How can I disable iMessages from archiving messages and attachments?

I noticed while browsing ~/Library\Messages/ that iMessages has been archiving my messages (Archive folder) and saving attachments (in a separate Attachment folder). Under the settings for iMessages on OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion, I don't see any options to disable this. The only thing close to that is already unchecked: Save history when conversations are closed.
Any ideas why iMessages is saving all this information? How do I disable it? My concern is that it's going to keep accumulating data overtime. I don't want to keep having to go back in there and delete those two folders constantly.

Hi,
This somewhat date back to the way iChat's Saved Chats were once Stored.
At iChat 5 (in Snow Leopard) you could choose to see the last chat - (when opening an new chat with a person you had chatted with before) or parts of the Last Chat in terms of the Last so many IMs.
Example Pic of iChat 5's Prefs
Since then the management choices of the Save Chats has changed in both iChat 6 and Messages.
Messages stores Chats two ways if they are iMessages.
You can elect to Save them in Messages > Preferences > Messages.
It also store the chat.db and other databases items which includes the Attachment items
The chat.db is the bit that fill in the "history" if you iMessage the same person even if you are not saving the Chat in a formal sense in the App's Preferences.
This is irrespective if your delete the Conversation from the Messages main window.
How big these Databases get obviously depends on your iMessages usage.
Striker's link seems to be about a similar issue on an iPhone (I presume it transfers to other iOS devices) but I am not sure that it is relevant in this situation.
Edit.
I should have been clear that you cannot change the database behaviour.
9:49 pm Sunday; October 6, 2013
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously
Message was edited by: Ralph Johns (UK)

Similar Messages

How can i disable imessage from automatically starting up when i turn on macbook air?

how can i disable imessage from automatically starting up when i turn on macbook air? i dont know my imessages to pop up on my laptop when it turns on. But i dont want to disable imessage totally on my macbook.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
First of all, check that Messages is closed when you turn off your MacBook. This is so important because, by default, OS X will reopen all opened apps the next time you start your Mac.
Apart from that, when you go to  > Shut Down, or  > Restart, in the window you see to restart or turn off your MacBook, unmark "Reopen windows when logging back in". This will avoid that your Mac opens all opened apps the next time you start the MacBook, so Messages won't start automatically at startup

How can I disable imessage from old phone?

how can I disable imessage from old phone number / iphone I no longer have?

iMesssage to old phone
If you move to another phone and forget to turn off iMessage then read “if you no longer have the device in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5661 If you still cannot resolve it call Apple http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
To deactivate iMessage http://support.apple.com/kb/ts5185
Read http://m.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00053450&fm_s eq=62995

How can I disable iMessages from going to my iMac?

I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion. Since then, iMessages won't be delivered to my iPhone. They always get delivered to my iMac. This is especially annoying because I'm not home most of the day and texting is a primary means of communications, particularly with my better half.
I have quit Messages on my desktop, but iMessages still get delivered to Messages on the desktop. I took my desktop offline (no Internet connectivity), and iMessages just get queued in the cloud somewhere until I get home and bring my desktop online again. Nothing but regular text messages go to my iPhone. I have even disabled my Apple account in Messages on the desktop, but iMessages are still being delivered there. I never had this problem prior to Mountain Lion.
My better half, also with an iMac and iPhone, doesn't have any of these problems. I have verified that all the settings are the same between his and my desktops and iPhones. But I still have the problem. I don't use Messages on my dekstop and have no interest in receiving messages there.
Is there a way that I can disable iMessages from going to my desktop or otherwise limit iMessages to only my iPhone? Please help!

OK, problem solved. I think the issue is that I was a .mac account holder turned MobileMe turned iCloud (and still getting screwed over apparently). My Apple ID is @mac.com, but my email address is @me.com when Apple forced us all over. Messages on my desktop was set up with my mac.com Apple ID, while Messages on my phone was set up with my me.com email address. I went into appleid.apple.com and merged my primary email address and Apple ID to the mac.com address. I logged out of Messages on both the desktop and phone, logged back in with my Apple ID, and then had to delete the conversations from both my and my other half's iPhones.
Interestingly, it took about five minutes for both phones to delete the conversations, and the phones were completely unresponsive during this time. After that, I sent a text (iMessage) from my other half's phone to mine, and voila! It works. Apparently @mac.com does not equal @me.com... Apple sees them separately. What a nightmare, but I'm glad it's working now.

How can i stop iMessage from going through my email and only go through my number.

How can i stop iMessage from sending messages through my email also. I would like them to only go through my phone

In Settings > Messages > Send & Receive, delete your email address(es).

How can I disable iCloud on my iMac and my iPod touch 5th gen?

