Is ChatExport safe?

This page is for the check people run before installing software that will read their messages. The short version: ChatExport reads a backup folder that is already on your PC and writes one file where you tell it to. There is no server, no account and nothing to sign in to.

What the program is allowed to touch

Apple's own software, the Apple Devices app or iTunes, writes the iPhone backup to your disk. ChatExport reads that folder. When you export, it writes one file to the location you picked. That is the whole data flow.

• It never signs in to anything, so it never asks for your Apple ID or your iCloud password.
• It does not touch your phone. After the backup is made, the iPhone can go back in your pocket.
• It reads the Messages database, the attachments belonging to it, and the address book inside the backup, which is how the document says a name instead of a phone number. Nothing is exported out of that address book. Call logs, the photo library and other apps' data are outside what the program does at all.
• Your messages, photos and attachments are never uploaded anywhere.

Nothing goes out over the network

• No account and no login.
• No licence check, no activation call and no update ping.
• No telemetry, no usage reporting and no crash reporting turned on by default.
• A machine that has never been online behaves identically to one that has.

How to verify that without trusting us

Disconnect the computer from the internet, then export a conversation. Nothing about the process changes: the backup opens, the conversation loads, the PDF is written. Software that checks a licence, reports usage or phones home is where an offline run stops working, and this one does not stop.

Encrypted backups

If "Encrypt local backup" is ticked in Apple's software, ChatExport asks for that password and then reads the backup normally.

• The password is used on your own machine and then forgotten. It is never written to disk and never sent anywhere.
• Only the files actually needed for the export are decrypted, and they are wiped when you close the app.
• Type the password wrong and it simply asks again.

Log files

The app writes local log files so a problem can be diagnosed: which backup it opened, how many messages it read, what failed. They describe what the app did, not what your messages say. They stay on your machine, and you decide whether to attach one to a support email.

The fingerprint on the exported file

Every export is stamped with a SHA256 hash of the finished file. Write it down when you file the document and anyone can recalculate it later from the same file: if a single character had been altered, it would not match. It proves the file has not changed since export. It does not prove what happened on the phone, and nothing here is a promise about what any court will accept. Ask your lawyer what your case actually requires.

What the program deliberately does not do

This is the part most security pages leave out, and it is the part that decides whether the rest is worth believing.

• It does not hide anything from other people who use this PC. The backup folder and the file you exported sit there like any other file on that account.
• It is not a vault. There is no hidden mode, no password on the app itself and no protected storage.
• It does not encrypt what it writes. An exported PDF is an ordinary PDF, and anyone who can open the folder can read it.
• If any of that matters for your situation, export to an encrypted drive and delete the backup afterwards, which the app can do for you.

This website is a separate thing

getchatexport.com is a set of static files. Visits are counted by Umami, by Ahrefs and by a counter of our own on this domain, none of which stores anything on your device, which is why there is no cookie banner here. Nothing you do inside the app is measured, because the app makes no network requests at all. The detail, tool by tool, is on the privacy page.

Who built the file, and how you check it

The Windows installer is code-signed, and every executable inside the package is signed, not only the installer. This section said the opposite until version 0.5.1, because until then it was true. SmartScreen may still warn on a first run: that panel is about how many people have downloaded a file, not about whether it is signed, and it names the publisher in the same breath. Reputation is the one thing a new certificate cannot start with.

A signature answers who built the file. It does not answer whether the copy you downloaded is the one that was published, so the SHA256 is published beside every installer as well. The command that checks one against the other, in Windows Command Prompt, is:

certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256

Contact

If something on this page is not specific enough to answer your question, ask: support@getchatexport.com.