How to download telegram chat history

How to Export Telegram Chat History

Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram doesn’t allow users to backup chats to a cloud service. That’s because Telegram is a cloud platform in itself that saves all your data (chats, photos, videos, etc.) in its own cloud servers automatically. Therefore, your chats will not be deleted if you change phones without making a backup. But, if you still want to save the backup offline or send your chat history to someone, you can export Telegram chats. Let’s check both methods to do so quickly and efficiently.

Note: You can export Telegram chat history only from the Telegram desktop app and not from its mobile apps.

Content

1. Export Individual Telegram Chats
2. Export All Telegram Chats
Bonus: How to Export Telegram Chat to PDF
Frequently Asked Questions

1. Export Individual Telegram Chats

You can use this method to export chat history from individual Telegram chats, groups, or channels as shown below:

Install the Telegram desktop app on your computer. If you face any issues while installing Telegram on Linux, check our guide to install Telegram.
Open the Telegram app after installation and log in to your Telegram account using the one-time code sent to the Telegram app on your mobile.
In the Telegram desktop app, open the chat that you want to export.
Click on the three-dot icon at the top and select “Export chat history” from the menu.

The chat export settings pop-up window will show up. Select the items that should be exported in addition to text messages. You can select from photos, videos, voice messages, video messages, stickers, GIFs, and files.

From the same screen you can customize various other settings related to chat history. By default, files up to 8MB will be saved only. Use the size limit slider to extend the file size limit to save bigger files.

Click on the address label next to the “Path” to change the location of exported files on your computer. By default, it will be saved in the newly created “Telegram Desktop” folder present in your PC’s “Downloads” folder.

The app will export all the messages present in the chat history starting from the oldest to the present date by default. However, you can customize the time period and choose different start and end dates by tapping on the “From” and “To” labels.

Once all this is done, click on the “Export” button to start exporting the chat history.

The export process may take some time depending on the size of the chat. When finished, you will get the completed status pop-up.

Viewing Your Data

Click on “Show my data” to view the chat history on your computer.

Open the “ChatExport” folder by going to “This PC-> Downloads-> Telegram Desktop” to view the items exported from the chat, such as voice messages, video files, photos, messages, etc.

You might find multiple “messages.html” files depending on the size of the chat. These are your text messages in the human-readable format.

Double-click on these HTML files to open them in your default browser where you can read them easily. Or, attach the file to an e-mail to send it to someone else.

Similarly, you can export a group chat or a channel history.

Tip: Also learn how to create or manage Telegram channels.

2. Export All Telegram Chats

Telegram allows you to export your entire Telegram data. That includes messaging history from all chat threads (personal chats, groups, channels), photos, videos, account information, stickers, animated files, active sessions, and more. You can use this method to create an offline backup of your Telegram account data.

Open the Telegram desktop app on your computer.
Click on the three-bar icon at the top.

Select “Settings” from the menu.

Go to “Advanced”.

Swipe all the way down and click on “Export Telegram data”.

Now, select the items that you want to export, such as account information, personal chats, channels, video messages, photos, files, active sessions, etc. Just click on the checkboxes before the desired items to select them and uncheck the rest.

Note: You can either export all chats or a single chat (using the first method). You can’t select some chats.

Scroll down to set the maximum size limit of individual files that should be exported using the “Size limit” slider.

Scroll down further to change the download path and format for the exported files. Finally, click on “Export”.

The exported files will be saved in the “Downloads” folder of your PC.

Bonus: How to Export Telegram Chat to PDF

Telegram doesn’t offer a native way to export chats to PDF. You can, however, use the following two workarounds to convert Telegram chats to PDF.

1. Using Print Tool

First, export the Telegram chat history as shown above. Then, open the “Telegram Desktop” folder on your computer to see the exported files. Double-click on the “message.html” file to open it in the default browser.
Use Ctrl + P command to open the ‘Print” function.
Click on the drop-down box next to “Destination” and select “Save as PDF”.
Hit the “Save” button to download the PDF file of the Telegram chat.

Similarly, convert other HTML files into PDF.

