How Do I Find Deleted Messages On My iPhone

Tip 2 How To Recover Deleted Text Messages From Itunes

For users who keep the good habit of backup iPhones regularly, messages lost and mistaken deletions are not so horrible because you can use iTunes backup to recover the deleted messages on iPhone. See how from the detailed steps below.

Step 1. Run the latest iTunes on your Windows PC or Mac. Connect your iPhone to the computer via a USB cable. If you find your iPhone cannot connect to iTunes, check how to fix it.

Step 2. Choose the Device icon on the top left side of the iTunes Window.

Step 3. Click “Restore Backup” on the right side of the Backups section. If you want to create a new backup, click Back Up Now.

Step 4. Choose the backup date in the drop-down menu of the box near the Device. You must;choose the date at which your messages are all on your iPhone.

Step 5. Choose “Restore” to bring back deleted messages on your iPhone.

How Is Recovery Possible

Now that youve breathed a sigh of relief that you can get your messages back, you might be wondering how thats even possible. After all, if somethings gone, isnt it just gone? Not necessarily, says Mark Soto, the founder of Cybericus, a cybersecurity firm in Milwaukee that frequently performs digital forensics on phones, recovering deleted text messages and emails. iPhone messages are stored in a database in what is called SQLite format. These messages arent immediately deleted from the databasetheyre instead added to a type of list called freelists, he explains. The messages in these freelists are then stored in records that can be accessed by iTunes and in your cloud backup. This is how forensic agencies are able to recover deleted messages.

A word of warning: Those freelists are eventually written over as you send more text messages. So, if youve accidentally deleted your messages, Soto says, dont send additional messages until after youve recovered the ones you lost.

Restore Deleted iPhone Messages From Itunes Backup

Note

• All iMessages will be replaced by the text messages in the backup after you click Restore Backup. What’s worse, you may lose the current data on your device.
• If you’re not sure whether the iTunes backup file you choose contains the deleted text messages, you can use option 2 from Part 3 which allows you to view your iTunes backup first to prevent you from choosing a wrong backup.

Also Check: How To Factory Reset An iPhone Xr

Recover Deleted Text Messages On iPhone With An Icloud Backup

If your iPhone is set to backup to iCloud, you may be able to recover a deleted text message from a recent backup by doing a full restore.

Note: An iCloud backup will revert your iPhone back to a point when you still had the deleted text messages, so you may lose some saved data or have to sign back into certain apps.

To recover deleted messages on iPhone with iCloud:

1. Open the Settings app and tap your name at the top.

2. Select iCloud > iCloud Backup and check that your iPhone has been backed up recently.

3. Go back to the main Settings menu and select General.

4. Scroll down and click Reset > Erase all Content and Settings > Erase now.

5. Your iPhone will take a few minutes to reset to factory conditions. After that, you’ll be greeted with the iPhone’s initial welcome screen. Go through the first few steps, and on the Apps & Data screen, choose “Restore from iCloud Backup.”

6. Sign in to iCloud to access your backups, then choose which backup you want to restore from the list of iCloud backups, each of which is dated. Pick the last backup before you deleted the text messages to recover them.

Solution : Recover Deleted Messages To iPhone Xs From Icloud Backup

One of the drawbacks of iTunes and iCloud backup is that we are unable to access one specific data in the backup. If we want to get some data backup from iCloud backup, we need to restore the whole backup file. In such cases, Syncios iOS Data Recovery comes very handy, as it can help you recover one specific text message from iCloud backup and restore it to your iPhone easily.

Step 1 Sign in iCloud.

Download and install this handy iPhone SMS Recovery on your comouter. After you click Recover from iCloud Backup File on the top of the primary, you will be prompted to sign in to iCloud. Please enter the correct Apple ID and password.

Note: if Syncios keeps saying “Wrong account or password”, then your Apple account might have been locked, please check our tutorial here.

Step 2 Download iCloud Backup.

Similarly, if you have synced iOS iDevices with iCloud before, then all the backup files will be detected automatically and listed after you logged in iCloud account. Just choose one backup file for your iPhone XS and click button. Then move further.

Step 3 Choose the type of files you’d like to download.

Now a dialog will pop up, all the contents from the iCloud backup file including messages, contacts, notes, calendar, Camera Roll and more will be displayed in detail. Then you just need to select the contents youd like to recover. Then click next to start scan the iCloud backup.

Step 4 Preview and choose the contents you want to recover.

You May Like: How To Screen Share iPhone To Samsung Tv

How To Search Deleted iPhone Messages

After a thorough search, if you still couldn’t find the old texts that you need, the iMessages or messages may have been deleted.

