- Author: Clint Olson (with JSON-parsing code from Jay2K1)
- License: MIT
- Meaning: Use everywhere, keep copyright, it'd be swell if you'd link back here.
Export Google Talk/Hangouts chats to logfiles
Uses a modified version of Jay2K1's Takeouts parser (for Hangouts chats) alongside a custom mbox parser (for older Google Talk chats made before mid-2013) to produce a single set of unified logfiles.
To use it, follow these steps:
- Export your Google Hangouts data using Google Takeout. You'll be using the "Hangouts.json" file from the archive this gives you.
- Enable IMAP on your GMail account.
- Check the box to make Chats show up in IMAP, as detailed here
- Download your GMail IMAP chats folder ([Gmail]/Chats) using a desktop email client (script tested with Thunderbird).
- Get the files that contain your chats. This script supports both the mbox format (one file, many "emails") and the Maildir format (one file per "email"):
- If using mbox, you can simply copy the mbox file directly from your profile directory (it may be located at
[thunderbird_profile]/ImapMail/imap.gmail.com/[Gmail].sbd/Chats). Or you can use Thunderbird's ImportExportTools addon to assist in obtaining the file required. - To use Maildir, you must enable the Maildir backend for Thunderbird. It's suggested to backup your emails first & enable maildir at the local level if you regularly use Thunderbird. Maildir can be enabled in the settings 3 different ways:
- Options - Advanced - Advanced Configuration - Message Store Type for new accounts
- Account Settings - Server Settings - Message Storage - Message Store Type
- Account Settings - Local Folders - Message Storage - Message Store Type
- Check out this repository to a directory.
- Run this command:
python gtalk_export.py -p <path/to/mbox_file_or_maildir_directory> -j <path/to/json_file> -n <your name> -e <your email>If using mbox, add-mto the end of the command
The program needs your name and email so that it knows who "you" are, and by extension who the other party is -- some of the mbox-format chats just list participants with no indication of which one is the account being parsed. Running the command will generate a large number of .txt files in the current working directory (one for each contact you conversed with).