2. Using Online Tools

You can also use online tools to convert HTML files into PDF. Some of the tools that you can try are:

Sejda
CloudConvert

Simply upload the “message.html” file in one of these websites and they will automatically do the rest of the work of converting it into PDF.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you merge or import exported chats back into Telegram?

Can you export secret chats?

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is no. Secret chats can’t be exported as these are available on mobile devices only.

How to backup Telegram chats to Google drive?

This is not done automatically like in the case of WhatsApp. You must first export Telegram chats to your computer and then upload the files manually to Google Drive.

All screenshots by Mehvish Mushtaq

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How to export chats, media, account details from Telegram: A step-by-step guide

In the last few weeks, Telegram has seen a huge jump in users. The jump is largely due to WhatsApp announcing a change in its privacy policy, which the company has not put on hold. While several WhatsApp users have moved to Telegram, the instant messaging app still continues to be the most popular in the world.

Among many features offered by WhatsApp, one feature that it offers better than rivals is support to export chats and take automatic backup. This helps users export chat to a text file and easily share with others or transfer them to another messaging app.

Telegram does not offer any automatic chat backup feature and users need to do it manually. Also, users need to rely on the desktop version of the Telegram app as the mobile version does have this feature.

Telegram on desktop offers a tool called Telegram Chat Export tool. This tool allows users to export almost anything and everything they want.

So, if you want to take chat backup on Telegram, follow our step-by-step guide:

But before this, let’s take a look at what all one can export using this tool

Things you can export using Telegram Chat Export tool

Information: All your profile information such as account name, ID, profile picture, phone number will be exported.
Contact List: This will export all your Telegram contacts including phone number and name.
Personal Chats: This option will export all your personal chats
Bot Chats: You can export all messages sent to Telegram bots
Private Groups: This will export private group messages
Only my Messages: This option will only export messages sent by you to private groups. All messages by other users will be excluded.
Private Channels: This will export all messages sent by you to private channels
Public Groups: Will export all messages sent or received in public groups
Public Channels: Exports everything from public channels
Photos: Exports all photos shared or received using Telegram
Video Files: Save all videos sent or received using Telegram
Voice Messages: Adds all voice messages to exported file
Stickers: Backup all your Stickers
Animated GIF: Choose this option to export Animated GIFs
Files: To export all files that you have shared or received
Active Sessions: Exports active session data
Miscellaneous Data: Exports all the random data left after above options

How to export Telegram data using the desktop app

First up, click here and download the Telegram app on your PC or laptop

Install it and login using your phone number you are using on your smartphone

After this, tap on three horizontal lines at the top left corner and choose Settings

Then, click on Advanced option

Now, click on Export Telegram Data option

Select all the data you want to export.

For instance, if you just want to export chats, then select the Chats option and uncheck rest. You can also select all the options if you want.

Click Export button to start exporting

Alternatively, there's a third-party Google Chrome extension, called Save Telegram Chat History.

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backup copies of messengers, social networks and storages

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saves everything you need

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If you store important information in the cloud, value letters, posts on social networks and correspondence in chats, a copy of this data may come in handy.

What you will learn

How to save your messenger data
How to save your social media data
How to download data from Google
How to download data from Apple iCloud
How to download mail and files from the cloud
How to copy other useful data

How to save messenger data

Telegram data. You can download correspondence in this messenger only through the Telegram Desktop application for Windows, macOS or Linux.

After installation, Telegram Desktop will ask you to scan a QR code through the Telegram app on your smartphone. You can download to your computer both the entire archive of correspondence and individual chats.

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Whatsapp data. In the messenger, you can request information about account settings or save chats.

Copies of chats are automatically saved to your smartphone every day. But you can store correspondence in the cloud or on your computer:

on Google Drive. To set up a backup of all correspondence, go to "Settings" → "Chats" → "Backup of chats". If there is no backup or it has been saved for a long time, click "Backup" and below select the frequency of saving data on Disk;
on a smartphone. To save a separate chat, go to it, select "More" → "Export chat" in the menu on the right. You can save only the correspondence without photos and videos, or the entire chat - and send the files, for example, to your mail or to the cloud, and from there download to your computer;
in iCloud. You can save all correspondence in "Settings" → "Chats" → "Backup" → "Create a copy". In the same place, select automatic saving and its frequency;
on iPhone. To save a specific chat, enter it, click on the contact or group name, then click "Export chat" and send it, for example, to mail or another messenger, and then save it to your computer. You can save a chat with or without photos and videos.

