I have an iPhone XS. It was backed up one week ago. Yesterday, several text message threads disappeared.
I restarted the phone. I turned iMessage on and off. I turned SMS and MMS messaging on and off too. However none of the message threads returned.
Does anyone have any ideas on what the issue is or a fix?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
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:
I have exactly the same issue - about 5 of my main contacts have lost all history. Have spent hours on this with Optus and Apple but no one can help. Have tried all fixes mentioned. Now, today my email signatures have all disappeared from Mac Mail... I wonder if this is an iCloud issue - but HOW DO YOU GET ANYONE TO HELP????
This totally sucks. I'm having the same issue, and your situation is not giving me much hope. I use texts pretty much like Slack and I really can't afford to lose reams of text chains for no apparent reason.
Yes! This works!!! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing this. Such an easy fix. iMessage wasn’t turned on in my iCloud settings. As soon as I turned it on, my messages started downloading from iCloud and everything is back. Yay!
Number one didn’t work. My entire text thread was deleted.
gave iPad and the same thread was missing on the iPad.
did the complete restore and that didn’t work either. I called apple and after about 30 minutes of chatting they tell me the text messages are not stored on the cloud. I find that hard to believe but that is what they said.
I’ve called and talked to apple support and escalated to supervisor level...long story short Apple stated it’s our problem and they have no solution
Same problem. This has happened a few times. All my settings are correct. It's not me. It's the system. wth????
It doesn’t show. As long as you disabled messages in iCloud and then clicked on download messages that will be all you can do. Wait and see what happens.
just noticed, any photos or videos or links attached to other messages from other contacts are also all gone.
so i typically don't save them, and can look at them in the info section of the sender, but there is nothing left, and also nothing i sent them.
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 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).
Spend an afternoon at Apple- after hours on phone to Apple and Optus- completely reloaded my phone software and reconnected to ICloud and still same problem - just with certain- key contacts and top conversations- The Genius said he’s never seen this before and could not suggest anything else … all my other iCloud data has reloaded perfectly… I’ve spent far too long on this but really losing confidence in the cloud I must say.
Apple say it is Optus, Optus say it is Apple. Still no resolution and missing many message histories now. The other thing that is now happening is that my phone is signing me out if all my past group conversations- Apple HELP!
This is ridiculous. I initially went with Apple after starting out on a Motorola "back in the day" because I just wanted the phone to work and I have a large music collection and an iPhone and iTunes seemed like a no-brainer.
However now my phone is just not working and I am also having issues with iTunes transferring music. All of this since I got the newest iPhone.
Shame what is going on with this $1400 phone.
Why Is this problem never been fixed by Apple? I now have a Iphone11 and it still deletes old texts. Why??! Even though I set phone to keep messages forever. Why do I need to restore the phone from ITunes? Why do I need to download a third party app to recover them? This is beyond frustrating! APPLE PLEASE FIX THIS!!!
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 :-)
iPhone text messages disappeared
