Install Chatcove on your Mac

Download the Chatcove DMG, open it and drag Chatcove to your Applications folder. The app is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens normally on first launch. All of its data stays on your Mac.

Install

1. Download the DMG from chatcove.app. The file is named Chatcove-<version>-arm64.dmg. The arm64 part means it is built for Apple Silicon Macs. See Requirements.
2. Open the DMG. It shows the Chatcove app next to a shortcut to your Applications folder.
3. Drag Chatcove onto the Applications shortcut.
4. Eject the DMG and open Chatcove from Applications.

First launch and Gatekeeper

Chatcove is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple. Because you downloaded it from the internet, macOS may ask you to confirm that you want to open it. That is the standard macOS prompt for any downloaded app. Confirm it once and the app opens.

If macOS refuses to open Chatcove, check that you downloaded the Apple Silicon build and that your Mac meets the requirements.

The first time Chatcove opens it shows a short guided setup called "Set up Chatcove". Click Get started. It walks you through connecting the iPhone, the backup and reading your chats. You can click Skip setup at any time and use the app directly; it can be reopened from Settings. Your first export describes the one-click flow.

Where Chatcove stores things

Chatcove keeps its files in two places under your user account, plus the folders you choose for exports.

What	Location
App data (settings, licence, saved backup passwords, decrypted WhatsApp data, search index, media cache)	~/Library/Application Support/Chatcove/
iPhone backups (default)	~/Library/Application Support/Chatcove/backups/<iPhone UDID>/
Per-iPhone workspace (decrypted databases, search index, media cache)	~/Library/Application Support/Chatcove/<iPhone UDID>/
Log files	~/Library/Logs/Chatcove/
Your exports	The folder you pick in the export dialog.

The saved backup passwords are encrypted with the macOS secure store before they are written to disk. Nothing in these folders is uploaded. See Privacy.

Choosing another backup folder

The backup is the biggest thing Chatcove stores. You can keep it off your Mac's internal disk, for example on an external drive.

1. Open Settings.
2. In the Storage section, find Backup location and click Change.
3. In the folder picker, choose a folder (the picker's button reads Store backups here).
4. Chatcove asks "Move backups to the new folder?". Click Move backups to carry your existing backup across, or Keep in place to leave it where it is.

Click Use default to go back to the app data folder. If the drive is not plugged in, Chatcove says so instead of failing; reconnect it to back up or browse media.

Log files

The log is main.log in ~/Library/Logs/Chatcove/. It rotates to main.old.log at 5 MB, and the 10 newest per-run backup logs are kept in a backup-runs folder there. Passwords, licence keys, device identifiers and your home folder path are removed as the log is written. In the app, Help > Show Log Files opens the folder.

Updates

By default Chatcove checks for updates when it opens and once a day. You can switch that off, or check by hand, in Settings under Updates. The version you have is shown there ("You are on version ...") and under Chatcove > About Chatcove. The update check is one of the three network requests Chatcove makes, with the licence check and a problem report you choose to send. See Privacy for what each one sends.

Uninstall completely

1. In Chatcove, open Settings and click Remove license. This frees your device seat if you are online. Skip this if you never activated a licence.
2. Optional: to delete one iPhone's data from inside the app, open Settings > Storage and use Delete everything for this iPhone. This removes that iPhone's backup, the decrypted history, the search index and the media cache. It cannot be undone.
3. Quit Chatcove.
4. Drag Chatcove from your Applications folder to the Trash.
5. Delete the app data folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Chatcove/
6. Delete the log folder: ~/Library/Logs/Chatcove/
7. If you moved backups to another folder, delete the <iPhone UDID> folders Chatcove created inside that folder.
8. Open Keychain Access, search for Chatcove Safe Storage and delete that item. It holds the key Chatcove used to encrypt the saved backup passwords and the licence on this Mac.
9. If they exist, delete the cache folders ~/Library/Caches/chatvault-updater/, ~/Library/Caches/com.codama.chatcove/ and ~/Library/Caches/com.codama.chatcove.ShipIt/. The updater and macOS create them; they hold no chat content.

Your exports are not deleted by any of these steps. They are the files you saved, in the folders you chose.