How Can You Recover Deleted Messages On Your iPhone?

Oops! Have you deleted an essential text message on your iPhone? Or did you misplace the device and want to retrieve old conversations on your new phone? If so, let's learn to retrieve the deleted text messages. The instructions given in this article particularly apply to iOS 11 and iOS 12.

Retrieving deleted text messages using iCloud

To recover the text messages successfully, you need to first check if you have turned on Messages in iCloud for your phone yet. This feature saves text messages in the cloud, making it easy to get the messages recovered in case the device is stolen, lost or dies.

To check if the feature is on, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings. Tap on your name and then tap on iCloud.
2. Now toggle the switch next to Messages.

In case of restoring an iPhone or purchasing a new one, if Messages in iCloud is enabled, after signing in using your Apple ID and setting up the device, the conversations will appear.

If Messages in iCloud is enabled but you have deleted the messages manually, they may be lost. The service operates as a synchronizing tool between devices, due to which any message deleted by users get removed from iCloud instantly. In case it isn't enabled, there is a possibility that old texts get saved either in iTunes or iCloud backup.

Note: In Messages in iCloud, you cannot restore messages from iTunes or iCloud backup because the backup doesn't include iMessages or standard texts as soon as Messages in iCloud turned on.

Recovering deleted messages using an iCloud backup

If the device backs up to the iCloud automatically, you can restore it to an earlier point in time.

Warning: If you restore your iPhone to an earlier point in time, it may result in the loss of any changes made after that specified time period. The lost items include new messages, videos, pictures, notes, and many more things.

Firstly, check when the most recent iCloud Backup was. If the latest backup was done when the messages still existed on the phone, there's still likelihood that you can restore the handset back in time so as to retrieve the messages.

For checking when the recent iCloud Backup occurred, follow these steps:

1. Visit Settings. Then, tap on your name and tap on iCloud.
2. If iCloud Backup is already on, check the bottom and see when the last backup occurred. In case iCloud Backup is off, you can't restore the phone with this method.
3. If the latest iCloud Backup took place before the deletion of the text messages, you can restore the iPhone from Backup. This process is similar on the iPhone as well as iPad.

Note: Don't back up iPhone to iCloud if the most current Backup consists of deleted messages. This will result in overwriting of old Backup with a new one. The new Backup won't consist of those messages.

Retrieving deleted text messages using iTunes Backup

If the iPhone is connected to the computer manually for backing up with iTunes, there might be a possibility to restore the device to the previous point in time with the Backup stored in the computer.

Warning: If you restore your iPhone to an earlier point in time, it may result in the loss of any changes made after that specified time period. The lost items include new messages, videos, pictures, notes, and many more things.

Firstly, check when the last iTunes backups occurred. If it occurred at the time when messages were present on the iPhone, you still have a chance to the device back in time for recovering the messages.

For checking when the last iTunes backup occurred.

1. Firstly, open the iTunes on a PC or Mac.
2. Choose Preferences in the menu bar.

3. Choose Devices in the General Preferences window.

4. Was your iPhone backed up with iTunes? If yes, you will see a list of backups existing on the computer. Note down the various available date options.

5. If you have the Backup which consists of those conversations which you want to restore, restore iPhone from Backup.

Recovering deleted text messages using third-party recovery tools

There are lots of third-party software applications which claim that they have the ability to restore the lost data on iPhone. There are two options for data recovery, which are actually quite popular, Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery and EaseUS MobiSaver. These apps do not guarantee results because the success rate depends on whether the iPhone has overwritten new data on the place where old messages were stored.