3 Effective Ways to Recover Deleted Text Messages from iPhone

If you delete iPhone text conversations or messages by accident, you might want to get them back. Recovering deleted text messages from iPhone without backup can be difficult, but it is possible. Before introducing the three methods to recover deleted text messages from iPhone, let’s talk about why is it possible to get deleted messages back. So this article’s main content includes below two parts:

 FoneLab iPhone Data Recovery

Quickly Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone

• Recover accidentally deleted or lost text messages from your iPhone or iPad
• Recover photos, contacts, notes, voice memos, safari bookmarks, reminders, call logs, etc
• Support all latest iPhone models and iOS
• Recover data from iOS devices, iTunes and iCloud backup
• Apply to different data loss situations
• 3 steps only to restore Messages or other iPhone data

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Why is it possible to recover deleted text messages from iPhone?

Before you recover iPhone deleted text messages, you have to know that after you remove a message from iPhone, the message doesn't really get deleted. Because the deleted messages is technically marked for deletion by the system and hidden so that they become invisible to us. So deleted messages still stays somewhere on iPhone and you can retrieve them as long as you find those marked and hidden messages files. That’s why you can recover deleted text messages and get them back from your iPhone.

How to find those marked and hidden messages files, and retrieve invisible text messages on iPhone? Actually, there are three ways to retrieve lost or deleted messages of iPhone. If you have a previous backup saved with iTunes or your iCloud, you are able to restore your iPhone text messages from backup. Otherwise, you will need to use a third party iPhone data recovery software or SMS recovery software and restore the deleted message from your iPhone to your computer. Keep reading to learn more about each method.

How to recover deleted text messages from iPhone without backup or not

Method 1. Recover deleted text messages from iPhone without backup

If you are wondering about the way without the using of iTunes or iCloud backup, you can choose one of the best iPhone data recovery software such as FoneLab iPhone Recovery to restore deleted iPhone messages. FoneLab iPhone Recovery for Mac is such a professional iPhone data recovery tool which allows you to preview and recover deleted calendar events, messages, contacts, call history, Safari bookmarks, notes and reminders on Mac from iOS devices by scanning your device and listing all the marked and hidden files, no iTunes or iCloud backup copy is required.

You can follow below detailed tutorials to recover deleted text messages from iPhone without backup.

How to recover deleted text messages from iPhone without backup:

1. Download FoneLab iPhone Data Recovery on your Mac or Windows.
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2. Use USB cable to connect your iPhone to your Mac or Windows and launch FoneLab iPhone Recovery. Choose "Recover from iOS Device" option, this iPhone data recovery will detect your device. Once detected, the current device name, device type and iOS version will be displayed on the interface of the software.
3. Click "Start Scan" button. From this moment, FoneLab iPhone Recovery starts to scan the whole files of your iPhone. After scanning, you can see all extracted files. Then choose “Messages” item to preview all found messages.
4. After you preview the messages, select the messages you want to recover. You can select all messages with one click. Then click “Recover” and a small window will pop up for you to choose the output file type. HTML, Excel, Word, Numbers, and Pages format are also supported. At last, click “Save” to save your recovered iPhone messages.

Method 2. How to recover deleted text messages from iPhone using iCloud

Before you get iPhone text messages from iCloud, does iCloud backup text messages? Absolutely yes! As we all know, iCloud can backup iPhone or iPad files including: 

• App data
• Apple Watch backups
• Call history
• Device settings
• Health data
• HomeKit configuration
• Home screen and app organization
• iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages (requires the SIM card that was in use during backup)
• Photos and videos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch1
• Purchase history from Apple services, like your music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books2
• Ringtones
• Visual Voicemail password (requires the SIM card that was in use during backup)

Another thing you have to make sure is that this option isn't available for everyone. Some phone carriers have this option locked down, and iCloud SMS backup is not available for all countries. If you have backed up your messages to iCloud, you can use below steps to recover iPhone lost or deleted messages from iCloud.

1. Login to https://icloud.com with your Apple ID and password.
2. Click on Text Messages (if messages are not showing, it means that your messages haven't been backed up, so this option is not available for you, you have to turn to the FoneLab iPhone Recovery for help).
3. If the messages are there, find the ones you need. Now go to your iPhone and choose Settings, select “iCloud” on your iPhone.Turn off Text Messages and you'll see a pop-up. Select “Keep on My iPhone”.
4. Now turn back on text messages. Tap “Merge”, and wait. After a few minutes the deleted text messages should appear back on your iPhone.

Method 3. How to recover deleted messages from iPhone using iTunes

This works only if you automatically back up your iPhone to iTunes. If not, you’d better turn to Method 1.

1. Connect your iPhone to the Mac with which you sync it and open iTunes.
2. You should see your iPhone in a box at the top right corner. Select your iPhone.
3. Check the date when your last backup is created. If you want to restore your iPhone to your previously created backup, click “Restore backup”.
4. All the data you previously backed up will now replace the data on your phone. It will take a few minutes. As long as you have backed up your messages before you delete them, they should now appear in the normal messaging list on your iPhone.

You can also use FoneLab iPhone Recovery to recover iPhone text messages from iTunes backup files, using this program is more convenient and faster for you to recover deleted files from iPhone including latest iPhone, follow below steps to use this iPhone data recovery to retrieve deleted text messages from iTunes backup.

1. Launch FoneLab iPhone Recovery, and choose “Recover from iTunes Backup File” mode, then select an iTunes backup file to recover and click “New Scan”.
2. After this application deeply scans your files, you can select “Message” and click “Recover” to recover text messages you deleted before.

In conclusion, if you back up your iOS device to iCloud or iTunes, you can choose Method 2 and Method 3 to help you retrieve your deleted iPhone messages. If you haven’t backup your messages or text conversations, don’t worry, Method 1 will help you to recover deleted text messages from iPhone without backup.