Getting Chats in a file

[StefanScherbik]

My company has chat encryption turned on, and we do not store the chats centrally.

Given that, chats are stored locally on each user's device, hidden behind an encryption key.  I'm wondering if it's possible to access these chat files in plain English somehow.  Specifically, team chats from the Zoom client, outside of a meeting (not in-meeting chats--those are very easy to access).

I know we can technically copy chat text out of a chat by hitting CTRL-A and then CTRL-C to copy and then paste all of the chats out of the folder, but this does require that you keep scrolling up to load all of the chats you need before you can copy and then paste them, so this is quite tedious if you need a few months worth of chats.

I looked all through C:\Program Files\Zoom and couldn't find any files that might be a chat file.  And even so, that folder only contains a bunch of .dll files that I'm not sure could be read in plaintext anyway.

Does anyone know of a way to access a plaintext file that contains a user's locally stored chats?

[Bort]

Hi @StefanScherbik 

No, that is not possible, as it would invalidate the encryption and security efforts if the chats were stored in plaintext on the device. 

[StefanScherbik]

Ah, figured that was the case.  I guess there's just not an easy way to get chats when encryption is turned on.

[Bort]

Correct, using Advanced Chat Encryption is not suitable for everyone. Chat messages are still encrypted if Advanced Chat Encryption is disabled (just not E2EE), but admins can at least review stored chat messages from the admin portal.