You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

how can I retrieve recently deleted texts from a single individual on my iphone 13

how can I retrieve recently deleted texts from a single individual my I phone13


iPhone 13, iOS 15

Posted on Aug 1, 2022 4:07 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 1, 2022 4:32 PM

Unfortunately, this far more difficult and challenging than most folks can ever imagine.


  1. The messages must have been backed up to iCloud or a computer
  2. No new backups can occur after the time that the messages were deleted from the iPhone


The reason for 2. above.......Backups sync the data on the iPhone and the backup. So, if a message is deleted from the phone, the next backup will pick up that change and the message will be deleted from the backup.


Even if you have a backup of the messages, and you are sure that no other backups have occurred since the time that the messages were deleted.......you have to completely erase the iPhone and use the backup to restore data on the phone. You will lose any data on the phone between the time of the backup and the date that you restore the phone.


There may be some hope for a better system with iOS 16, since it appears that deleted messages will remain on the iPhone for 30 days before they are automatically deleted.


For now.....my advice would be to only delete a message if you are sure that you will never need it in the future.







1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 1, 2022 4:32 PM in response to Genius-49

Unfortunately, this far more difficult and challenging than most folks can ever imagine.


  1. The messages must have been backed up to iCloud or a computer
  2. No new backups can occur after the time that the messages were deleted from the iPhone


The reason for 2. above.......Backups sync the data on the iPhone and the backup. So, if a message is deleted from the phone, the next backup will pick up that change and the message will be deleted from the backup.


Even if you have a backup of the messages, and you are sure that no other backups have occurred since the time that the messages were deleted.......you have to completely erase the iPhone and use the backup to restore data on the phone. You will lose any data on the phone between the time of the backup and the date that you restore the phone.


There may be some hope for a better system with iOS 16, since it appears that deleted messages will remain on the iPhone for 30 days before they are automatically deleted.


For now.....my advice would be to only delete a message if you are sure that you will never need it in the future.







how can I retrieve recently deleted texts from a single individual on my iphone 13

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.