How can you find deleted text messages

Table of Contents Show

Try iTunes or Finder
Restore deleted messages from your carrier
What Are My Options for Recovering Deleted Texts on Android?
Restore Deleted Text Messages With a Backup
Restore Deleted SMS Messages Without a Backup
Future Tip: Enable Backups on Your Android Phone
Can I retrieve deleted text messages?
Where do deleted texts go?

You can retrieve deleted text messages on your iPhone by restoring it with an iCloud backup.
If you save backups to your computer, you can use iTunes or Finder to recover your iPhone's texts.
If all else fails, reach out to your cellular carrier — they may restore deleted messages for you.

Whether you regularly delete your iPhone messages, or recently mass deleted them to free up storage space, you should always take care to save the texts you still need.

But if you've accidentally deleted some text messages that you meant to keep, don't panic — there are a few different ways to recover lost text messages on your iPhone. Here's what you should know.

Use iCloud

If your iPhone is set to backup to iCloud, you might be able to recover deleted text messages using a recent backup. This will revert your iPhone back to the point when you made that backup, meaning that while it can help you recover the text message, you might lose some other data.

To do this:

1. Open the Settings app and tap your name at the top.

2. Select iCloud, and make sure that Messages are turned on in the list of apps.

3. Tap iCloud Backup. Check that your iPhone has been backed up recently.

Make sure you've got backups turned on, and you've been saving them. Apple; William Antonelli/Insider

4. Go back to the main Settings app menu and select General, then scroll down and select either Reset or Transfer or Reset iPhone, depending on what iOS version you have.

5. Tap Erase All Content and Settings, then confirm that it's what you want to do. You'll likely have to provide your iCloud password to turn off Find My.

6. Your iPhone will take a few minutes to reset to factory conditions. After that, you'll be greeted with the iPhone's initial welcome screen. Go through the first few steps, and on the Apps & Data screen, choose Restore from iCloud Backup.

Set up your iPhone using the iCloud backup. Apple

7. Sign into iCloud to access your backups, then choose the last backup before you deleted the text messages you want to recover.

Try iTunes or Finder

If you backed up your iPhone onto a Mac or PC instead of iCloud, you can try restoring your iPhone with that backup instead. This means using iTunes if you have Windows, or Finder if you're on a Mac.

To retrieve deleted iPhone messages with iTunes or Finder:

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes or Finder, if they don't pop up automatically.

2. In iTunes, click on the phone icon at the top of the screen and choose Summary from the menu on the left. In Finder, click your phone's name under Locations.

3. Click Restore Backup and your old texts will hopefully reappear on your phone. If they don't, your backup didn't include these texts.

Click "Restore Backup" to use the backup saved on your computer. Laura McCamy/Insider

Restore deleted messages from your carrier

If all else fails, consider reaching out to your phone carrier. Some service providers keep a record of your text messages like they keep a record of your calls.

You'll either need to log in to your carrier account or use the service provider's customer service line. Either way, it's a good last-ditch effort to retrieve that deleted message from your iPhone.

William Antonelli

Tech Reporter for Insider Reviews

William Antonelli (he/she/they) is a writer, editor, and organizer based in New York City. As a founding member of the Reference team, he helped grow Tech Reference (now part of Insider Reviews) from humble beginnings into a juggernaut that attracts over 20 million visits a month. Outside of Insider, his writing has appeared in publications like Polygon, The Outline, Kotaku, and more. He's also a go-to source for tech analysis on channels like Newsy, Cheddar, and NewsNation. You can find him on Twitter @DubsRewatcher, or reach him by email at .

What Are My Options for Recovering Deleted Texts on Android?

Depending on whether you created your phone’s backup prior to losing your messages or not, you have two options for performing a recovery.

If you made a Google Drive backup before you lost your messages, simply restore the backup and all your SMS and MMS messages will be back. Be warned that this involves a factory reset, but a reset is good for optimizing your phone’s efficiency anyway.

In case you forgot to make a backup, all hope is still not lost. There are several Android message recovery apps on the market, and you can use one or multiple of these apps to try and potentially recover your text messages.

Note: The exact steps to follow vary by the device you use. This guide gives you a general idea of the steps you need to follow.

Restore Deleted Text Messages With a Backup

If you have enabled Google Drive backups on your Android phone, you can restore your backup to recover the deleted text messages.

The main caveat with using this method is that, to restore your backup, you will have to reset your phone to the factory settings. This means you will have to erase all the content on your phone to be able to restore your lost text messages. If you choose to proceed with this method, back up the important files on your Android phone.

Then, start the reset process by launching the Settings app on your phone. In Settings, at the bottom, tap “System.”

On the “System” screen, tap “Reset Options.”

On the “Reset Options” screen, tap “Erase All Data (Factory Reset).”

Warning: Make sure you’re comfortable with all your phone’s current data being deleted.

Follow the on-screen instructions to finish resetting your phone. When that is done, start setting up your phone from scratch.

When your phone asks you to sign in with a Google account, choose the account that you used to make your phone’s backup. This way you will have access to your Google Drive backup.

Then, choose the option to restore your data from a backup, select your Google Drive backup, and enable the “SMS Messages” option.

Your phone will start loading contents from your backup, and when that is all done, you should see all your messages restored on your phone.

Restore Deleted SMS Messages Without a Backup

In case you did not make a backup prior to losing your messages, you can use one of a few Android data recovery apps on the market to recover your messages.

One of the apps you can use is Dr. Fone Android Data Recovery, and another is PhoneRescue. Nearly all these apps work pretty much the same way. They scan your phone to find traces of lost messages and then allow you to selectively restore those messages on your phone.

Keep in mind that there’s no guarantee your text messages will be recovered with these apps, and they can also be quite expensive. But since you do not have a backup, this unfortunately is the option you are left with.

Future Tip: Enable Backups on Your Android Phone

If you regret not making a backup of your phone, you should enable the option right now to avoid further data losses in the future. Setting up an automatic Google Drive backup is not difficult and only takes a few taps.

To do so, first, launch the Settings app on your phone. In the app, tap the “System” option.

On the “System” page, tap “Backup.”

In the bottom-right corner, tap “Turn On” to activate Google Drive backup on your phone.

Follow the on-screen instructions, and Google Drive will then regularly back up the contents of your phone. Later, when you need your deleted SMS, MMS, and other data, you can restore these backups on your phone.

You may want to restore your in-app purchases after setting up your phone from scratch. Check out our guide to learn how to do just that.

RELATED: How to Restore In-App Purchases on Android

Can I retrieve deleted text messages?

Tap on the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner and open the Recycle bin. Check your deleted text messages. Long tap the message you want to retrieve. Select Restore at the bottom and check the same in your main inbox.

Where do deleted texts go?

The Android operating system stores text messages in the phone's memory, so if they're deleted, there's no way to retrieve them. You can, however, install a text message backup application from the Android market that allows you to restore any deleted text messages.

find deleted text messages