MaddenMobile53

Q: iPhone6 all SMS/iMessage Disappear, but still show up in Storage

Hello,

This evening I was using my iPhone 6 and it crashed. I went back into my messages to send a picture, and when I did that i noticed all pictures were gone. As soon as I hit library, my phone did a hard reset. I went back to see all 12000 of my pictures and thousands of important iMessages to be gone. I checked my storage settings and they are still taking up the same amount of space so I know they are there somewhere. My pictures started magically redownloading and are all back, but the messages are not. What should I do?

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3

Posted on Apr 21, 2016 7:50 PM

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Q: iPhone6 all SMS/iMessage Disappear, but still show up in Storage

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  • Helpful answers

  • by ManSinha,

    ManSinha ManSinha Apr 21, 2016 7:58 PM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 6 (10,250 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 21, 2016 7:58 PM in response to MaddenMobile53

    Did you ever make a backup of the phone? If you had an iTunes backup - restoring that backup would be one way to get your messages back

  • by MaddenMobile53,

    MaddenMobile53 MaddenMobile53 Apr 21, 2016 8:00 PM in response to ManSinha
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 21, 2016 8:00 PM in response to ManSinha

    I have, but it's pretty old. If this is true, why would the 11.1 GB of messages still be on my phone?

  • by MarkReeder,

    MarkReeder MarkReeder Apr 22, 2016 5:08 PM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 22, 2016 5:08 PM in response to MaddenMobile53

    Hello!
    I've got exactly the same trouble of my iPhone5S. On 21st of April 2016 all SMS and iMessages are disappeared from the Message app (before that the phone acted strangely, stacked and didn't react on anything so I forced to reload it several times). However the Storage shows that the space is taken by Messages as it was before (about 2 GB) while the folder is absolutely empty!

    I want to get the comments from Apple Service about this.

    Please

  • by Acer86,

    Acer86 Acer86 Apr 25, 2016 11:24 AM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 25, 2016 11:24 AM in response to MaddenMobile53

    Same thing happened to me just last night... I started getting messages later than when they were sent. I figured I was running out of space on my phone so I tried deleting apps. All of the sudden, my messages just disappeared. This had happened to me once before with my mail - but then after a minute or so after refreshing, they all came back to the inbox. However, once I tried rebooting the phone, they seemed permanently gone. I checked the storage and same as you - they still take up space on the phone (about 5.5 GB). I'm thinking that somehow they are still there, but I have no clue as to how to retrieve them. I went so far as updating the software and backing up the phone, but nothing came back so far.

    The new issue I have today is that when I get messages, the newest ones don't populate at the top of the screen. So far I haven't read about any solutions, but I'm hoping to make an appointment at the apple store to see if they come up with another solution other than restoring a back up.

  • by TheDish,

    TheDish TheDish Jun 8, 2016 8:14 PM in response to Acer86
    Level 1 (13 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 8, 2016 8:14 PM in response to Acer86

    I'm experiencing the same issue. All messages gone after a routine soft reset, yet still show up in Usage/Storage as consuming several GB. Anyone manage to find a solution to this?

  • by Mariel6th,

    Mariel6th Mariel6th Jun 21, 2016 6:32 PM in response to ManSinha
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 21, 2016 6:32 PM in response to ManSinha

    Same problem here- messages disappeared but still show that they are in storage.  I backed up my phone after they disappeared- is there a chance that the backup will backup those messages because they're in storage?  I went to the genius bar and they said the messages "should" be in the backup but there's no guarantee.  They suggested wiping the phone then restoring the most recent backup.  Has anyone tried this?

  • by Laura__B,

    Laura__B Laura__B Jun 22, 2016 9:14 PM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 22, 2016 9:14 PM in response to MaddenMobile53

    I have this problem too. I restarted my iPhone 5s and then all my imessages were gone BUT my storage still shows that they are technically still there (3.3 GB worth of messages). I've done everything besides restoring my iPhone (because since I've updated my phone to ios 9, it is no longer compatible with my 10.6.8 MacBook---not to mention, this is also extremely frustrating).
    I feel like at this point we should just give up on our lost messages  

  • by cheskafrancisco,

    cheskafrancisco cheskafrancisco Jul 28, 2016 10:47 AM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 28, 2016 10:47 AM in response to MaddenMobile53

    Have you found a solution to this? I'm literally having the same problem!

  • by tbhara,

    tbhara tbhara Aug 19, 2016 7:30 PM in response to Acer86
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 19, 2016 7:30 PM in response to Acer86

    Did you find a solution? This exact same thing just happened to me.

  • by snyde516,

    snyde516 snyde516 Aug 20, 2016 8:30 AM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 20, 2016 8:30 AM in response to MaddenMobile53

    I am also having the same issue and I can't even try and update my phone because I don't have enough storage...which doesn't make sense why I don't have any messages but they still show up in storage

  • by vivacait,

    vivacait vivacait Aug 20, 2016 9:21 AM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 20, 2016 9:21 AM in response to MaddenMobile53

    I have the same exact issue. Has anyone figured out a solution other than restoring from the latest backup?

  • by fiiiiaa,

    fiiiiaa fiiiiaa Sep 8, 2016 6:09 PM in response to MaddenMobile53
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 8, 2016 6:09 PM in response to MaddenMobile53

    Having the exact same issue! Let me know if anything is worked out.