Whether you delete your iPhone information regularly or recently deleted them in large quantities in order to free up storage space, you should pay attention to saving the texts you still need.
However, if you accidentally delete some text messages that you want to keep, don’t panic – there are several different ways to recover lost text messages on your iPhone.
Here’s what you should know.
Recover your information with iOS 16
With iOS 16, you can recover all text messages deleted within a month.
You can achieve this by navigating to Messages> Edit or Filter > display recently deleted information.
There, you’ll see a list of any deleted information available for recovery. You can recover all the information, or only some of the information you choose.
Use iCloud
If your iPhone is set up to backup to iCloud, you may be able to use a recent backup to restore deleted text messages.
This will restore your iPhone to the state it was in when you made that backup, which means that while it can help you recover text messages, you may lose some other data.
To do this:
1. Open the Settings app and tap on your name at the top.
2. Select iCloud and make sure to open Info in the list of apps.
3. Tap iCloud Backup. Check if your iPhone has been backed up recently.
4. Go back to the main menu of the Settings app, select General, then scroll down and select Reset or Reset iPhone depending on your iOS version.
5. Tap Clear all content and settings and confirm that this is what you want to do. You may need to provide your iCloud password to turn off Find Me.
6. Your iPhone will take a few minutes to reset to factory state. After that, you will see the initial welcome screen of your iPhone. With the first few steps, on the Apps & Data screen, select Restore from iCloud backup.
7. Log in to iCloud to access your backup and select the last backup before you delete the text messages you want to recover.
Try iTunes or Finder
If you backup your iPhone to Mac or PC instead of iCloud, you can try to restore your iPhone with that backup. This means that if you have Windows, you can use iTunes, and if you are on a Mac, you can use Finder.
To get back deleted iPhone information with iTunes or Finder:
1. Connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes or Finder if they don’t pop up automatically.
2. In iTunes, tap the phone icon at the top of the screen and select Summary from the menu on the left. In Finder, tap the phone’s name under Location.
3. Click “Restore Backup” and hope that your old text messages will reappear on your phone. If not, your backup does not include these texts.
Request deletion of information from your carrier
If all else fails, consider contacting your phone carrier. Some service providers keep your text message history just like a phone call.
You’ll need to log in to your carrier account or use your service provider’s customer service line. Either way, this is the last effort to get back deleted information from your iPhone.
