Learn how to recover deleted messages on your iPhone.
Knowing how to recover deleted texts on your iPhone can be crucial if you accidentally delete an important message or simply change your mind after cleaning.
On iOS 15, there is no way to get a message back after you delete it.
Try as you might, you can’t make your gadget undo your mistake.
You can’t go into the Settings app and look for an undelete option or find your texts in the keep folder like you can with deleted photos.
Instead, you’ll have to go back in time to a moment before the message was removed.
However, this will depend on whether you have backed it up, either on your computer or, more simply, on iCloud.
Here’s how to recover lost texts on your iPhone, whether you have an iPhone 13 or another iOS 15 device.
How to Recover Deleted iPhone Messages: Use iCloud Backup
The first step in recovering lost texts on iPhone is to use iCloud to back up your device, which you should be doing regularly anyway.
This option can help you recover text or any other data if you accidentally delete it in the future.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap your name when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.
- Select iCloud from the menu.
- Double-check that the switch next to Messages is on.
It’s also a good idea to use iCloud Backup.
This may be already enabled in which case automatic backups are made.
If not, you can simply correct this. - Make sure iCloud backup is turned on.
If you just turned it on recently, tap Back up now
If your iPhone hasn’t backed up automatically in a while, you should do this as well.
Only when your iPhone is docked, locked, and connected to a Wi-Fi network can you achieve this.
How to recover lost iPhone texts from iPhone backup?
If you accidentally deleted the message text and want to recover it, see when your most recent backup was made.
This allows you to determine whether restoring a backup will be useful or not.
You won’t be able to recover a message if the only backup available is after you deleted the message, for example.
- Launch the Settings app and tap your name.
- Then select iCloud.
- Now tap on Manage Storage, if you don’t have iCloud backup turned on, there is little chance of successfully retrieving the messages.
- Tap Backups on the iCloud Storage screen, then select the backup you believe contains the message you’re looking for.
You’ll notice details about the backup, the most important of which is when it was last created.
If it looks like it will contain a deleted message, it’s time to try to recover it. - Return to the main settings menu and select General.
Then, at the bottom of the screen, select Transfer or Reset iPhone. - Now you need to wipe your iPhone completely, which requires you to press Erase All Content and Settings.
- Your iPhone will continue after the shutdown.
Once it’s back, continue through the setup procedure and tap Restore from iCloud Backup when you get to the Apps & Data page.
Select the backup option that you previously identified in the procedure.
All your backed-up data will now be restored.
How to recover lost iPhone texts from computer backup?
Backing up your iPhone to a computer is possible using iTunes on a PC or Finder on a Mac.
To do this, connect your iPhone to your computer’s USB port and select your device.
You will be prompted to back up your data, which will be stored on your computer, not in iCloud.
For example, on a Mac, you’d just click Back up all data from your iPhone to this Mac, then click Back Up Now to start the process.
To do this on Windows, open iTunes and select Summary from the left menu.
Select This PC from the Backups menu, and then click Back Up Now.