How to Download End-to-End Encrypted Messenger Chats

How to get the download

If you do not remember your password

The download will not start without it. Go to Accounts Center, then Password and security, then Change password, choose your Facebook account, and click Forgot your password? under the form. Facebook sends a code to your email or phone and lets you set a new one. Then return to the download page and click Download file again.

Encrypted chats may also be protected by a separate PIN. The Message storage screen has a Reset PIN option if Facebook asks for one you do not remember.

What is in the zip

The zip holds one JSON file per chat, all in one flat list with no folders. Each file is named after the other person followed by a number, such as Dana Reyes_4.json. The number just counts chats in the download. It does not mean part four of a conversation.

{
  "participants": [ "Dana Reyes", "Sam Ortiz" ],
  "threadName": "Dana Reyes_4",
  "messages": [
    {
      "isUnsent": false,
      "media": [],
      "reactions": [],
      "senderName": "Dana Reyes",
      "text": "Are you picking up the kids?",
      "timestamp": 1765645137382,
      "type": "text"
    }
  ]
}

• senderName is who sent the message and text is what it said.
• timestamp is the time as a 13-digit count of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 in UTC. Convert it with a tool such as epochconverter.com, and state the time zone you converted to.
• type is text, media, link or placeholder. A media entry has empty text and a file reference in media.
• isUnsent is true for a message the sender removed.
• reactions lists who reacted and with what.

How it differs from message_1.json

If you have also worked with the main Facebook download, three things are different here. The oldest message comes first, not the newest. The field names are different (senderName and text, where the main download uses sender_name and content). And accented letters and emoji appear correctly, without the garbling the main download is known for. The main download is covered in How to Read Facebook Messenger message_1.json Files.

What it covers and what it does not

This download holds only your end-to-end encrypted chats. In the download we examined, the earliest message fell in the same month as the Date created shown on the Message storage screen. Anything earlier has to come from the main Facebook download, so for a relationship that started before your chats were encrypted, you need both files to see the whole history.

The same person can also appear in more than one file, where Messenger treated the conversation as separate chats at different times. Some files have no messages in them at all. Neither is a sign that anything is missing.

Meta moves these menus from time to time. Meta’s own help page has the current steps if the ones above no longer match.

To request the main download, see How to Export Messenger and Instagram DMs for Court.

Reading it with Verity

Verity reads this zip as it is. Drop it on the upload box and it lists the conversations by name, joining separate chats with the same person. Drop it together with your main Facebook download and each person’s encrypted and earlier messages are analyzed as one conversation, with any message that appears in both counted once. Everything is read in your browser; the files are not uploaded.

This is general information, not legal advice. Verity is not a law firm, and requirements for authenticating a digital record vary by court — talk to an attorney about what your case specifically needs.