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Your text chat logs are stored in the SQLite database file at вЂњDB/MM.sqliteвЂќ.

#SILK CODEC DECODER MP4#

The вЂњVideoвЂќ folder contains all videos and Sights youвЂ™ve sent and received, all in easy-to-open mp4 format. You can open them by just changing their extension to вЂњ.pngвЂќ. The image files have a вЂњ.picвЂќ extension but theyвЂ™re really just renamed png files. The вЂњImgвЂќ folder contains all the images youвЂ™ve sent and received in all your chats. aud files inside each of the conversation folders are your audio files.ДЄs an aside, thereвЂ™s a lot more that you can extract from here: Make sure that encryption is turned off for your backup. If itвЂ™s backing up to iCloud, change the setting and sync your device. You need to make sure that your phone is set to backup to your computer, and not to iCloud. Plug your phone or tablet into your computer and open iTunes.

WeChat has already changed their audio format once, and nothing is stopping them from changing it again if they feel itвЂ™s necessary. If youвЂ™re using Windows, or if youвЂ™re reading this in the future with later versions of the software, youвЂ™ll have to adapt the instructions to your own system.ДЄnd speaking of you future visitors, these instructions are valid as of WeChat version 6.3.7, which is the current version as of the publication of this article.

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These instructions are mainly focused on my own setup: using Mac OS X, iOS 9 and iTunes 12. You have to at least be comfortable with the command line and a C compiler. Extracting and converting WeChat audio messagesД«efore we get into the logistics of how this is done, I want to mention a few things about the instructions:

#SILK CODEC DECODER CODE#

Here, IвЂ™m presenting the steps, tools, and code that I used to convert them, in the hopes that they might be useful to other people in the future, as well as a description of the process I went through in trying to reverse-engineer their file format. I didnвЂ™t let that stop me, though, and I managed to reverse-engineer the audio format that WeChat uses. Searching online gave little illumination as to which type of format they use either, and no usable instructions for converting them into a more mundane format like mp3. This gave me access to an SQLite file that contained all the text content of my chats, a folder that contained all the images from those chats, another that contained all the video files, and so on.ДЄudio messages, though, were another beast, as they were kept in an undocumented format with the unusual extension of вЂњ.audвЂќ. The way I ended up doing it is by extracting WeChatвЂ™s data from my iPhoneвЂ™s backup on my computer. So I found myself realizing that if I was going to do this, I needed to do it myself. The problem is, WeChat offers no opportunity for bulk exporting chat logs: the most you can do is email a small, hand-selected set of messages to yourself, and that only brings across text content. Recently, I found myself wanting to extract some WeChat messages from my chat logs for use in a personal project. It allows for much quicker messaging when youвЂ™re on the move.

It was also far ahead of introducing features that are now standard in most chat apps: things like stickers, вЂњshareвЂќ messages from other apps, and audio messages were present in WeChat long before they made their way to services like Facebook Messenger.ДЄudio messages in particular are an interesting case: because Chinese text input is more complicated than English, many Chinese people just prefer pushing a button and speaking a short message to their friends than trying to type it out. ItвЂ™s a staple in China as much as Facebook is here, being used by pretty much everybody who has a smartphone. WeChat (Chinese: еѕ®дїЎ, wД›i xГ¬n) is a chat app popular in mainland China and used by many Chinese immigrants around the world.

#SILK CODEC DECODER HOW TO#

Want to skip the chatter and just find out how to extract and convert WeChat audio messages? Click here to skip to the instructions.

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