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 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.
Forever – the messages do not automatically delete themselves (this is recommended for most users) 30 Days – all messages will be deleted after they're 30 days old. 1 Year – messages will be deleted if they're older than a year.
Sometimes iPhone text messages disappear from the inbox after an iOS software update or after a restart, but there are also cases where text messages just disappear from iPhone suddenly. If you have made backups for your iPhone before, you can always recover lost iPhone messages by restoring from iPhone backup files.
The answer depends. If you and the recipient of your text messages both delete them, clear your iCloud or other backups, and don't have a cellular carrier that saves them, there is a high likelihood they will be gone for good. However, text message deletion is a team effort.
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.
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.
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.
“iPhone messages are stored in a database in what is called SQLite format.
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.
Within iOS 8 there is an option to retain messages Forever, 30 Days, or 1 Year.
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.
How to recover deleted text messages on Android. One of the simplest ways to recover deleted data on an Android is to use third-party data recovery software. Android Data Recovery,Dr. Fone,FonePaw and Tenorshare UltData are some tried and true programs for your use.
Why do my text messages disappear on Android? There a number of reasons that may cause the issue. It can be an accidental deletion or loss, recent app updates that affect your text messages, date and time setting in your phone is not updated, Android system or app version that needs an update, and many others.
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?
You can retrieve deleted text messages on your iPhone with iOS 16 within one month of deletion. You can also use iCloud, iTunes, or Finder to recover texts if you saved backups to your computer. If all else fails, reach out to your mobile carrier — they may restore deleted messages for you.
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.
Past messages and message conversation history is accessible via two sources. First, you can get it through the messaging app. Secondly, you get it online through your cloud storage; Google Drive for Android and iCloud for iPhone.
In truth, when you delete something from your phone, it doesn't vanish instantly. The flash memory in mobile devices doesn't delete files until it needs to open up space for something new. It merely "deindexes" it, essentially forgetting where it is. It's still stored, but the phone doesn't know where or what it is.
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.
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.
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.
You can restore messages you deleted for up to 30 days. In the Messages conversation list, do one of the following: Tap Edit in the top-left corner, then tap Show Recently Deleted. Tap Filters in the top-left corner, then tap Recently Deleted.