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.
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.
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.
How far back can police retrieve text messages? This answer depends on the phone, its memory, whether the message was deleted, and the phone owner's service provider. If the messages are still on the phone, the police may be able to access them no matter how long ago they were sent.
Third-party data recovery software may help you recover that deleted text message. There's no shortage of third-party data recovery apps in the Play Store and on the web. Software solutions like Dr.Fone, PhoneRescure, and FonePaw claim to retrieve deleted text messages on your Android phone.
In a word, if you mistakenly deleted text messages after making a backup with iCloud, fortunately, the answer is YES, iCloud has backed up your deleted text messages.
The IOS Messages app does not support the saving of text messages, nor are there any apps which really do this well (other than connecting to iTunes with a cable - ugh!). Contrastly, Android has an app like SMS Backup + which will automatically backup all call logs and text messages to Google folders (wirelessly).
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.
Yes, you can recover deleted text messages on iPhone without iCloud. iTunes is also an official way to back up iPhone. Here are the steps to retrieve deleted iPhone messages on iPhone from iTunes backup. Simply connect your iPhone to the computer and then launch iTunes.
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud. Do one of the following: iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later: Tap Show All, tap Messages, then turn on Sync this [device]. iOS 15, iPadOS 15, or earlier: Turn on Messages.
Since there's no way for iOS users to delete all the messages at once, Apple offers an auto-delete feature to Messages. If you have turned on this feature, your iPhone will keep deleting messages automatically and regularly.
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.
Like all apps on an iPhone, they are saved as a SQLite database, and are not accessible to you except through the Messages app. So the actual stored format is not of use to you as you can't access it.
Text messaging leaves an electronic record of dialogue that can be entered as evidence in court. Like other forms of written evidence, text messages must be authenticated in order to be admitted.
Deleted messages are moved to the Trash mailbox. When you delete a message, it's saved in your Trash for 30 days, after which it's permanently erased.
Keeping Your Data Secure
So, can police recover deleted pictures, texts, and files from a phone? The answer is yes—by using special tools, they can find data that hasn't been overwritten yet. And these days, encryption isn't quite the silver bullet solution it once was.
Deleting messages changes only your own Messages conversations, not those of your recipients. Tip: Use Undo Send to retract a message you sent accidentally.
Many people want to the answer. In fact, all text messages are saved on Android phones by default. Therefore, if you only have a SIM card, you cannot see the text messages saved on the phone. If you want to save them on the SIM card or SD card, you have to manually move them to the SIM card one by one yourself.
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.
Your provider or "carrier" keeps records of your cellphone use, including calls and text messages, and even pictures sent from your phone. Almost all cellphone carriers give detailed information about a phone's use in billing statements sent to the owner.