Hey everyone, please help!!
I'm desperately trying to figure out how to get my old messages to appear in Messages after doing a hard erase of my MacBook Pro running Ventura 13.6. I have done the manual messages file transfer manually many times in the past with no issues, copying the proper files from the old computer to the new one's appropriate folders. This time however I cannot for the life of me get this to work.
For clarity, here's what I have done:
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On the old OS, I copied the entire Messages folder (Users/username/Library/Messages) to an external hard drive
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I erased my MacBook completely and reinstalled the OS so it was a now a brand new install
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I ensured that all of my permissions were set and that I am marked as the 'owner' of all files and folders in question (via Get Info)
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Re-installed the MacOS (Ventura 13.6), and then dragged old Messages folder from my external hard drive onto the desktop
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While having not het opened Messages app, I navigated to the new OS's messages folder (via the hidden library tab), and replaced (not merged) the entire folder's contents with my backup Messages folder that was copied from old OS
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Once it was replaced, I rebooted MacBook and then tried opening Messages, but there are no archived messages there, all you can do is start a new chat
As far as I can tell, the system seems to reject the three chat files (chat.db, chat.db-shm, and chat.db-wal) that I copied into the messages folder. As soon as I check the folder once I've rebooted or tried to open messages, I see that instead of replacing the files that were in the messages folder by default, it instead renamed them (chat.db.incompatible.v17008.sqlitedb et al in my case) and created another set of default files.
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As mentioned above, I've tried making sure that all files and enclosed folders have me as the owner (via Get Info)
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I tried redoing the 'drag and drop' step, first trying to 'replace' the messages folder, then trying to delete the default messages folder and then drag the new one in its place, and lastly trying to open the messages folder and delete all its contents (but keeping the messages folder) and then dragging the old messages files into that folder. None of these options worked either
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I also read in the forums that the issue could be coming from the fact that both installs share the same user name, so I tried setting up a new install with a different username, but this did not solve the issue
I have scoured the forums for an answer and tried all the methods that have been recommended to bypass this, but the problem persists. I've since tried wiping my MacBook again and starting from scratch, but to no avail.
If anyone has any possible suggestions I would very much appreciate it. Thanks all!
