How to Download Gmail Chat Logs via IMAP

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by Heinz Tschabitscher
A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated July 29, 2019

Google stores transcripts of your Hangouts chat sessions within Gmail, accessible using the Chats label. These chats aren't locked in a proprietary chat format, however. Google stores them in Gmail as any other message. And because chat transcripts look like emails, you can export them as messages if you've configured Gmail to allow IMAP connections.

Download Gmail Chat Logs via IMAP

Before following these steps, make sure IMAP access is enabled for your Gmail account.

To access and export Google chat logs using an email program:

  1. Click the gear in Gmail's top right corner.

    Go to your Gmail inbox and click the gear icon in the upper-right corner, then select Settings from the menu that appears.

  2. Select Settings > Labels and ensure that Show in IMAP is checked for Chats under System Labels.

    Gmail Settings > Labels

  3. Set up Gmail via IMAP in your email program.

  4. Look for chat logs in the [Gmail]/Chats folder.

    Gmail Chats in Outlook

Downloading Your Chats

Use your email program's export tools to download a local copy of the Chats folder. For example, in Outlook 2016, print all the chats to PDF or visit File > Open & Export > Import/Export | Export to a File to export the Chats folder to an Outlook personal archive folder or a comma-separated value (CSV) data file.

Although you can copy the chat transcripts from the [Gmail]/Chats folder, you cannot import them to a different Gmail account by copying to that account's [Gmail]/Chats folder.

What Chats?

Google frequently changes the names and product offerings of its instant-communication tools. As of 2019, the chats interwoven into Gmail come from Google Hangouts. Chats from many years prior may have come from GChat, Google Talk, or other Google-sponsored chat tools.