If you’ve accidentally deleted a couple of important iPhone Messages and don’t have a backup of your phone’s data, you’re probably getting frustrated at the number of guides out there that have “use a backup” as their first step. So how are you supposed to recover your deleted messages without a backup?
Computer software can recover your iPhone messages as long as they are recently deleted. These programs include iFindit and iOS Data Recovery. You can also call and ask your cellular provider if they have history of your messages.
Knowing these software programs exist is all well and good, but what are you supposed to do if you don’t know how to use them? So now, let’s go through how to recover your deleted messages without a backup in more detail to hopefully restore your lost messages.
Is it Possible to Recover Deleted iPhone Messages without a Backup?
When you look up how to recover deleted messages on your iPhone, the first thing almost every guide says is, “Do you have a backup using iCloud?” Unfortunately, reading this can be rather frustrating if you don’t habitually back up your phone from time to time.
Suppose you’ve accidentally deleted some iPhone messages you want back but don’t have a backup. In that case, you’re probably beginning to get worried that you may never see those messages again.
However, your messages are likely not entirely lost yet. There are still a few things you can try to restore your messages before you give up.
For a definitive answer to the question above, even though a backup would make this process much easier, restoring deleted messages without using one is entirely possible.
How Can You Restore Deleted Messages without a Backup?
Some of the data remains on your phone when your messages are deleted. More specifically, when you delete your messages, their data remains in your phone as internal data until something more recent overwrites the space it takes up.
A couple of computer programs are out there that can read this internal data and convert it back into messages. We’ll get into this process in more detail in the next section.
If the internal data of your messages have been written over, you may not be entirely out of luck. Your lost messages may be stored on the servers of your cellular provider.
Certain cell providers do this, and some don’t, so it is a decent idea to call your cell provider and ask if they can restore your text messages.
How to Recover iPhone Messages Using Your Computer
As mentioned in the previous section, when you delete messages, they usually stay in your phone’s internal data until a newer file writes itself over it. There have been several different computer programs have been created for the sole purpose of recovering this internal data.
In this guide, we will be explicitly covering how to use a program called iOS data recovery. iOS data recovery (found here) is a simple program to use.
Begin by clicking the link and downloading the program’s correct version based on your device.
Once you have the program installed:
- Open it, and you should be greeted with an interface with three different recovery modes on the left side of the screen: Recover from iOS Device, Recover from iTunes Backup File, and Recover from iCloud Backup File.
- Since we don’t have a backup, select Recover from iOS Device.
- Now plug your iPhone into your computer and select Start Scan. This should bring up a menu asking what type of data you want to recover.
- Of course, we want to recover your messages, but you also have other things you can recover, like deleted Voice Memos and deleted photos.
- Once you’ve selected everything you would like to scan for, pick the Scan option and wait for it to finish.
- Once the scan has finished, you should see two categories: Messages and Messages Attachments. Go through these, and you should be able to select messages and then click Recover to restore the messages to your computer.
Unfortunately, if you do not see your deleted messages in iOS data recovery, the internal data for those messages have likely been overwritten by more recent messages.
This means it will be impossible to restore those messages using this program. However, it may not be too late to call your cellular service provider to see if they have the message data on their servers.
How to Scan Your iPhone for Deleted Messages
If you don’t like the idea of using iOS Data Recovery, you could also try another iPhone data recovery program called iFindit.
iFindit works remarkably similarly to iOSData Recovery; it checks your phone’s internal data for anything that has been recently deleted so that you can potentially restore those files. This, of course, includes any recently deleted messages.
Before using iFindit, you must install the program on your computer. You can do this by downloading iFindit here based on what computer you have.
Once iFindit has downloaded:
- Open the program, and you should be greeted with five options: Smart Recovery, Recover from iOS Device, Recover from iTunes Backup, Recover from iCloud, and Fix iOS System.
- Because we do not have a backup ready, select Recover from iOS Device with your phone connected to the computer. This should bring up a list of all of the things you can back up, including your messages, photos, and more.
- Select Messages and then click the Scan button in the bottom right corner.
- For this guide, we’re just trying to restore messages, but if you need anything else restored, you have to select it on this menu.
- Once the scan is finished, you should be greeted by a list of deleted messages that iFindit was able to find in your phone’s internal data. Select these messages and then click Recover in the bottom right corner, and your messages will be downloaded onto your computer.
Unfortunately, if your messages were not found by iFindit, the internal data of your deleted messages were likely written over by newer messages. In this case, your only option left is to call your cellular provider to ask if they have your messages stored somewhere on their servers.
How to Backup Your iPhone’s Messages Through iCloud
If getting through this experience has frustrated you in any way, you likely want to avoid going through it again in the future.
To do this, you’ll likely want to create a backup of your phone’s messages on your iCloud. Thankfully, creating a backup for your messages through iCloud is extremely simple.
First, begin by:
- Opening the Settings app and clicking on your profile at the top. This will open the Apple ID page, where you can find a setting that says iCloud.
- Select this, and you should get a list of toggles.
- Turn on the Messages toggle, and your messages should be successfully backed up.
These toggles are all the apps whose data could be backed up by your iCloud. Turning the toggle on for a specific app will cause that app’s data to be backed up, and turning it off will do the opposite.