Guide to Recover Deleted Text Messages from iPhone

Text messages have evolved from being merely a cute little feature of the iPhone to an indispensable and mainstream form of communication for millions of Apple users. Nowadays, many of us prefer to communicate over text instead of dialing someone’s number and giving them a call. Whether you like it being quiet or want to relay information quickly, text messages have become an important part of our life. Now, what if you accidentally lose all the important text messages that you so heavily rely on? It will be an absolute disaster. Thankfully, there are multiple ways to recover the deleted text messages on your iPhone.

In this article, we will show you some of the common reasons for losing your text messages from your iPhone and how you can restore them. We will also discuss some precautions that will help you prevent iPhone data loss. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

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Common Reasons for Losing Text Messages on iPhone

Even if you have the most cutting-edge, expensive, and flagship model of the iPhone, you can still lose your text messages for various reasons. This section will show you the three most frequent reasons for losing text messages on an iPhone.

1. Virus or Malware Threats

Virus and malware threats are among the regular sources of data loss in electronic devices, which includes your iPhone too. Malware can infect your iPhone if you click on any suspicious text or an email link. It can also infect your device when you visit a suspicious website with no SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate or download an app containing malware.

These viruses and malware can make you lose your precious data, make your iPhone malfunction, or even worse, steal your personal and financial information. That’s why you should always use antivirus software to protect your phone from these malicious threats. Plus, if you notice an increasing amount of text from unknown senders, block those numbers and don’t click on any link that comes with the texts.

2. Defective iOS Upgrades

Whenever Apple issues a new iOS update, it tries its best to fix the problems and bugs from the previous updates. But every update cannot be perfect. Whenever Apple releases a defective iOS upgrade, it may result in all sorts of problems. The problems can range from a simple split-second software freeze to severe data loss, including your text messages. Although you can’t predict when a faulty iOS upgrade hits you, you can still backup your iPhone’s data as a precaution.

3. Human Errors

What’s the most frequent reason for your iPhone data loss? That’s human error. After all, it’s effortless to accidentally touch the wrong button and delete all texts from your inbox. Maybe you were trying to delete just a few unnecessary texts, which went completely wrong. At this point, you are lamenting your deleted text messages right in the middle of nowhere.

That’s why when it comes to tech devices, you should always slow down and focus on what you are doing. Demonstrating your multitasking skills and your texting speed is good. But this will only create more opportunities to make an irreversible mistake that can lead you to lose all your texting data.

Now, you are aware of the most probable reasons for your iPhone data loss. By this point, what you need to know is how to restore the deleted iPhone text messages. In this section, we will show you four ways to recover erased text messages on your Apple iPhone device.

1. Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone Using iCloud Backup

Many iPhone users utilize Apple’s iCloud to back up the data of their iOS devices. Therefore, if you’re using iCloud to regularly back up your iPhone data, you can easily restore the deleted text messages from the available backups. Please note that this recovery method requires you to reset your iPhone to its original settings. Thus, you must back up all data of your iPhone to the cloud or any other storage medium. Some people might not like this method.

You can always skip this one and use the other methods we have mentioned. But if you have no problem, let’s continue. Before you use this method, you should check if you even have iCloud backups of your iPhone and when the last backup was saved. You can figure this out by navigating to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups. If you see relevant backups of your iPhone after following the path mentioned above, here’s what you need to do to recover your deleted text messages:

Tap on the “iPhone” option located under the “Backups” option to take a look at the size and the available data inside the backup file.
Once you verify that the backup contains the data you want, navigate to Settings > General > Reset.
Now, tap on the “Erase All Content and Settings” option.
Next, the “App & Data” screen will open. Here, tap on the “Restore from iCloud Backup” option.
After that, sign in using your Apple ID and you will be taken to the “Choose Backup” screen.
Now, select the backup you want to restore, follow some simple instructions, and you’re done. Now, your iPhone will be reset and the data of your chosen backup will be restored to your iOS device.