To search for old text messages that have been deleted from your iPhone, you can use a tool named FonePaw iPhone Data Recovery. This tool is designed to recover lost, deleted, and hidden data from iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It can also be used to check and pull up old SMS, MMS, and iMessages on your iPhone 11, XS/XR/X, 8/8 Plus/7/7 Plus, SE, or 6. And when you find these old text messages, you can retrieve them youâre your iPhone.

Retrieve Deleted Text On iPhone: From Itunes Backup

Instead of backing up to iCloud when your old messages are lying around in the Messages app, you may have an iTunes backup or Finder backup . If you do, you stand a better chance of recovering deleted SMS messages from iPhone. Make sure your most recent backup includes these deleted messages.

Basically, iTunes will save one backup for a device – every time you plug in your phone, iTunes will replace the older backup. So if there’s something in the backup you want to recover that was not currently on the phone, the data will be overwritten by the newer backup file.

Step 1: Launch iTunes or Finder.

Step 2: Connect your iPhone to the computer you use to back up the texts.

Step 3: Click iPhone icon in the top-left corner of iTunes windows. In Finder, select your device from the left menu bar.

Step 4: Click Restore Backup. All data in the backup should be restored to the device, with the deleted text messages appearing in the Message list.

Note that any new content since the date of the backup would be lost.

Recover deleted texts: using 3rd-party app

Can I recover deleted texts on iPhone without backup? The answer is Yes. Many third-party applications will work unless the deleted data has been overwritten. iPhone Data Recovery is an outstanding and reliable option that will scan the phone memory for the deleted texts, and recover one text conversation or some of messages with photos, as well as the attachments associated with the text messages.

You May Like: Battery Percentage iPhone 5s

Retrieve Deleted Imessages From Itunes Backup

Step 1: From the option “Recover from iTunes Backup”, click on option “Start”.

Then the program will show you all the iTunes backups detected on your computer. You can choose the iTunes backup which you would like to recover your deleted iMessages from, and click “Next”. The backup made for iOS 15 is also supported.

Step 2: A new menu appears which asks you for the type of files you want to recover. To select imessages, click on the checkbox adjacent to the option ‘Message’. Then click on the option ‘Scan’.

Step 3: After the scanning has been completed, the new window shows the preview of all the messages including the deleted imessages. Preview the specific content of them, and check the iMessages which you want to recover.

Step 4: After you click the “Recover” button, a new popup window appears asking you to select a location for the recovered iMessages. select a destination folder and then wait a few minutes for the recovery process to be completed.

How To Recover Deleted Photos From Itunes Backup

On macOS Mojave or earlier, or on a PC, you can restore deleted photos from an iTunes backup. Because iTunes can do a lot more besides restoring deleted data from backups, iPhone users are often afraid of going through the recovery process on their own. But with our instructions, youll be able to get your photos back with just a few clicks.;

Note: macOS Mojave is the last version of Apples operating system to ship with iTunes. In macOS Catalina and newer, iTunes is split into three different apps: Podcasts, TV, and Music.

To recover deleted photos from iTunes backup follow these steps:

Step 1. Open iTunes.

Step 2. Use an original Apple cable to connect your iPhone to your computer.

Step 3.Select the Restore Backup option.;

Step 4.Pick the most relevant backup.

Step 5. Click Restore and wait for the restore process to finish.;

Read Also: How To Add Ringtones To iPhone Ios 11

Recover Deleted Text Messages From iPhone Backups

If you have iPhone backups stored on your computer, you can search these backups for your deleted messages. If you don’t have a backup, you might still be able to recover your deleted messages by creating one, and extracting the deleted messages from there. Let’s look at each option.

Recover deleted messages using an existing backup

You can do this manually, or automatically, using an app such as iPhone Backup Extractor.

To do this manually, youd need to locate the backup files on your computer. We have a guide on how to find iPhone backups on your computer. If your backup is not encrypted, you could then take a look at this guide for help manually accessing data from your backup. However, it’s a tricky process, and your backup most likely is encrypted, in which case, extracting your messages automatically is the best option.

You can use iPhone Backup Extractor to access your backup information automatically, even from encrypted backups. Heres how to recover a message from an iPhone backup:

Recover deleted messages using a new backup

To recover deleted messages using a new backup:

Selectively Retrieve Deleted Text Messages From A Backup

Depending on your geographical jurisdiction, text messages may be saved to iCloud in the same way as photos or calendar entries. This feature enables you to recover deleted iPhone messages from any device that allows you to log into iCloud.com.

