How to retrieve deleted text messages on your iPhone

As a passionate tech writer with a deep love for all things Apple, I’ve always admired how the company designs its products to be easy to use and reliable. However, I wasn’t prepared for the moment when I accidentally deleted some precious texts from my husband and couldn’t retrieve them from the Recently Deleted folder. In case you didn’t know, your deleted messages are stored there for 30 days. 

Determined to recover those memories, I embarked on a mission to get them back by any means necessary. And I did it!

In this guide, I’ll share the methods I discovered to recover deleted messages on your iPhone so you can protect your important conversations, too.

Here’s a quick overview of what you can do. For more details, see below.

Problem	Solution
Messages deleted within the last 30 days	Check the Recently Deleted folder.
Permanent message deletion or loss	Download Disk Drill on your Mac, and connect and scan your iPhone to recover unsaved, corrupted, or permanently deleted messages.
Need to recover older messages	Restore from an iCloud backup.
Recover from a local backup (Finder/iTunes)	Use Finder or iTunes to restore messages from a local backup.
Extract data without overwriting	Use AnyTrans to extract data without overwriting existing content.

Restore deleted messages from Recently Deleted

Before resorting to the heavy artillery, check to see if your messages are in the Recently Deleted folder. As mentioned, Apple keeps deleted messages there for 30 days, so your lost texts might be easy to find. If they’re not there, don’t worry! There are still ways to get them back. 

Here is how to retrieve deleted messages using the Recently Deleted option:

1. Open Messages.
2. Click Edit or Filter in the upper left corner of the screen and choose Show Recently Deleted.
3. Choose the conversation you want to retrieve and click Recover. Note that the iPhone allows you to recover only conversations, not individual messages.
4. That’s it. The deleted conversations will reappear on your message list.

Recover messages using Mac software

Want to know how I got my texts back? I used my Mac and one wonderful app.

To recover deleted messages on your iPhone, you can use Disk Drill for Mac. It finds deleted files of any format on the connected device or on the Mac itself.

Here’s how to retrieve deleted text messages on iPhone using this app:

1. Install and open DiskDrill on your Mac.
2. Connect your device to the Mac.
3. Choose Devices > your device in the left sidebar.
4. Click Search for lost data in the right sidebar and wait for the scan to complete.
5. When the process is complete, choose Messages and click Recover.

You might also find this helpful: How to download text messages from iPhone. 

Restoring texts from an iCloud backup

Another method to retrieve messages is restoring from an iCloud backup. However, in my case, this wasn’t helpful because my most recent backup was made after the messages were deleted, so they weren’t included. Additionally, you won’t be able to get your messages back if your iCloud storage is full, as new backups might not be created.

Still, you can look through your backups and remember which version might contain the conversation you need.

To see if you have a backup and when it was created, go to  Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Manage Account Storage > Backups.

Tap the iPhone listed under backups to see the size and data of the most recent backup. Once you confirm that you want to use this backup to restore, continue with the steps below.

Here’s how to recover deleted texts on iPhone using iCloud backup:

1. Tap Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
2. Next, tap Erase All Content and Settings.
3. After reset, sign in with your Apple ID.
4. On the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen, tap From iCloud Backup.
5. Proceed to Choose backup and select from a list of available backups in iCloud.

Keep in mind that after these steps, the current version of the data on your iPhone will be erased. If you want to keep it, back up your iPhone to your Mac.

Recover text messages from an iTunes/Finder

If you are using a Mac with macOS 10.15 or later, your backup will be done via Finder. For older macOS, iTunes manages the backup. Here’s how to restore deleted messages on iPhone via Finder or iTunes: 

1. Connect your iPhone to Mac and open Finder or iTunes.
2. In Finder, find the name of your device under Locations, and click on it. In iTunes, click the phone icon and choose Summary.
3. If you have a backup of your phone on your Mac, you’ll be able to restore it by clicking Restore Backup.

Note that you’ll be asked for a password of an encrypted backup, so have it handy if you have previously encrypted your backups.

This method works just as an iCloud restore, so it requires you to have previously backed up your iPhone to your Mac.

How to recover deleted texts without overwriting your iPhone

The previous original methods of recovering messages that I described require overwriting the iPhone. That is, new files will be written to replace the previous ones. If you are not comfortable with this, try to extract messages from icloud.com. It may archive deleted messages. However, this method is not 100% reliable, as it is not supported in all countries and not with all mobile operators.

Here’s how to get your messages back on your iPhone through icloud.com without overwriting your device:

1. Sign in to icloud.com with your Apple ID.
2. Click the text message icon. If you don’t see it, the option isn’t available to you. Try another recovery method.
3. Find the message you are searching for on the list that opens.
4. Go to your iPhone and choose Settings > iCloud.
5. Turn off Text Messages and choose Keep on My iPhone on the pop-up that appears.
6. Turn back on text messages and tap Merge. You just have to wait for the process to complete, and the old messages should appear on your iPhone.

Try to connect your phone provider

Another way to get lost text messages is to contact your phone provider. Note that I am talking about SMS, not iMessage.

The provider may keep copies of the messages, and there is a chance to get access to them. The procedure can be complicated. 

How to undelete messages on iPhone via phone provider?

Contact your operator by phone. Tell them when you received the message, who the sender is, and answer any questions they may have. Difficulties may arise at this stage. The provider may simply not have a copy of your message because it was sent too long ago. Usually, if they do keep messages, it is no longer than 3-9 months.

If the copies are stored, you will need to perform a lot of actions to verify your identity and give a lot of permissions.

Therefore, I advise you to use this option only when all other methods have been exhausted and the message is really important.

Summary: The best method to undelete iPhone messages

If you jumped here without reading the article, here’s a quick recap:

• When you delete messages from your iPhone, they don’t just disappear. They go into a trash bin where they stay for 30 days before being permanently deleted. That means you can recover your conversations for at least a month! If you don’t have a Recently Deleted folder on your phone, or if you want to recover messages that are more than 30 days old, Try iCloud backup.
• You can also use the existing backup stored locally on your Mac. If you have a Mac with macOS 10.15 or later, your backup is handled by the Finder. For older macOS, iTunes handles the backup.
• The fastest method to recover lost messages on your iPhone is to connect it to a Mac and scan it with Disk Drill installed. By the way, the app works not only with messages, but also with files of other formats (for example, photos). 
• Another handy tool you might like is AnyTrans. It allows you to extract data from old iCloud or iTunes backups without overwriting them. You can find both apps on Setapp. They, along with 240+ other tools for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, come together in one subscription. Try it for free for seven days.

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