ThreadlodeExport text messages to Excel or CSV
A spreadsheet is the easiest way to sort, filter or count messages. Threadlode exports one row per message from Android XML backups, iPhone backups and Mac Messages.
Columns
| Column | Content |
|---|---|
| date | Local date and time (a real Excel date in .xlsx) |
| conversation | Contact name, number or group name |
| direction | sent, received or event |
| from / to | Sender and recipients |
| text / subject | Message text and MMS subject |
| attachments | File names of photos and other attachments |
| service / reactions / flags | SMS, MMS or iMessage; tapbacks; edited, unsent, draft, failed |
Steps
- Open your backup in Threadlode.
- In Export, choose all conversations or only the open one, and an optional date range.
- Click Excel (.xlsx) or CSV.
Excel or CSV?
The .xlsx file opens directly in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets, with frozen headers and filters. The CSV is UTF-8 with a byte-order mark, so emoji and accents show correctly in Excel. Very large exports are split over several sheets because Excel allows about one million rows per sheet.
Questions and answers
Are photos included in the spreadsheet?
The file names are. To get the photos themselves, export the HTML archive (.zip) – it contains every attachment.
Last updated: 2026-10-26