There is nothing sad and disturbing like waking one morning and finding all your iMessage messages from your phone are gone. Yes, Gone!! You look at the message box once again and still find it empty. “Where did my text messages go from the iPhone?” You ask yourself. It leaves you with that unexplainable feeling at the bottom of your gut. Some messages are a treasure, others are important business documents, and still, other messages might have harbored vital information that could derails you from that loss. “What do I do now?” It is one-million-dollar question that crosses many minds in similar situations. Do not worry, here’s the fix.
Many iPhone users have reported of being unaware of how their iPhone messages got deleted from iMessage. It means that it was not an intentional erasing. They claim that the iPhone deleted messages by itself. Others reported that iPhone messages disappeared from the iPhone but were still in storage or that iPhone messages disappeared but still taking up space.
Read Also: Find out how much data iMessage consumes
Why did the iPhone delete/lose the messages?
Let us look at some of the main reasons.
Settings of message history and storage
Message history settings are one reason that might have caused this issue. The settings on your phone could have a time-set for storing messages. Could be the setting was for one year and when it got to that particular time, the phone deleted all messages automatically.
iPhone restoration
Another reason for the loss of data from your iPhone might be when you decided to restore your iPhone to factory default due to other mechanical causes. When this happens, the iPhone deletes all data on the phone.
Other reasons
Other reasons might be syncing your iTunes to your iPhone, and also updating the new iOS to your iPhone. Many other users have posted on several social media that iPhone messages disappear after a restart.
Read Also: How to print text messages from iPhone
How can I get the text messages back?
iCloud Backup
If you have an iCloud backup and you had backed-up you iPhone content, then there are high chances of restoring your lost data. How do you do that?
As you might know, Apple does not support iCloud and therefore using iCloud on an iPhone will need another tool which can connect iCloud and iPhone. In this case you will need iMobile to extract the information you need from iCloud and restore it back to your iPhone. Download iOS PhoneRescue and launch it on your computer. Follow the guidelines as shown on the site.
Following the given steps explicitly, then you will manage to restore your lost text messages back to your iPhone.
iTunes Backup
Just like iCloud Backup that we have looked, you will have previously done backup with iTunes from your iPhone to have the stored data. Use the same iCloud guideline to restore your text messages back to your iPhone.
You might not have backed up your messages using both iTunes and iCloud. Don’t worry as there is still some chance of recovering your data by using PhoneRescue for iOS which is an iPhone recovery tool. This tool will scan everything on your iPhone including the deleted files that it finds on your iPhone. The iPhone will then guide you on how to recover the deleted messages.
How do I prevent it from happening again?
We went through what might have caused the text messages to be deleted or go missing. It is from this direction that we shall be able to know how to prevent this loss from happening again.
Backup
Always backup your data to either iTunes or iCloud before updating your iPhone to new iOS, before syncing, and before restoring anything on your iPhone.
Regular Backup
We learned that another reason that could have led to the loss of your iPhone text messages is when you are starting your iPhone. It is for this reason that you are advised to have a regular backup.
Messages History
Change the iMessage history settings to “Forever.” Remember we mentioned that one of the reasons the text messages got deleted could have been the message history had been set to 30 days or one year. When you get to the specified time, your iPhone automatically removes all old messages within that duration. By changing the settings, you will avoid this from happening.
Read Also: Encountering iMessage waiting for activation error? Here is how to fix it
Last Word
With this kind of information up your sleeve, deleted iMessage messages will be a thing of the past. And if it happens for some reasons, you do not have to fret on what to do. Arm yourself with these guidelines, and you will have the last laugh.
Alex is an IT technician who shares his experiences with Apple devices occasionally. He has a collection of Apple devices (from iPhone 4) and has recently started trying out Android.
IG: @I M_Alex