What gets exported: formats, folders, media and file names

Chatcove writes each chat as a web page, PDF, text file or spreadsheet, inside a new dated folder. In a web page export, photos, videos, voice notes and documents are copied next to the chat so it opens fully offline. Exports are written only to the folder you pick.

Formats

Choose one in the Export dialog. The default is Web page.

Format	Label in the app	What you get
HTML	Web page	"A styled page per chat that looks like WhatsApp, media included." Self-contained, opens in any browser, works offline. Respects right-to-left text and emoji.
PDF	PDF	"A printable, paginated document per chat." Page size A4 or Letter. A chat with more than 5,000 messages is split into several files named ...-part-001.pdf, ...-part-002.pdf and so on. Photos, videos and voice notes do not appear inside the PDF pages (see below).
TXT	Text	"Plain .txt files, one per chat." One line per message, like [2021-01-01, 14:03:07] Sender: message.
CSV	Spreadsheet	"CSV files that open in Excel or Numbers, one row per message." Columns: chat, timestamp, sender_name, sender_id, direction, kind, text, media_filename. UTF-8 with a byte-order mark, so Hebrew and other scripts open correctly in Excel.

Options in the dialog:

• Text only: "Skip photos, videos, and voice notes. Smallest, fastest export." Media messages are left out entirely. System notices, deleted-message notices, contact cards and locations are kept.
• Include media (web page and PDF only, on by default): "Save photos and videos next to the chat so it opens fully offline." Turn it off to get a labelled placeholder instead of each file. For a PDF, the files are copied into the media/ folder next to it, but they are not shown inside the PDF.
• Use contact names: "Label people by their saved names instead of raw phone numbers." Off writes the raw number.
• Also write one combined file (spreadsheet only): adds all-chats.csv with every chat in one file.
• Date range: all time by default, or pick a start and end date.
• Save to: the folder where the export is created.

Folder structure

Every export gets its own new folder inside the folder you chose, so one export never overwrites an earlier one. The folder name stamp is UTC.

One chat:

<Chat name> - 2026-10-16-143007/
  Harald-Mertz-12.html
  media/
  manifest.txt
  manifest.json

Several chats, or Export all:

Chatcove-Export-2026-10-16-143007/
  manifest.txt
  manifest.json
  all-chats.csv            (only if you asked for it)
  Harald Mertz/
    Harald-Mertz-12.html
    media/
  Family/
    Family-3.html
    media/

The dialog tells you which layout it will use: "Saved in a folder named after the chat, with the date and time added" for one chat, or "Saved as one dated folder with a subfolder for each chat, named after the chat" for several. Two or more chats, or Export all, always get subfolders, even when the free trial limits the run to one chat.

Naming rules:

• A chat file is named after the chat with spaces turned into hyphens, followed by the chat's number and the extension, for example Family-3.pdf. The number keeps two chats with the same name from colliding.
• Folder names keep emoji and right-to-left names. The characters /, \ and : become -, and the characters < > " | ? * are dropped. Long names are shortened without cutting an emoji in half. A name that comes out empty falls back to the phone number, then Chat <number>.
• If two chats have the same folder name, the second becomes Name (2), the third Name (3).
• Media files are named <id>.<extension> and linked with a relative media/ path.
• manifest.txt records the app version, time, format, options, date range and counts. manifest.json carries the same run details for the Exports list. If any chat failed, both record how many.

What happens to each kind of message

Kind	Web page	Text	Spreadsheet
Text	The message	The message	text column
Photos	The image, shown inline	<attached: filename>	media_filename column
Videos	A video player	<attached: filename>	media_filename column
Voice notes	An audio player	<attached: filename>	kind is voice
Audio files	An audio player	<attached: filename>	kind is audio
Round video notes	Shown as videos (since version 0.1.6)	<attached: filename>	kind is video
Stickers	Shown as small images	<attached: filename>	kind is sticker
Documents	A link to the copied file	<attached: filename>	media_filename column
Contact cards	A contact card	<contact: name>	kind is contact
Locations	A location card	<location: latitude, longitude>	kind is location
Deleted messages	The notice "This message was deleted"	<deleted message>	kind is deleted
Unsupported messages	A card labelled "Unsupported message"	<unsupported message>	kind is unknown
System notices	A notice	A line without a sender	kind is system

Notes:

• Text and spreadsheet exports never contain the media files themselves, only the file name. Choose Web page or PDF with Include media to get the files.
• If a media file is missing from the iPhone backup, the page shows a placeholder for it instead of a broken link.
• A deleted message keeps its place in the conversation as a notice. Chatcove does not recover the deleted text.
• Starred messages are marked with a star in the web page and the PDF.
• In a chat with media, the photos and videos are copied into the media/ folder, so a web page export can be bigger than the text suggests.
• Replies are exported as ordinary messages, without the quoted message they answer. Reactions, the "Forwarded" label and the edited marker are not included in any format.

Media in PDF exports

A PDF is printed from the same page as the web page export, with one difference: photos, stickers, videos and voice notes do not appear inside the PDF pages. With Include media on, the files are still copied into the media/ folder next to the PDF, so nothing is lost, but to see each photo where it was sent, export as Web page. Text, emoji, right-to-left text, contact cards, locations and notices all print normally.

Times are in UTC

Every time in an export is in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), so a file looks the same on any computer. In the spreadsheet the timestamp is ISO 8601 with a trailing Z. In the web page, PDF and text the header and footer say UTC, but the individual message times are not labelled. If you quote a time, add or subtract your own time zone offset.

If something goes wrong

• A chat that cannot be exported is listed in the Export finished with problems screen, the others are still written, and the count is recorded in the manifests.
• If you cancel, whatever finished is left in the dated folder, and the manifest marks the run as cancelled.
• A trial export is watermarked. See Choosing chats.

Next: Choosing chats and Opening the export.