On the Messages screen, swipe down to the Message History section, and tap Keep Messages. You'll notice it's set to keep SMS and iMessages Forever. Change it by tapping the 30 days option or 1 Year.
You can only recover messages and conversations that you deleted within the last 30 to 40 days. If you delete a message before you update to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later, you can't recover that message.
You can choose to automatically delete your iMessages from your device after 30 days or a year, or to keep them on your device forever. For your convenience, iMessages are backed up in iCloud and encrypted if you have enabled either iCloud Backup or Messages in iCloud.
They sit on the company's server for anywhere from three days to three months, depending on the company's policy. Verizon holds texts for up to five days and Virgin Mobile keeps them for 90 days. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint do not keep the contents of text messages.
Restore Texts from a Wireless Backup
If you are currently using a wireless backup service, check when the last backup was made. If the most recent backup was made before you accidentally deleted the texts, you can restore that backup to your phone and the text messages will be restored to your phone as well.
Open Settings app, go to Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store > iCloud > Manage Storage. Tap Backups, then select This iPhone. Check the date and size of your last backup. If it's created before the old text messages lost, restoring it should recover them.
After 30 days, the messages are removed from all your devices. After 40 days, the messages are permanently deleted from iCloud. In the Messages app on your Mac, choose View > Recently Deleted.
When you set up iCloud for Messages, your messages are stored in the cloud instead of locally on your device. You can see them on any device that's set up for iCloud and Messages, including your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.
Phone companies still might have proof of what you send.
However, because of the large number of cellphone users, carriers will eventually overwrite message data as new ones are sent, saving only the basic information that a text message existed.
Myth: When you delete a text, it's gone.
You can recover it or delete it permanently right then and there. That also means anyone can see your deleted messages if they have your passcode. Here's the good news: Text messages you unsend do not appear in the recently deleted messages file.
Apple saves your text messages in its iPhone backups—whether they're saved locally on your PC or they're part of an iCloud backup—which you should have. That's good! Unfortunately, the file containing your messages doesn't appear separately within the backup. However, you can access them through the filesystem.
How to recover text messages on iPhone using iCloud.com. Log in to iCloud.com with your Apple ID and password. Go to Text Messages and look for the ones you want to restore. The Text Messages option will be visible only if you've turned on backups for your texts.
All of your deleted text messages can be found in the Messages app. To find your trashed messages, open Messages and tap the Filters option in the top left of your text threads. Here you can filter your text messages by known senders, unread messages and more. However, the option we want is Recently Deleted.
You can recover texts in the Messages by Google app archive
It's also possible for conversations that were purposefully archived in the past to become relevant again. Regardless of your circumstance, recovering archived text messages is simple. Follow these steps to find and recover archived texts.
Solved: How to Recover Old Text Messages on Android (New & Old Phone) Can I recover old text messages on Android from years ago without backups for the deleted texts? Sure! Put your phone into Airplane Mode and then use the Android Data Recovery to get the old text messages back.
In the Messages app , you can delete messages and entire conversations from your iPhone. With Messages in iCloud, anything you delete from iPhone is also deleted from your other Apple devices where Messages in iCloud is turned on.
How long do deleted text messages stay in iCloud? Normally your deleted text messages will be kept for 30 days. After 30 days, they will be permanently deleted and you will have difficulty restoring them to your phone. How to delete messages from iCloud?
For Android
Google Drive is one simple and effective way to recover deleted text messages on Android without a computer. But you can only recover via Google Drive if you have taken the time to back up your data in Google drive, including your text messages.
Even if you remove a text message from your phone, it may not be gone. That's because it could be stored on your phone company's servers. Normal text messages go from your phone to your phone company to the recipient. In most cases, that means the phone company retains a copy of messages.
Text message records must be obtained from a party's cell phone provider. An attorney can obtain a court order or subpoena to get the records directly from the service provider.
The cell tower information is generally included. Most cell carriers retain content data between 3-7 days. The exceptions are: AT&T, Boost and T-Mobile which have zero days retention. Sprint's SMS content is retained for 12 days.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is a federal law that makes it a crime to access someone else's private communications without permission. It covers cell phones, computer use, email, social media accounts, and other types of electronic communications.