2. Use Finder Backups for Restoring Erased iPhone Text Messages

Do you have a Mac in your home? If you do, you may use this second method to recover the deleted text messages on your iPhone using Finder or iTunes. Here’s what you need to do:

Open “Finder” on your Mac if it’s running on macOS Cateline 10.15 or later. However, if your Mac has an earlier version of macOS, open “iTunes.”
Now, connect the iPhone with your Mac using a USB-C cable
Next, your device (iPhone) will appear on your “Finder” or “iTunes” window. Select the device.
After that, click on the “Restore Backups” option.
Select the backup you want to restore and click on it.
Now, if you have encrypted your backup, the Mac will be asking for the password. Enter the password and click on the “Restore” button. If you didn’t encrypt your backup, no prompt asking for a password will show up. In this case, simply click on the “Restore” button.
Wait for the restoration process to complete. Once the iPhone restarts, keep it connected with your Mac until the sync process is complete. After it syncs with your Mac, you can disconnect your iPhone.

That’s it. You should see your text messages back on your iPhone now.

3. Utilize Data Recovery Software to Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone

Didn’t make any previous backup of your iPhone’s data? No worries! You can still recover your important text messages using professional data recovery applications. But before we go any further, let’s see how the data recovery applications work and how they can help you restore your data.

How Does Data Recovery Software Work?

If you act quickly enough, you can recover your iPhone’s lost data using data recovery software. When any information gets deleted from your iPhone, it is not physically removed from your iOS device’s internal storage immediately. Instead, the deleted data becomes inaccessible and its storage location is marked as a potentially reusable space. Therefore, as long as you stop using your iPhone after the deletion of your text message and quickly use a data recovery application to recover the deleted data, you can still retrieve them.

The data recovery applications usually scan your iPhone’s internal storage and repair the shattered links that make the deleted data isolated and inaccessible. You can find a lot of different professional data recovery software for your iOS device. They all work similarly. The only difference is in their user interfaces, recovery capabilities, ease of use, intuitiveness, and sometimes, price.

It’s up to you which data recovery software you want to use. But you should always choose an application that has a lot of positive reviews and comes from a reputable data recovery company. If you don’t know which one to pick, we welcome you to go through our list of the best data recovery applications for iPhones.

Instructions for Using Data Restoration Applications to Retrieve Deleted iPhone Texts

So far, we have demonstrated how the data recovery application retrieves your data files and messages. At this point, we will show you the exact steps you need to take to retrieve your deleted text messages. Please note that most professional data recovery applications have a similar user interface and steps that are intuitive even to beginners. Ergo, this guide applies to the most renowned data recovery software. Here’s what you need to do to recover your lost iPhone messages:

Download and install the data recovery application of choice on your computer.
Next, connect the iPhone with your computer and launch the application.
Now, in the list of available devices and storage disks, select your iPhone.
After that, click on the “Search for lost data” or “Scan” button. Now, the software will scan your iPhone’s internal storage to find the recoverable files.
Once the scan is complete, find and review the text message files. Now, select the files you want to restore.
Next, click on the “Recover” button.

Congratulations! Now, you can download your chosen files on your computer. Later, you can transfer the file to your iPhone and access the text messages you rescued through the software.

3. Contact the Carrier You Use on iPhone

If none of the methods mentioned above work, there is only one thing left. Reach out to your cellular carrier to see if you can get any help. Some cellular network companies keep your text messages saved for a certain period before completely erasing them from their database. Thus, they might be able to help you restore the deleted iPhone text messages. Here’s what you need to do:

Go to the “Settings” app of your iPhone, and navigate to General > About.
Now, scroll down to find the name of your cellular network carrier.
Next, go to your network carrier’s official website and find their contact information.
Get in touch with the customer support agents and ask them if they could help you retrieve your deleted iPhone texts.

How to Prevent iPhone Text Message Deletion

We have shown you four step-by-step recovery methods that might help you recover the removed texts on an Apple device. Nonetheless, you should always take proper measures so you would never have to use them in the first place. Let’s take a look at some of the preventive measures every iPhone owner should follow:

Slow down and try to limit the habit of multitasking as much as possible, especially when you’re holding your iPhone. Believe us, it’s several times easier to accidentally tap on the delete button when you’re in a hurry and juggling multiple tasks at once. A few seconds of cautiousness will save you hours of headache later.
You should always back up the data of your iPhone at regular intervals. More importantly, always backup your iPhone’s data before a major iOS upgrade.
Never connect your iPhone with a computer you suspect might contain malicious files, viruses, and malware threats. Also, make sure that your iOS device is equipped with a proper antivirus/security application if possible.
Be careful of the people you hand your iPhone over to. An antagonistic person will need just a few seconds to delete all your important text messages. It’s unlikely to happen, but still, it doesn’t hurt to be careful, does it?