icq-history-viewer

Convert ICQ 6.x/7.x chat history databases (.mdb) into browsable HTML archives with a WhatsApp-style interface.

Screenshots

Chat list - overview of all conversations, sorted by message count:

Chat view - WhatsApp-style message bubbles with contact profile, date separators, and emoji conversion:

Full-text search - search across all messages with highlighting:

Features

• Reads ICQ Messages.mdb and Owner.mdb databases via mdb-export
• Generates responsive HTML chat logs with WhatsApp-style bubbles
• Full-text search across all messages (client-side, no server needed)
• Calendar timeline view with activity heatmap
• Multi-account support with master index page
• Contact profiles (name, location, gender, status message)
• Avatar extraction from ICQ BART cache
• ICQ emoji codes (*HAPPY*, :-{}, etc.) converted to Unicode emojis
• Automatic URL detection and linking
• Works offline - just open the HTML files in any browser

Prerequisites

• Python 3.6+
• mdbtools (provides the mdb-export command)

Install mdbtools

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install mdbtools

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install mdbtools

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S mdbtools

Usage

Single Account Export

Place your Messages.mdb file in the project directory, then run:

python3 export_chats.py

This reads Messages.mdb from the current directory and generates HTML files in chats/.

Multi-Account Export

If you have a full ICQ roaming data directory (typically C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\ICQ\ on Windows), place it as Roaming_ICQ/ in the project directory:

icq-history-viewer/
  Roaming_ICQ/
    <account_name_1>/
      Messages.mdb
      Owner.mdb
    <account_name_2>/
      Messages.mdb
      Owner.mdb
    BART/
      ...

Then run:

python3 export_all_accounts.py

This exports all accounts and creates:

• chats/accounts.html - master index of all accounts
• chats/<uid>/index.html - per-account chat list
• chats/<uid>/search.html - full-text search for that account
• chats/<uid>/timeline.html - calendar timeline view
• chats/<uid>/<contact>.html - individual chat logs

Viewing the Results

Open the generated HTML files directly in your browser:

# Single account
xdg-open chats/index.html

# Multi-account
xdg-open chats/accounts.html

No web server required - everything works with file:// URLs.

Where to Find Your ICQ Data

ICQ 6.x/7.x stored chat history in Microsoft Access databases:

OS	Typical Path
Windows XP	C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\ICQ\
Windows Vista/7/8/10	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\ICQ\

Each account folder contains Messages.mdb (chat history) and Owner.mdb (contact details, avatars).

License

MIT