How to Recover Deleted Text Messages on an iPhone

So, you’ve accidentally deleted some important text messages, and you’re worried they’re now gone forever, right? Well, not necessarily. There are a few different options you can try in order to recover deleted text messages from an iPhone. Now, your ability to recover deleted messages will vary depending on your device and carrier. However, we’ll discuss a few different options below which will hopefully up your odds of success.

From iTunes

Whenever you sync your iPhone with iTunes, an automatic backup is saved. If a previous version of your phone has the missing texts, you should be able to restore your phone to a previous date and recover the messages that way. First, you’re going to connect your phone to your computer, which should open iTunes (if not, you can just open iTunes manually). Then follow the steps below to restore your phone:

1. Click on the phone icon (in the top bar).

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2. Click on “Restore Backup…”

3. You can now choose which restore point you’d like to revert to; then click “Restore.”FullSizeRender (27)

Once you do this, your iPhone will restore to its previous incarnation, and you should have all your old texts back. This is probably the easiest option to recover lost data, but be warned–anything on your phone from after the restore date will be lost. So don’t get all trigger happy with that restore button until you’re sure you won’t lose something else important. You’d hate to recover the lost texts, only to find you’re now missing a bunch of other stuff.

From Third-Party Software

Another fairly painless way to recover deleted text messages (or any other information, for that matter) is through the use of a third-party recovery tool. The major downside to this option is that many of them cost money, some being as high as $75–not exactly cheap! But, if you really need to get those texts back, or if you happen to have seventy bucks burning a hole in your pocket, this might be your best option. On the upside, these tools are great in that you don’t have to restore everything on your phone, you can pick and choose the specific texts, files, photos, etc you wish to recover. Once you purchase the recovery tool you want, you just connect your device to a computer, run a scan with the software, and then choose the specific texts you want to restore.

However, be prudent in your choice of brand, there’s a lot of crapware out there disguised as legitimate software. Though I have not tested them all myself, a little interwebs investigating has led me to believe that these are probably some of your best options:

  • Tenorshare iPhone Data Recovery
  • Aiseesoft FoneLab
  • Wondershare Dr. Fone for iOS
  • EasUS Mobisaver (this one is free!)

From Your Carrier

It’s also possible that your carrier keeps a record of your texts, though what they save and how long they save it for varies greatly. For example, when I called Verizon, they claimed that I could recover text messages if I had synced my iPhone to Verizon’s cloud service. However, with a bit of digging, I discovered that, while this is true for some content, things like text messages, contacts, and call logs are actually deleted from the cloud when you delete them from your phone (as opposed to pictures, videos, songs and documents, which remain on the cloud even after they’ve been deleted from the device). However, on the off-chance you had synced your Verizon iPhone and then later un-synced it, it’s possible there could be texts on the cloud that are no longer on your phone. Basically, it’s a long shot, but if you’re desperate to recover deleted text messages, it’s worth it to call your carrier and see if they can help you.

So, there you go, folks–three options to help you retrieve deleted text messages from an iPhone. If you try any of these, be sure let us know in the comments below. We’d love to collect more data on which options work best for which devices.

And one final piece of advice before you mosey on to your next internet destination–don’t forget that the iOS 8 now gives you the option to automatically delete texts after either 30 days or 1 year. So, if you don’t want your phone chucking your old content, be sure to change your settings to “Forever.” Then maybe you won’t lose anything important in the first place.

For more iOS tips and tricks head to our iOS How To’s section.

3 thoughts on “How to Recover Deleted Text Messages on an iPhone”

  1. Here is how I get back my lost messages. You can have a look at it:

    When found messages disappear on your iPhone, please check your iTunes first.

    If you have backups dated before you deleted messages, you can use FonePaw iPhone Data Recovery to scan your iTunes backup files to get back these messages.

  2. Well, it’s technically possible for you to retrieve deleted text messages on iPhone.

    Restoring iPhone with iTunes is the fastest way to get the lost files back to iPhone. You only need to plug your iPhone into computer via USB cable, and choose “Restore” in the summary panel when the iPhone is recognized by iTunes. Choose the iPhone backup and click “Restore” to start restoring iPhone with the iPhone backup.

    Besides iTunes, you can use iCloud as well. Before using iCloud, you need to ensure that you have enabled iCloud on their computer. You can go to Settings > iCloud to have a check.

    But if you have added new data after the messages get lost, you may want to use another method to get your lost message back without messing up with the new iPhone data. At this moment, FonePaw iPhone Data Recovery program will provide you much help.

  3. Nice article! This is really details. And the third party software I recommend another software called FonePaw iPhone Data Recovery which is a professional mobile software company as well as Wondershare. A lot of mobile solutions you can find on their website, both videos and pages. And sometimes they will have promotion, it’s much cheaper.
    Of course, the iCloud and iTunes are the common choices for most users.

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