iPhone text messages disappeared

Under settings, I went to iCloud. There is a section that says Apps using iCloud. Messages was turned off for some reason. As soon as I turned it on the missing messages started downloading back to my phone. Hope that helps someone cause I’ve spent the last 2 hours trying all the other suggestions and nothing else worked for me :-)

Thanks for the basics reminder, but this is an unexpected problem not related to our normal settings. It seems to be happening to many iPhone users, particularly after this last iOS update.

Apple, will you please address this anomaly?? My daughter’s entire message thread has simply disappeared and I want it back!!!

(iphone 11 with “keep messages forever” selected)

iPhone 12 Pro 512GB with 450GB free…

Looks like I have the same issue as all of you guys. Some points I was able to establish:

1. Happens to both text messages (green) and iMessages (blue).
2. Sometimes I am able to read the message only through notification, if I tap the notification it’s not there (just showing old messages with this contact). Sometimes it is there but after some time it disappears and sometimes it comes back, sometimes not. There is no rule for that.
3. It often happens that the both list of threads and messages inside the threads are randomly shuffled, sometimes they come back to order.
4. The iPhone is running the newest iOS (15.2).
5. Tried to hard reset - no change.
6. iCloud sync for messages is turned off
7. Messages are set to be kept “forever”.
8. (added) It has been happening from the very beginning, it’s not that it just randomly started to happen at some point of time (eg after software update etc).

Have you guys moved from Android? In my case I did it using the official move to iOS app and I am wondering if that is causing the isssue.

I actually need have a lot of messages archived because of work I do, and it’s ridiculous I have to screen shot every single message to be sure it won’t disappear when I need it. Apple seems to not see an issue while the phone they provide is kinda useless.

Hope eventually there will be a fix for that.

Regards

I have also been experiencing the same issue starting on Feb 19, 2021. I have a Xs Max with 417 GB of available storage capacity. My messages are set to sync to icloud and are set to be kept forever. Currently storage management shows I have 13.7 GB in messages in icloud. I started to experience imessage or text threads "disappearing" for only a few select contacts. The currently provided recommended response is totally inadequate. I have my old 6s, reset it to factory setting, then reactivated imessage through signing into my apple id account, not restoring from a back, but an attempt to re-sync all imessages stored in icloud. This worked for two out of the three contacts and the message threads seemed to be restored, however today one of those threads again "disappeared" from the message app. The issue does not seem to be one of lack of storage space or connectivity. Very frustrating not to be able to refresh and restore all texts for several contacts out of several other dozens that are fine. Understand that messages are not included in the individual backup files but are sync'd separately, same as photos.

Need advice on direction to correct this malfunction.

Hi, as i mentioned above...over the weekend I attempted to restore by my backup that ran the day before the loss. I did not get everything back. I am very frustrated. It appears i go back most of my messages from my one daughter as i scrolled back the history for some time, however no attachments, photos, videos she has sent me in her text were there. All gone.

Many photos/ small videos of grandchildren over last 2yrs. She lives across country, i will have to try to get them all back when visit. Also i have 3 daughters, we keep a running text, or did. Those did not reload. They are all gone and should have been in the backup. of course this is just spot checking as much as i can see, who knows what else is lost.

Apple.....What is going on????? any solutions.?

Iphone 7+ "keep for ever" . did all the tricks, turning things on off, etc.

This just happened to me last night…out of nowhere. Picked up my phone and four of my messages threads were just gone. I have plenty of storage both within the cloud and my iPhone X in general. Messages are set to be kept forever too. I did a reset and the backup I had didn’t bring back the message threads from these four people. I talked to an advisor who sent my case to some engineers. I signed in and out of the iCloud, iMessage and FaceTime. I then would get a message saying that “messages in iCloud not available as iCloud and iMessage accounts do not match”. I have restarted my phone numerous times too. Clearly an error on iClouds end. Disappointing.

If you're asking about why some messages disappear after being in your inbox for quite some time, this may be due to your Message History being automatically deleted. To check if your messages are automatically deleted, go to Settings > Scroll down to Messages > Scroll down to Message History. If "Forever" is not selected, this is the reason why some of your messages disappear.

To make sure your messages are being safely backed up to iCloud, go to Settings > Click your profile > iCloud > Scroll down to Messages and enable it. Note that you may need to setup Two-Factor Authentication to enable this feature.

Learn more about backing up your messages to iCloud here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208532

i want to add to this thread. I have several contacts whose messages come through in iMessage, but the moment I open the thread, the message disappears and all I see are old messages (which are always stuck at the same previous date) and it repeatedly does this just for a few *important* contacts! And interestingly, usually when you get a new message the conversation populates to the top of the iMessage thread list, but the contacts will then disappear from my conversations list and be found further down as an old conversation thread and the new message content will have disappeared. I’ve already done everything suggested with restarting, Backups, iMessage delete settings, re-entering the contacts as new contacts. Nothing is working!

I am experiencing the same problem. It’s been going on since early January. At one point I did an OS update and messages reappeared. Since then they disappeared again. I did another OS update and they did not reappear. Apple will you be addressing this?

I am having the same problem. Lost all the text messages from my mum :(

I am using iCloud sync. I have tried all the solutions suggested. I am EXTREMELY upset. I thought having my messages on iCloud would be safer than on my phone (Xs).

I just discovered a 3-Way text thread between myself, my wife, and our daughter just disappeared this morning.

”Forever” is selected.

iCloud backup is engaged.

I cannot restore the message thread, and this is a serious problem, Apple.

You need to fix this!

I too have discovered a lot of missing threads. I am devastated as some were very important to me. Am looking at all previous posts to try anything to bring them back! Cannot believe this has been happening for some time and nothing has been done by Apple to sort it out.

This happened to me this week. Threads with years of messages and pictures have disappeared and judging by what I'm reading here, are gone forever. Truly heartbreaking. For the first time in decades another brand will have to replace iPhones for me.