This is what backup settings look like on Android phones

To save personal information in the "Account" section in the settings, click "Request account details"

Click "Request Report" and wait 3-4 days

Viber data. To save a copy to the cloud, go to "More" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Backup". It can be run manually or on a schedule.

You can save a copy of your account data in the section "Privacy" → "Personal data" → "Data request". The application will tell you that it will take up to 14 days for them, but I received the file in seven minutes.

If you want to save messages on your computer and not depend on the Internet, you will have to install the old version of Viber - no higher than 10.5. It still had such an opportunity in the "Settings" menu → "Calls and messages" → "Send message history". For example, you can send an archive via email. But do not forget to make a cloud backup first - you will have to restore it in the installed old version of Viber.

The old version of the messenger may not be installed on your smartphone. If saving the archive outside the cloud is critical, find an old phone and install the application on it. For example, I managed to install version 10.5 on Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro.

You can find an old Viber by searching for Viber 10.5 apk in a search engine, but download app installers from unofficial resources at your own risk - they may be broken or infected.

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How to set up a backup of Viber correspondence on Android smartphones

How to save social network data

If you have been communicating on social networks for a long time, then you probably want to save posts and, possibly, some comments.

Instagram data. This social network allows you to save your entire account with posts, comments and reactions. To do this, on a smartphone, go to the section "Your actions" → "Download information", on a computer - to the section "Privacy and security" → "Download information".

Then enter the password, email address and click "Request data". The archive will be ready within 48 hours, a download link will be sent to your mail.

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How to backup data from Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

Facebook data. In this social network, you can save the history of your posts, comments and other actions for any period - from one day to the entire time of the account. To do this, go to the settings page and select "Your information on Facebook" → "Download information". In the app: "Settings and privacy" → "Settings" → "Download your information".

There are a lot of download settings, all are selected by default, but it is not necessary to save everything at once. You can leave the most important items - publications, comments and reactions, groups, profile information, friends and subscribers.

Select the data format - HTML is convenient for reading, photo quality and the period for which you want to save information. After that, click "Save file" on your computer or "Download file" in the application

When the archive is completed, you will receive a notification on Facebook and can download it. To save data on a computer or smartphone, you will need to enter your Facebook password.

Vkontakte data. In this social network, saving your posts and comments is available on the "Data protection" → "Data management procedure" page. Scroll to the end and click the "Request archive" button.

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In the window that opens, select what information you need: for example, page information, friends, subscriptions, messages, wall, photos. At the bottom of the list there is an estimated waiting time for the selected data. Then click "Submit Request" and confirm your decision with your account password.

Vkontakte will send a notification when the archive is ready for download.

Twitter data. This social network does not allow you to choose which data from your account to save, but all posts, comments and reactions, as well as profile settings will be added to the archive.

To request information from a computer, tap More → Settings & Privacy → Privacy & Security → Personalization & Data → View Your Twitter Data.

If you want to save the archive on your smartphone, go to the application menu → "Settings and privacy" → "Account" → "Data and access rights" → "Your data on Twitter".

After confirming the password, click the "Request archive" button. When it's ready, you'll receive an email and a notification in the app.

TikTok data. This social network uploads your data in one archive: profile information, videos, comments, likes, favorites.

To request an archive of your account, go to "Privacy" → "Personalization and data" and select "Upload your data". When the archive is ready, the option "Download data" will appear in the same menu.

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How to download data from Google

Google has made sure that users can quickly and easily save all the information they may need . There is a special tool for this - "Google Archiver".

What is Google Archiver and how to use it. To download everything you might need, go to the "Google Archiver" page. Choose what data you want to keep. Now there are 48 items on the list.

