How to Recover Deleted Text Messages

There are a few ways to recover deleted text messages, but we will be focusing on the best methods for both Android phones and iPhones.

Whether you’re planning to do a system wipe, or you accidentally deleted the wrong message, these steps should help you to recover any messages you may delete in the future.

 

Setting up Recovery for iPhone

Setting up text message recovery on iPhone is fairly straight forward. All you need to do is set up your iTunes backup to ensure that all of your SMS data is sent to the cloud. If you set your backup settings to save any SMS messages for later recovery, you will be able to re-download any text messages after this setup point.

For example, if you were to send a text on the 20th of February, and then set up iTunes backup for SMS on the 21st of February, then any texts sent or deleted after this point will be backed up. If you were to delete a text message before the 21st of February, you would not be able to recover your texts through this method.

Here is a bit more information about iCloud and it’s backup tools.

 

Setting up Recovery for Android

Unfortunately, Android does not come with a built in cloud backup service like Apple does, so you are better off relying on a third party application. Thankfully, the open nature of the Google Play store means that there are loads of apps to choose from.

One of our favorites is an app that is simply called SMS backup and restore. With the aforementioned app, you will be able to manually backup your SMS messages with the tap of a button. Once your messages are backed up, they won’t be completely safe until you export them to an SD card, a cloud hosting website like Dropbox, or via email. Fortunately SMS backup and restore is capable of providing the tools to export to all of these websites.

Later on, you can use the same app to import your messages. This route is perfect for those looking to reset their devices to factory settings.

 

Recovering Lost Messages for Both Android and iPhone

If you have already lost your text messages and you do not have a back up saved, there is an option that could potentially return your messages to your device. With a program called Dr. Fone you will be able to revert any lost files from your device. Whilst Dr. Fone won’t work in 100{76ac33845123b25982ffda0eb6f606179ce899e677f3c86d035d7b9fa6b6d307} of cases, it can be used to return lost or deleted text messages, even if you did not back them up. Dr. Fone can even be used when your device is broken or is inaccessible.

On top of being able to recover lost messages, Dr. Fone can also bring back other file types, including the following.

• Photos
• Videos
• Photo stream
• Message attachments
• Audio in voice memos
• Text files like contacts
• Messages
• Call history
• Calendar
• Notes
• Reminders
• Safari bookmarks

 

You can learn more about how Dr. Fone can recover deleted text messages here.