I am having trouble with the messages app. When updating to macOS Sierra I noticed all of my messages were erased from the app I am not sure if it was when I was making space for the download or after the installation.
All of my conversations were erased from the app and I was hoping to restore them as they have been on my computer since 2013. I have tried several different methods to restore my messages however none of them seem to work.
The first thing I did was access a backup and paste the below files to: /users/<name>/Library/Messages
By replacing those files it only erased my current conversations (July 10, 2016 - present) and did not restore any old conversations.
The other attempt was to restore the files from /users/<name>Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/iMessages/Archive
From this location I am able to click on invidual folders that date back to 2013 and view bits of conversations within folders however I am unable to import them back into the mesages app in one fluid stream. I have closed out of the message program and also restarted.
I hope this post was clear - please don't hesitate to ask any questions I would greatly appreciate any help in restoring my messages. I believe that I have everything I need infront of me to import my messages back into the application but there is something I am missing. Thanks in advance for the assistance!