What data can be downloaded. You can save everything without understanding, or select the most important sections from those that you used:

"Google Account" - account registration and statistics;
"Google Drive" - all Google Docs files: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms;
"Gmail" - all messages, files and Gmail settings;
"Google Contacts" - the entire list of contacts from the account;
"Google Calendars" - all events marked in the Google calendar;
"Maps" - all your settings and saved places, separately in the next item "Maps (your places)" you can select reviews;
Hangouts - chat history, photos and videos from them;
Chrome - all settings, history and bookmarks of the Google Chrome browser;
Google Photos - all saved photos and videos;
Google Pay - bank card and payment information;
"YouTube and YouTube Music" - all files, comments, browsing and search history, videos from your own profile.

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Be careful: Google Drive can contain hundreds of gigabytes of data, and it may take several days to save. In order not to download all data from "Disk" to your computer, click in the "Disk" section the "All Disk data selected" button and cancel the download of unnecessary folders. The same with the video: in the "YouTube and YouTube Music" block, click the "All YouTube data selected" button and uncheck the "Video" line.

From the extensive list of data, select the required data

After selecting the desired data types in the account, click "Next". Now choose where to download the data: to a computer or to one of the cloud storages - to Disk, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box. I recommend keeping one copy on your computer or external drive, and the second can be added to the cloud.

How often to save - once or every two months - is up to you. The archive can be packed in ZIP or TGZ, the first option can be opened on any computer and smartphone, this is the best solution.

You can also split the archive into parts of 1, 2, 4, 10 or 50 GB. This will not affect the speed of creating an archive. For example, my data archive took up about 30 GB, excluding YouTube videos.

When the file export is complete, you will receive an email from Google Archiver with the subject "Your Google Account data is ready to download." You can immediately download them using the button in the email or click "Go to export management" and click the "Download" button there. Archives are available for a week after receiving the letter, after which you will have to create them again.

How to download data from Apple iCloud

Data is backed up on Apple devices every day. If you save manually, you will have to do this separately for each service. Here's how to save information across different Apple services.

Back up or make copies of data stored in iCloud - Apple

On your computer to download photos and videos from iCloud, go to the Photos section, select the files you want, and click Upload. On an iPhone or iPad, the path will be: “Photos” → select files → “More” → “Upload”. Videos and photos will be saved to the archive. To save any other files, also select them and click "Download".

To save contacts from the iCloud site, open Contacts, go to All Contacts, click any contact. Then click "Edit" → "Select All" and save the contacts to your computer's memory.

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To save your emails, select the desired mailbox in iCloud and click "Box" → "Export box".

To export a calendar, select the desired one, then "File" → "Export" → "Export".

To save bookmarks in the Safari browser, select File → Export Bookmarks and a location to save the file.

How to download mail and files from the cloud

Yandex services. In the Yandex profile settings, upload data from Zen, Market, and a search engine. But without letters, files from the "Disk" and calendar events - they will have to be dealt with separately.

To download the information, follow the link "Your data on Yandex" and select the required account if you have several. After that, you can immediately click the "Download data" button - and in a few hours you will receive an email with a link to download information from various Yandex services. Their list will open if you click the inscription "What data will be in the archive."

In Yandex, you can automatically save personal data from the browser, entries in Zen, the history of purchases on the Market

Mozilla Thunderbird;

The Bat!;

Apple Mail;

Opera Mail.

After that, you can export letters according to the instructions in each mail program. For example, in Microsoft Outlook do this:

On the File tab, select Open and Export → Import and Export.
Select Export to File, click Next.
Select an account on Yandex, check the box "Enable subfolders".
Click Next, then Browse, select the export folder, click OK.

You can only download data from Yandex Disk individually: go to Disk, select a folder or file, and click Download. If the folder weighs more than 5 GB or it contains more than 500 files, you will have to install the Yandex Disk program on your computer to download.

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You can download only one folder or a single file at a time directly from Yandex Disk

To download events from the calendar, select the one you need calendar, go to settings and click the "Export" button. The calendar is saved in iCal, HTML, or CalDAV protocol.

Dropbox. This cloud file storage has perhaps the easiest way to download data: select the desired folders or files and click "Download".

Mail.ru. You can save mail on your computer only after installing the mail client, as is the case with Yandex Mail. Data from the Cloud can only be downloaded in separate folders and files. You cannot download information from other Mail.ru services.

