How to Find Chat Messages in Cache

Find saved chats on your computer

When you chat online using an Instant Messenger, your chat messages are sometimes stored in a temporary cache for your later perusal. The location of this cache differs with each chatting program. Keep in mind, you will only be able to find a cache if at some point in the past chat logging was enabled for the chat program. Also, you will need to be logged in as the user to be able to view the user's chat history.

Instructions

1. If you use AOL Instant Messenger, log in with your screen name and password, click one of your Buddies and go to "People > View IM Log..." to open up the saved message cache with that buddy.

2. If you use iChat, navigate to the "iChats" folder in "/Users/<your username>/Documents/iChats" and double click the folder corresponding to the date of the chat you'd like to find. Double click the file that has the name of the person you chatted with to open an iChat window containing your Chat history with that person.

3. If you use GChat, log in to your Gmail account and click "More" on the lefthand side toolbar, then click "Chats." This will open your entire chat history in the main Gmail window.

References

• AOL Instant Messenger: IM Logging
• Apple iChat Support: iChat IMs - what gets saved and where?