Can't find any way to recover text message conversation that mysteriously disappeared. (Storing messages on iCloud.)

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Level 1

9 points

Can't find any way to recover text message conversation that mysteriously disappeared. (Storing messages on iCloud.)

I have my devices enabled to store my text messages on the cloud (have lots of storage). Today one of my most important text message conversations just suddenly disappeared from all of my devices.

I went onto the cloud to see if I could recover the conversation and discovered that messages does not appear in iCloud like other apps and can't be accessed from iCloud as other apps can. On top of that, I read that if you have enabled iCloud sync for messages, they don't get stored in your backups. If that's the case, how can messages be recovered?

Can it actually be true that there is no way to recover lost (or even accidentally deleted) text messages? This seems crazy to me. I have seen posts from other people saying the same thing happened to them. No one has responded with an answer or solution for this.

Can someone please tell me:

(1) Why would an on-going text conversation suddenly disappear for no apparent reason?

(2) How can text messages be recovered when you have "store on iCloud" enabled?

(3) If the answer is that there is no way to do that -- why on earth isn't there?

Thanks to anyone who can help!

Posted on Nov 2, 2020 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

zinacef

Level 10

88,407 points

Nov 2, 2020 10:36 AM in response to A_Sage

If you had messages in iCloud turned on Keep all your messages in iCloud - Apple Support and those messages were deleted, then they are permanently gone. If that feature wasn't turned on, you can restore from a backup -- Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support.

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Answer 2

A_Sage Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 9, 2020 2:45 PM in response to zinacef

Hi - Thank you VERY much for taking the time to respond to my post. I do have the option to sync messages through iCloud, which I believe is the same as selecting to store them in iCloud. So I guess that means they are gone. I didn't delete them thought -- they just suddenly, randomly disappeared. (My kids told me this sometimes just happens for no apparent reason.)

That obviously doesn't seem right. Do you have any idea why that would happen?

Also -- I thought that if things are stored on iCloud there would also be some way to recover them. I find this kind of crazy. Is it possible to have messages sync across your devices and still have them backed up?

Thank you in advance.

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Answer 3

zinacef

Level 10

88,407 points

Nov 9, 2020 3:01 PM in response to A_Sage

A_Sage wrote:

Hi - Thank you VERY much for taking the time to respond to my post. I do have the option to sync messages through iCloud, which I believe is the same as selecting to store them in iCloud. So I guess that means they are gone. I didn't delete them thought -- they just suddenly, randomly disappeared. (My kids told me this sometimes just happens for no apparent reason.)

That obviously doesn't seem right. Do you have any idea why that would happen?

Not sure how or why this occurred, and difficult to pinpoint exactly the cause.

Also -- I though that if things are stored on iCloud there would also be some way to recovery them. I find this kind of crazy. Is it possible to have messages sync across your devices and still have them backed up?

The irony is that if data isn't stored in iCloud, then you can recover via a backup. If data is stored in iCloud, then when you login to a new/old device(s) or at www.icloud.com, your data will sync or be there respectively in the cloud. The thing to is that iCloud isn't a truly cloud-based system like your third-party options, e.g. Dropbox or Google Photos, but it's more like a syncing-based system.

If you turn on Messages in iCloud (link I provided above), your messages will sync across all of your devices.

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Can't find any way to recover text message conversation that mysteriously disappeared. (Storing messages on iCloud.)

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