How to Recover Deleted Text Messages: Your Complete Guide
Updated April 17, 2024
Whether you need a copy of your text messages for legal purposes, business records, or just for sentimental value, it’s useful to know how to recover deleted text messages. The question of how to do so, however, might cause panic when you start searching through your phone for a special text and realize it’s no longer there.
While our mass texting service allows business clients to keep copies of all text logs for future reference, we’re also experts in all things text messaging — and know all the tricks when it comes to retrieving deleted texts from your iPhone or Android.
Need to recover deleted text messages from your phone? Whether you’re smartphone addicted or need your texts for serious reasons, here’s your guide for how to get those lost text messages back.
Method 1: Recover deleted text messages from iPhone backup
Now that the macOS Catalina has removed the iTunes app, you can no longer use iTunes to recover lost text messages. However, you can still retrieve deleted texts from iCloud if your text messages have previously been backed up. Here’s how to do it:
- Step 1: Open Settings and tap on your name or picture at the top
- Step 2: Select iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups
- Step 3: Search to see if your old text messages are included in a prior back up
- Step 4: Restore your iPhone to the old backup. Go to General > Reset > Erase all content. When your phone resets, you’ll have the opportunity to restore it from an old back up (make sure you choose the correct one).
Method 2: Recover deleted texts messages from iCloud website
Not all territories or carriers will allow iCloud to backup SMS messages, but some do! If you’re in that lucky category, this could be the simplest way to recover text messages.
- Step 1: Log in to iCloud.com using your Apple ID
- Step 2: Select text messages (Note: if the “text messages” icon doesn’t appear, your SMS messages are most likely not backed up to iCloud).
- Step 3: Find the deleted messages you need to retrieve
- Step 4: From your iPhone, select: Settings > [Your name] > iCloud. Then, turn off text messages.
- Step 5: A pop up will appear, select “Keep On My iPhone”
- Step 6: Turn text messages on
- Step 7: Select “Merge.” Your deleted text messages should then reappear on your iPhone
Method 3: Recover deleted texts on Android
Need to recover deleted texts from an Android? In most cases, when you delete an SMS or MMS file on an Android, it doesn’t trash the file immediately. Instead, it marks the file as “inactive,” signaling to your phone that it can write over that information to replace it with new data — such as new text messages. Therefore, if you discover you’ve deleted an important SMS from your Android and need to get it back, stop using your phone immediately.
Then, you can use a data recovery software like DroidKit, Dr.Fone, or SMS Backup & Restore to search for the deleted SMS or MMS message. Each software has its own instructions. If you don’t feel comfortable running the software on your PC, reach out to a local company with expertise in data recovery.
Method 4: Contact your carrier
If you really need those deleted text messages and the above methods haven’t worked for you, consider contacting your phone carrier. Some companies keep a record of your text messages, although you might need a court order to gain access.
Here is a list of the retention periods of major carriers from the ACLU:
How to recover deleted text messages from your business texting software
One of the most frustrating experiences for marketing managers and customer service leaders is trying to recover a chain of text messages only to discover their business texting software didn’t save them. In these cases, it’s almost impossible to recover prior text messages. To guard against this situation, make sure you choose a business texting platform that continuously saves customer interaction logs. Here are some cases where detailed customer SMS records come in handy:
- Customer disputes: Having a record of what was texted, when, and by whom can be essential when it comes to solving customer service disputes. This is particularly important if you experience any legal difficulties with any of your clients.
- Employee records: If you use text messaging for corporate communications, saving your text messages can give you a paper trail if any of your practices are called into question.
- Marketing details: Knowing the details of a marketing campaign—including the wording of your SMS messages, the time they were sent, and key performance metrics—is essential not just when it comes to planning your next campaign, but also in the case of employee turnover or transition between roles. Recovering deleted texts for marketing is almost impossible and could hold your company back from conversion optimization.
If you accidentally delete customer text logs or interactions, reach out to your business text messaging platform’s customer support team to inquire about restoring that data as soon as possible.
How to prevent deleted business text messages
To prevent accidentally deleting your business text messages, here’s what you should check on (even if you aren’t tech savvy).
- Where are text logs saved? Ask your mass text messaging platform how they save customer interactions, or if they save them at all.
- How long are texts stored? Get clarity from your business texting provider on how long they will store your texts. This is very important if you need to save texts securely for a certain time period, which is the case for some medical offices or educational institutions.
- How can you access text logs? Find out if you’re able to review saved texts yourself or if you need to be granted access by your business texting platform.
By reviewing these questions in advance, you can prevent the need to retrieve deleted texts later down the road.
