How to recover deleted iMessage texts on your iPhone and iPad

If you make the unfortunate mistake of deleting an important message on your iPhone or simply change your mind after conducting a clean-out, having the knowledge of how to recover deleted messages can make all the difference.

Has it ever happened that you’re searching for an important message but you cannot find it? And then it hits you that you might have deleted the text message when clearing up space on your iPhone. You’ll be upset and thinking about whether it is possible to recover iMessage texts on your iPhone or not. Fortunately for you, there are ways to recover deleted text messages from your iPhone and iPad.

How to recover deleted iMessage texts directly from iMessage [iOS16]

Text messages deleted from an iPhone are retrievable without the use of iCloud, iTunes or third-party apps in iOS 16. If you delete a text message, you can actually recover it for up to 30 days.

• Open the Messages app on your iPhone and on the home screen, you’ll find a new folder named “Recently Deleted” near the bottom. Tap on that folder.
• In the Recently Deleted folder, you’ll see the list of recently deleted text messages. For every conversation, you’ll see the number of days on the right (e.g. 20 days). This will indicate the number of days left before the message gets deleted permanently.
• If you’re looking to recover the deleted messages, tap “Recover All” at the bottom right. If you want to retrieve particular messages, tap on the Checkbox displayed on the left of the message. Then, tap “Recover” displayed on the bottom.
• After you’ve selected either of the options, a confirmation pop-up display will appear on the screen. Once you’ve provided confirmation, the messages would be restored back.

How to retrieve deleted texts on iPhone from iCloud backup

• On your iPhone, tap “Settings” and your name.
• Then, on the screen titled “APPLE ID”, tap on the “iCloud” option.
• On the list of options, tap on “iCloud Backup”.
• Then, check the timestamp of the last backup to iCloud. If you’re confident that the backup was done before you deleted the messages, then you can restore all the deleted messages using iCloud backup.
• For doing that, you’ll have to erase your iPhone and then restore it to the backup that occurred right before the deletion.
• On your iPhone, navigate to Settings -> General -> Transfer or Reset iPhone.
• Then, tap “Erase All Content and Settings” on the next screen.
• After that, you’ll be redirected to a new screen titled “Erase This iPhone”. Go ahead and tap “Continue” for erasing the content of your device.
• Now, your device will restart like a new device. Follow the on-screen instructions until you’ve come across the “Apps & Data” screen.
• There, you should select the option “Restore from iCloud Backup” and choose the recent backup before deleting the text messages.
• Once you’ve completed the entire process, check whether the deleted messages have been restored back.

Conclusion

Here are some credible methods that can be utilized on iOS or iPadOS to recover text messages that were deleted inadvertently. You should make the most of this hack now that you understand how it operates so that you never miss any important messages.