Trouble replacing instances of "\\n" with "\n" in python, utf8

Question

with open('Datasets/[657667769831260191].txt', encoding="utf8") as f:
    textdata = f.read()
    ##TODO
    textdata.replace(r'\\n', '\n')
    usermessages = textdata.split(" ")

I'm having trouble replacing instances of "\\n" in a text file I've loaded into a JSON database. As part of cleaning the raw text there seem to be plenty of instances of "\n" and "\\n" the former I can deal with, however I cant seem to find a way for it to recognize literal instances of \\n.

Here is an example

        "texthistory": {
            "2022-02-02 16:59:10.313359": " Is it ok to pour milk before cereal",
            "2022-02-02 16:59:15.313359": " yes",
            "2022-02-02 16:59:37.313359": " so I can't eat cereal straight from the box\\nlame\\nI hate social norms",

as you can see there should be two more chat instances, instead they are left alone.

Answer 1

The answer ended up being a combination of multiple comments.

with open('Datasets/[657667769831260191].txt', encoding="utf8") as f:
    textdata = f.read()
    textdata = textdata.splitlines()
    nl = '\n'
    textdata = nl.join(textdata)
    textdata = textdata.replace('\\n', '\n')
    usermessages = textdata.split(" ")