PRO Tip:Settings > > iCloud

Turning Text Messages off and on and then merging forces the messages stored in iCloud to be downloaded to your iPhone. Its a nice trick if it works for you and certainly worth a try. This method does not reset your iPhone as is done in the first technique covered in this article, so is considerably less intrusive.

Also Check: Can I Screen Mirror iPhone To Samsung Tv

Pressed Delete And Wished You Hadn’t We Show You How To Get Your Deleted iPhone Text Messages Back

ByMatt Egan, Global Editorial Director| 30 Jul 2021

With iMessage allowing iPhone users to share photos, videos, voice notes, GIFs and more via the Messages app, it can quickly accumulate a lot of space on your iPhone, so it’s smart to clear out new messages from time to time.

But what happens if you delete an important text during your mass clearout?;

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, and the good news is that there are a handful of ways to recover deleted texts from an iPhone: using iCloud, using iTunes, or using a third-party app.

We’ll guide you through each method in an effort to restore your valuable iPhone messages right here.

Alternatively, if your Messages app is taking up too much storage space on your iPhone, we explain how to delete all messages on an iPhone separately.

How to restore deleted texts using iCloud

• Best Prices Today:

If you’ve ever backed up your iPhone to iCloud, you should be able to restore whichever messages were on your iPhone at the time of the backup.

Note that Apple changed things around and introduced Messages in iCloud a while ago. Enabling this in the Settings menu of your iPhone syncs messages across all your devices that use the same Apple ID.

The downside to this is that deleted messages are wiped from all connected devices, and messages aren’t a part of standard iCloud backups with the functionality enabled.;

Check Settings > > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups to see which backups you have available.

• Best Prices Today:

S To Recover Deleted Photos From An iPhone On Windows

If you dont have access to Mac OS X and cant use Disk Drill to recover deleted photos from your iPhone, you can use dr.fone by Wondershare, a Windows data recovery application capable of recovering deleted photos from any iOS device.;

Step 1: . Launch the downloaded installation file and follow the installation instructions.;

Step 2: Connect your iPhone to your Windows PC. Make sure to use the USB cable that came with your iPhone. Third-party USB cables can sometimes cause connection issues.

Step 3: Launch dr.fone and choose the Recover iOS Data option.;

Step 4: Wait for dr.fone to detect your iPhone and click the Start Scan button. The application will scan your iPhone for deleted photos.;

Step 5: Select Camera Roll from the list of options on the left and preview the deleted photos.;

Step 6: Select which photos you want dr.fone to recover and click the Restore to Device button.

Also Check: How To Mirror iPhone To Samsung

I Use Messages In Icloud What Are My Options To Restore A Deleted Text

For folks that use iCloud and;Messages in iCloud, iOS automatically stores all your iMessages, text , and multimedia messages in iCloud. ;

Unfortunately,;Messages in iCloud updates automatically, so when you delete a message, photo, or conversation on one device, its immediately removed from all of your devices.

This syncing between devices means you always have the same view everywhere you use iMessageand thats normally a great feature.

But when you delete a message accidentally, its a very bad thingbecause that deleted message is no longer available on any device.

How To Recover Deleted Photos Via Icloud

If for some reason the photo isnt in the Photos Recently Deleted area, theres still a chance it can be recovered;via iCloud. Heres how to restore deleted photos on iPhone without backing it up to the computer first:

Follow these steps:

Recommended Reading: How To Find Out Blocked Numbers On iPhone

Restore Your iPhone With Itunes To Recover Deleted Text Messages

If you have a PC or are using macOS Mojave or earlier on your Mac, you can try this method to get back deleted text messages on your iPhone. However, if you have synced with this PC or Mac since deleting your text messages, this process will not work, as;iTunes only saves your most recent backup data for a restore. Assuming you have not synced with iTunes since you deleted your text messages, this method should restore your missing;messages back to your Messages app!

Contact Your Carrier And Ask For Help

If all the above options fail, you may be able to get some help from your cellular carrier. Some companies may save messages for a set amount of time and be able to help you recover your deleted iPhone messages. Use the following steps to try this method.

Don’t Miss: What Does Sound Check Do On iPhone

Recover Deleted Messages From Your Carrier

If all else fails, consider reaching out to your phone carrier. Some service providers keep a record of your text messages like they keep a record of your calls.;

You can access them, but you’ll either need to log in to your carrier account or use the service provider’s customer service line. Either way, it’s a good last-ditch effort to retrieve that deleted message from your iPhone.;