# Export Messages to Markdown

Alto Index writes each Messages conversation as a Markdown file, a heading per day, with photos, reactions and replies, kept in sync. 200 conversations free.

Export iMessage conversations with full context.

## What you get

- One Markdown file per conversation, named after the person or the group
- A heading per day, each message with who sent it and when, then its reactions, replies and edits
- Photos, videos and audio copied into an attachments folder and embedded; HEIC photos as JPEG
- With Contacts connected, people are named from Contacts and linked to their contact files
- Each file starts with its `participants`, `is_group`, `message_count` and dates

## Where the files go

```
alto-index/messages/Alba Novak.md
alto-index/messages/Coast Trip-47.md
alto-index/messages/attachments/
```

## What you choose

- Tick the conversations to export; People, Groups, Recent, Popular and Unread help you find them
- Wikilinks or standard Markdown for pictures and replies, in Options… or Settings › Markdown

## Left out

- Files other than photos, video and audio are named in the message, not copied
- Media that was never downloaded to your Mac

## Free and paid

Your first 200 conversations export and keep syncing free. Then one purchase unlocks Messages: on its own, as one of any three apps, or with all of them. See [pricing](/pricing).

## With Claude

`/altoindex:messages` in the [Claude plugin](/claude-plugin) browses a person's conversations, and the [MCP server](/mcp) lets Claude Desktop search them.

Source: https://altoindex.com/messages