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Sunday, February 20, 2011

How To Recover Yahoo Chats

Instant messages are unlike emails. They don’t get automatically saved unless you specified the application to do otherwise. This feature is offered in Yahoo! Messenger. You can always recover Yahoo chats as long as the chat archive feature is turned on. Below are the steps on how to turn on this YM feature:

* Sign up to your Yahoo! Messenger account. Download and install the latest Yahoo! Messenger version if your computer has none of this yet. Installing this is as easy as following on-screen instructions. Sign-in to your YM account after that.
* Access the “Preferences.” To do this, go to “Messenger” on the main menu and choose “Preferences.” Another way to do this is by pressing CTRL+Shift+P to load the Preferences window.
* Choose “Archive” from the Category section. This will load choices of archiving Yahoo! Messenger chats like saving all messages, saving all messages but clearing them after signing out, and not saving any messages. Choose the “Yes, save all of my messages” so that YM will archive all of your Yahoo chats. Recovering chat history is impossible without setting this first. Click “OK.”
* Chat messages are saved in the computer, not in your account. So recovering those messages is only possible if you use the same computer. Here’s how to recover those messages:
* Sign in to your Yahoo! Messenger account. Click on “Contacts” from main menu. Look for “Message Archive” and click that. The Message Archive window will load up.
* Search for specific Yahoo chats. Click the “Messages” folder in the left-hand pane in Message Archive window. There are also archives for Conferences and SMS Messages. You’ll see the messages saved based on YM contacts. Click on one contact and you’ll be able to view exchange of chat messages with that person, including the date and time that the messages were sent.
* Save selected Yahoo! messages. Select a folder from that contact’s messages. Click on the floppy disk icon. The Save Conversation History window will appear. Type in your preferred filename for the TXT file in the “File Name” text box. Select also the location for saving the file. Click on “Save.” Check if you have saved the right Yahoo chat history by locating and opening that TXT file.


Yahoo! Messenger decoder applications can also be used to recover Yahoo chats. These data were saved as log files, which are not comprehensible for humans. These decoders can translate the messages into something that you can understand.

Yahoo Messenger Log Viewer is one of the many YM decoders out there. This is a freeware, which is not only useful for recovering Yahoo chats. It can be used to secretly archive YM conversation in the installed computer. This application and other YM decoders can be very intrusive to other people’s privacy. So use this only for a good reason like tracking how a child, employee, or spouse exchanges information online.

Other instant messaging applications besides Yahoo! Messenger have their own ways of recovering chat history. Their archives work similar to YM. So if you know how to do this on YM, you will also get the idea on how to do it on other applications. Just be careful when choosing to save your chat history. There are ways for other people to know your online conversations. So if you need to send sensitive information, better do it offline rather than send it over through a chat.

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