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Sberdisk. At the time of publication of the article, it is impossible to download all files from Sberdisk at once - only manually.

How to copy other payloads

Notion. To save important data from this service, go to the Settings and Members → Settings section and click the Export all workspace content button.

Free version only exports in CSV or HTML format. In the paid one, you can also choose PDF. You can download all the information in full or without attached files and images. The archive will be saved to your computer or smartphone.

In Notion, you can save an archive without files and pictures, but you cannot select specific data sets

Trello. You can't save task lists and other data from the free version of Trello, but you can create a file with profile, board, and workspace settings. To do this, open Trello settings and click the "Download personal data" button at the bottom of the page. The JSON file will open in a new window, but unless you're a developer, it's unlikely to be useful.

In the paid version of Trello Premium, you can download all information from your account in JSON or CSV formats, as well as in an archive in its original format.

Evernote. You can only save notes or notebooks in the Evernote desktop app:

Select the notebook or notes to export.
Right-click and click Export.
Select format - HTML or ENEX.
Determine if additional information is needed - the date the note was created, its author.
Click Export.

Other services and applications. It is impossible to name all the ways to download data from all the programs that you can use in one article. If saving information is possible, this will be written in the help of the application or service. Another option is to look for ways to download data through search engines.

How to save a chat in Telegram: export chat

You no longer have to think about how to save a chat in Telegram, invent complicated ways or take screenshots of every important message. We know about a special feature that will make life much easier! Everyone can use it - we will teach you, just read the review.

Transfer of one dialogue

Export chat to Telegram is a great feature that allows you to transfer all the information you need for storage on your device. The messenger has a special feature, you just need to click on a couple of buttons and decide what exactly you want to save.

Do you want to clear the chat? Then you are here

Important! This option only works in the desktop version - and the website is no help to us, we need to download and install the desktop application for the computer. Only here you will find the right button and be able to use such an interesting and useful feature.

First, let's talk about how to unload a chat from Telegram, if we are talking about correspondence with one specific person.

Enter the messenger;
Find in the list on the left the name of the user whose conversation you want to import to the device;
Click on the three dots at the top right;
Select "Export history" from the menu that appears.

Now comes the fun part. You will not only learn how to forward the entire chat in Telegram, but you can choose what exactly will be exported. Just check the boxes for the content to be saved:

Photos
Videos
Voice messages
Video messages
Stickers
GIFs
Files

Files can be selected with a size limit - just move the slider, which is located a little lower. Available range from 1 Mb to 2000 Mb!

Even more interesting is the last setting available! Importing a chat into Telegram can be configured for a specific time range. Click on "...to the current date". Decide for yourself from what date to what moment the correspondence will be downloaded, simply by using the built-in calendar. It is easy to determine a specific period - at least for a month, at least for six months, at least for the entire time the conversation has existed.

As soon as you finish working with the parameters, click on the "Export" button and wait until the chat backup process in Telegram is completed automatically. Messenger can be minimized, but not closed!

Once the process is complete, click on the "View" icon. The system will automatically open the folder where the file was saved. It is saved in HTML format, so you can view it through any browser installed on your computer.

How to export a chat in Telegram is understandable. We talked about the procedure for when you need to save one dialogue. What if you want to transfer all data? Let's use another guide!

Removing stickers in Telegram is as easy as shelling pears, read the source

Copying all data

If you know how to save Telegram correspondence on your phone, you may sooner or later want to download all the information without a trace. In order not to lose a single fragment of communication! Ready to help - follow our algorithm:

Open the application;
Click on the three bars at the top left;
Go to "Settings";

Find the "Advanced settings" subsection;

Click on the "Export Data..." button.

And now you can talk not just about how to download a chat in Telegram, but also what specific data you want to save. By tradition, it is enough to mark the desired category with a tick - or uncheck it.

Account information (your name, short username/nickname, phone number and profile photo history)
Contact list

But that's not all! Let's move on to the message history! Choose chat types:

Private
With bots
Private groups
Public groups
Private channels
Public channels

Everywhere you can put a mark for copying only your messages - this means that incoming messages from other participants will not be recorded.