My ipod touch 5th gen now syncs through icloud. How can I disable icloud from my ipod and my imac and go back to syncing through iTunes. Is it possible to do this without losing the data in contacts and ical? Any ideas would be much appreciated!

With the iPod connected to your computer go to the Summary pane for the iPod in iTunes and uncheck the box that says: Sync with this iPod over Wi-Fi.
Also in the Summary pane check the box that says backup to the computer.

How do i disable iMessage from my mac, i have looked at other comments and there is no option to disable it when messages are open

how do i disable iMessage from my mac, i have looked at other comments and there is no option to disable it when messages are open

Solution may be found if you search in the "More Like This" section over in the right column.

How can i disable imessage on my notebook?

I'm very sick of receiving text messages on every device. How can I disable imessage on my macbook pro so I don't receive texts that I wish to receive only on my phone?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If you do not want to receive your text messages on your Mac, open Messages, go to Messages menu (in the menu bar) > Preferences > Accounts, choose your iMessage account and untick your phone number or disable your account

Hi how can i use imessage from my mac

hi how can i use imessage from my mac , i tried to text message to one of my contact name but it said the number is not registered with imessage so how can i registered all my contacts to the imessage . thanks

The person you try to contact has to register his number/his appleID with iMessage.

Hi, how can I disable iTunes from updating to v. 11?

Hi, how can I disable iTunes from updating to v. 11?

Olliev wrote:
How do I disable itunes on my iphone 4s?
iTunes app on the iPhone is for purchasing music.
The fact the iPhone starts playing when connected to your car stereo is a function of your car bluetooth system.
Consult your car dealer/bluetooth system manual.
I have attempted to delete all music from the device (so there would be nothing to play), but 1 song remains in the iphone memory and I have been unable to delete that song.
Connect the iPhone to computer and select it in iTunes.
Click the Music tab and uncheck Sync music.
Then click Apply at lower right of iTunes.

HT1918 i want to delete my credit card info from my apple account my 3 year old has mastered purchasing apps and he knwos my password how can i remove it from mylaptop, ipad and iphone so this doesnt happen and i can enter my credit card info manually?

i want to delete my credit card info from my apple account my 3 year old has mastered purchasing apps and he knwos my password how can i remove it from mylaptop, ipad and iphone so this doesnt happen and i can enter my credit card info manually?

Hi..
May not be just the security code > iTunes Store: My credit card's security code or zip code does not match my bank's records

HT1515 i want to know that how can i print direct from my pc, and i also want to knw that can i directly print from my ios device.

i want to know that how can i print direct from my pc, and i also want to knw that can i directly print from my ios device.

To print from your PC, please check out the following iFelix article.
To print from an iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad), the printer must be AirPrint-ready. If the printer is not, another option would be to use something like.
Also you can check out this Apple Support article.

How can I take pictures from my Iphone and upload them in my computer ?

How can I take pictures from my Iphone and upload them in my computer ?

iOS: Importing personal photos and videos from iOS devices to your computer

How can I disable iMessages history?

How can i disable iMesage history? Under the settings for iMessages on OS X 10.8.4 Mountain Lion, I don't see any options to disable this. The only thing close to that is already unchecked: Save history when conversations are closed.

Hi,
Messages still uses the com.apple.ichat.plist (and the other ones that had iChat in them for the accounts)
The two new ones for iMessages (com.apple.imservice.imessages.plist and com.apple.imessage.bag.plist) only hold the server info on one and the Apple ID and the Aliases you use with it in the other.
I have not discovered anything in any of the .plists that deal with how the "history' is saved (other than whether Chats are Saved on Closure).
In previous versions of iChat there have been hints at MacOSXHints that do various things such as this one that changes the order of the Info when Selecting iTunes Playing as th Status Message
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050610163358263
To use it in Messages you have to change the iChatAgent bits to IMAgent.
I did search their site for 10.8 and Messages but found nothing that related to doing anything with the Saving or History of chats and conversations.
I don't work for Apple.
My "knowledge" is centered around iChat and Messages, which I have been posting about since 2004.
8:32 PM Monday; September 2, 2013
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

How can I access iMessages from iTunes backup?

I backed up my iPhone since I needed to backup a really large iMessage conversation and I read this was a way to do it
Now I want to access it from my computer
how can I do this?

Anindan wrote:
how can i access sms from itunes back up
You will need a Backup Extractor program; there are many available. I use iScavenge for Mac, but there are many more. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iphone+backup+extractor The one at the top of the search claims to be free, but it is not. Don't be fooled. I can't recommend for or against any of them, except iScavenge, which is OK.
If you are technically inclined the backup is a SQLite database, so a SQLite browser can also open the backup.

How can I disable iMessages from archiving messages and attachments?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for