Find the exchanges your lawyer needs to review.
A conversation may span years, while a particular question concerns a few dates. Use search to locate a discussion, then retain the surrounding exchange in your export. Examples might include a change to collection arrangements, a school update, or a discussion about an agreed expense.
Keep your own event notes separate from the transcript and identify the dates or message numbers they refer to. Your lawyer should decide which records are relevant to the custody or divorce matter.
Start with a period and a question.
Ask your lawyer which dates and exchanges are relevant. For example, you might need to locate a discussion about a collection time or a change to an agreed schedule. A defined scope is easier to review than an unexplained export of several years of messages.
MessageHarvest helps organize messages already present in a local iPhone backup. It does not determine what proves a claim, evaluate someone’s conduct, or guarantee a court will accept an export.
Prepare the conversation record.
- Preserve the relevant device and backup as advised by your lawyer.
- Import the local backup into MessageHarvest on a supported Mac.
- Find the conversation and search for the dates or exchanges you need.
- Choose a date range that includes the surrounding discussion.
- Export a PDF with participant information and a consistent report time zone.
- Check the document against the source and note known gaps or unavailable attachments.
The complete export guide covers backups and setup. The legal-review guide explains source preservation and file hashes.
Keep facts, messages, and notes separate.
Retain the original export. If you prepare a timeline, refer to dates or message numbers and distinguish your notes from the messages themselves. Avoid editing the source transcript to remove context.
If you need to redact personal information before sharing, ask your lawyer what to remove and retain an unmodified original. Do not send private records to more people than necessary.
Give the recipient a usable set of files.
Agree on the format and transfer method. PDF is convenient for reading; HTML can help when browsing a longer record. Include relevant attachments separately when the PDF alone does not convey them.
Open a sample PDF to see the layout before installing the app. The sample contains fictional demo messages.