iPhone: How to recover deleted text messages

Have you deleted a text message by mistake? It has happened to all of us. However, there is a way to reverse the mistake: you can recover deleted messages on your iPhone. We show you how it's done.

iPhone: Recover text message via iCloud.com

The easiest way to get a lost message back is not to reset the whole iPhone via an old backup, but to use a little trick. This works with the website iCloud.com.

1. First you have to login to iCloud.com with your Apple ID.
2. Then select iMessages and see if the text message you are looking for is still there.
3. Switch to your iPhone, open "Settings", select the bar where your name is and then, at the bottom, "Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & AppStore".
4. Next, click on "iCloud" and switch off "Messages" with the slider.
5. Then Apple asks you if you want to retain your messages on the phone. You must select "Keep on my iPhone".
6. Now switch the slider for "Messages" in the iCloud settings back.
7. A popup should appear. Select "Merge".
8. After a moment the text messages should have recovered.

Restore messages via iTunes backup

If you made a backup of your iPhone when the required message was still there, you can follow these steps:

1. Connect your iPhone to the computer where the backup is saved.
2. If you have the backup on a Mac, open the Finder. If you want to restore the message from another laptop, open iTunes.
3. On the Mac, you can find your iPhone under the category "Locations". In iTunes you will find your iPhone under "Devices". In both cases click on your phone to select it.
4. No matter which device you use, you must now click on "Restore iPhone...". Then select the correct backup that still contains the deleted message.
5. After restoring all your messages are back. The same also works with an iCloud backup.

Recovering text messages without any kind of backup?

Whether you use iTunes, iCloud, or a third party, you must have your data backed up somewhere. Without a backup, you unfortunately can’t recover deleted messages on your iPhone.  So make sure to do a backup regularly.

Written by Felix Gillhuber