How to retrieve iMessages from 2 years ago?

If you only recently changed your sim you could try doing a reset and restore from an icloud backup, assuming you had icloud enabled and had Messages set to NOT auto delete after one year.

The other way to prevent this is to periodically backup the phone to itunes on a computer, this way you're not relying on icloud to do your restoration when things like this happen, and again Messages need to keep all texts forever (in Settings). Have a tech savvy friend show you how to use itunes if you don't already know.

edit: I see that you have a ipad and mac to search so check those as well but I'm not sure if setting the phone to delete texts older than a year also forces the other devices to delete them as well.

marlisa98 wrote:

I did change my sim card. Any way to retrieve it without that?

Unlikely. Unless you had a backup from over 2 years ago, but whether the messages you are trying to receive are that important to revert your data so far back is a question you'll have to think about.

Either it's because you have Auto-Delete messages set to 1 year, which would have long deleted the messages from over 2 years ago, or you changed your SIM Card, changing your number and losing all previous messages.