Have you ever deleted a text message or conversation on your iPhone only to realize later that you still needed it? We’ve probably all been in that boat. Worry not, for there is a way to resuscitate a deleted message. But don’t wait too long. The iMessage app typically retains deleted texts for up to 40 days. As long as you act before that deadline, you should be able to recover that gone-but-not-forgotten message.
OK, fine, but what if you miss the deadline and need to access a text that’s been permanently deleted? One option is to turn to a third-party iPhone recovery tool. I use an iPhone utility called iMazing, which lets me back up my phone and selectively access specific data. I can even view older text messages without having to restore them to my phone.
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The main drawback here is that you’d already need a backup of your phone to restore any older and since-deleted text messages. So you’d want to use a program like this on a regular basis and before you start deleting messages that you might need in the future.
Here’s how both options works.
How to restore a deleted message in IMessage
To recover deleted messages and conversations in iMessage, you need iOS 16 or higher on your iPhone and iPadOS 16.1 or higher on your iPad. To check your device, go to Settings, select General, and tap Software Update. Download and install the latest version, if necessary.
Open iMessage. Assuming you’ve already looked for the message you want and can’t find it, it’s time to check out all deleted texts. If you already filter unknown senders, tap the Filters heading in the upper left. Otherwise, tap Edit. Change the selection to Recently Deleted. The list shows the name or phone number of each sender, the number of messages in each conversation, and the number of days that have passed since it was deleted.
If you find the conversation you wish to restore, select it and tap Recover at the bottom. You can also opt to restore more than one text at a time. Confirm the recovery.
Tap the Filters heading at the top and change the selection back to All Messages. Scan or search for the restored message. Tap it to view the message or messages and continue the conversation if you wish.
How to use a third-party backup tool to retrieve deleted texts
To access texts that have been permanently deleted, you can turn to a third-party backup tool. Here, you’re able to back up all the data on your phone and then selectively view any deleted content included in the backup.
Though you’ll find several such programs, I recommend the iMazing utility, which is free as long as you don’t actually restore any apps or data. Restoring a backup requires a paid license, which starts at $39.99 for a single device. The good news is that you can view and even export a message from the backup without having to restore it to your phone.
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Again, you must have already been using this tool for backups to view a deleted text. But this is a good option to cover your bases for the future.
Download and install iMazing. Connect your iPhone to your Windows PC or Mac via USB. Open iMazing and wait for it to pair with your phone. Once the pairing is complete, select your phone, check the checkbox for it, and then click Back Up.
On the next screen, turn on the switch for “Enable backup encryption” and add a password if you wish to encrypt the backup. Otherwise, leave this turned off. Select the option for Backup Location if you want to change the backup location from the default. When ready, click the Back Up button in the lower right. Wait for the backup to start and then complete.
Now let’s time travel to the future. You’ve been using iMazing or a similar program to back up your phone, hopefully on a regular basis, and now you need to access a deleted text. You’ve already checked the Recently Deleted area on your phone and came up empty.
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Fire up iMazing and select the category for Backups. Review the backups and select the one that you believe contains the since-deleted text. In the Backups window, select Messages. Allow the messages to be recovered and displayed. Select the since-deleted conversation from the list to view it. Right-click on it, and you can then export the text to a PDF, Excel spreadsheet, CSV file, or text file. You can also save any attachments and print the entire conversation.
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