or phones · macOS deleted my messages · Small business owners