Text messages disappeared

All my text messages disappeared all of a sudden.


Four people have texted me since and in search I can find the text of their old messages but cannot open them but no other contacts messages.


Phone is on 10.2.1

iPhone 5, iOS 10.2.1

Posted on May 11, 2017 3:22 PM

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Posted on Jan 21, 2018 5:56 PM

I had this problem today on my iPhone 6S running iOS 11.2.2. I had left my device off overnight, on charge. When powering back on this morning my Touch ID fingerprints and all my messages were gone. A search did not refresh the messages. Turning the phone off and on again did not refresh them. After reading this thread I was inspired to try the following:


  • Turned on flight mode.
  • Closed all apps one by one by double tapping home button and swiping them up off the screen.
  • Pressed and held power button for 5 seconds, then pressed and held home button for 5 seconds.
  • Opened the Settings app to the Wallet and Apple Pay screen. I do not use Apple Pay. Double-Click Home Button was enabled, and I changed this to disabled.
  • Pressed and held power button for 5 seconds and proceeded to power the device down.
  • Powered the device back on and the messages were all back to normal, and Touch ID worked again.


I doubt that all steps were required, but it solved the issue and all of messages and touch ID are back to where they were.

57 replies

Sep 25, 2017 7:46 PM in response to MOUNSER

This is totally a disaster. Message app was grayed out and nothing was visible after the upgrade. Tried several times restoring from iTunes backups but all the messages have disappeared. Everything else restored except the messages. Even the recent call history restored but not even a single message. Spent 318 minutes with Apple tech support online and nobody could give a solution.


This is really disappointing. Apple being such a reputed company has to have better ways for data recovery. There were very important messages and I lost them. It's shame that Apple doesn't have a way of recovering data and telling us they can't do anything from their side. They have all the unwanted things but no backup for message app in iCloud at least. This really has to be addressed very seriously.

Oct 22, 2017 9:07 AM in response to MOUNSER

I had this issue too, and I contacted Apple Support. After a couple hours the conclusion that was reached was that it's simply a glitch/bug in the system that rarely happens. Their recommendation was to restore your iPhone to the latest backup, presumably the last backup before the problem happened - you should have all of your messages that way. The below information is assuming that you backed up to your computer and not iCloud - I haven't figured out iCloud just yet.


For me, it didn't work because we initially thought the problem was that I'm running an old iOS, so in the update process my last backup got replaced by a new one. If you think that's going to be a problem, you can go into iTunes, go to preferences, select device (where the list of backups are), right click the backup you have before the problem, and select archive - this will enable you to keep that back up file from being overwritten. In short, try restoring your iPhone to before the problem started happening and it should work. Best of luck!

Nov 3, 2017 8:32 AM in response to MOUNSER

I've been having having the exact same problem as everyone posted. I think it has to do with storage data. If your phone constantly has that message coming up that there is low storage or your phone can't take a pictures because there isn't enough, than your phone will delete text messages. And also will put recently text messages before older ones. At first I thought I was going crazy and losing my mind, since I knew I had sent certain messages, but once I noticed this only happened when I was low on storage I figured it must be the problem. It doesn't happen when there is ample storage data only when it is scarce. Hope this helps. Someone please tell me if it work so on their phone so everyone can know it works.

Nov 25, 2017 5:48 AM in response to WinniePoohBear

This is exactly how my phone looks now. It's so crazy. I noticed last night that I was getting text messages with no notification. So I sent a text message and it was taking a long time to send. I came out of my text messages turned my phone off for a few minutes and turned it back on and all of my messages were gone. It *****!!! If you find any solutions please let me know!!

Dec 14, 2017 7:57 AM in response to MOUNSER

Early this morning I sent “she said—......” the .... is a sentence about a guitar. It didn’t send the sentence. When the bubble blinked and moved up the screen to show closed and not editable, the ....(sentence) disappeared. I do not know if the other party got the sentence after she said or not. He is not replying; possibly not getting my messages. Exiting messengers didn’t work for retrieval. This has only happened to one other person which I sent a message(that I know of). I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I wonder are my messages being intercepted? If so someone has a very boring life.

A fix would be great. Thanks

Dec 19, 2017 4:29 AM in response to Zenair9

So on 11/26/17 all my messages started disappearing as I was typing mid conversation. I’ve done the latest update and have plenty of storage. My messages are working fine since 11/26/17 but prior to that all messages are invisible and unaccesable. The only way to tell they are still there is by going to the search bar and seeing the old messages pop up but when you click on them they disappear. Went to the Apple store and did a ton of research online but came up with no solution....I use my phone for work and this has been a complete nightmare. Very surprised Apple hasn’t figured this out yet! Would really appreciate some help. ASAP!!!

Dec 29, 2017 8:31 PM in response to MOUNSER

I am extremely upset about this issue and want my text messages back. I have clients, family and my mother who passed this year. To make it worse I have the new X my 6s did have all recent updates before it was backed up again to my Mac Book Pro. I've had nothing but problems with music, voicemail's, photos and my custom ring tones now all greatly reduced or drastically changed or gone.

Really, really, really bad and distressing.

Dec 31, 2017 2:40 AM in response to MOUNSER

I have had this issue for the last year and a half. The issue has followed me through three iPhone 6 Pluses and now an iPhone 8 Plus. Started somewhere in IOS version 10 something. Symptoms are:


1. Open up messages and no messages show up, only blank spaces separated by lines where messages should be.


2. Severe freezing of message typing and message output. Typing delayed by 10-15 seconds, rapid catch up, then delayed again. When message attempts to send, the bar goes across 3/4 of the top of the message and then stops and freezes.


Solutions I have tried:

1. Turn phone on and off. Worked well initially but got worse with each new iOS update.

2. Hard restart of phone - same results.

3. Checking memory and reducing retention of messages from forever to 30 days (this one sucked because I gave up many old messages.

4. Killing and reopening message app. Didn't work until phone was shut off.

5. Killing all open apps. No effect


This is extremely frustrating. It's amazing to me that Apple hasn't updated the issue or even responded. I think it's a result of the clocking of older phones and the programming stuck with each new update like a ghost. Now Apple is getting sued. I might join.


Gonna lose a customer Apple if you don't get it together ASAP

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Text messages disappeared

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