How to See Deleted Messages on iPhone
Find deleted messages on iPhone in Recently Deleted on iOS 16 to iOS 27, and what still works after 30 days, from your Mac to an older backup.
Deleted messages on an iPhone running iOS 16 or later wait in a Recently Deleted folder for up to 30 days, and getting them back takes five taps. Where that folder sits depends on your iOS version. On iOS 26 and iOS 27 it moved behind a new Filter button, so the instructions written for older versions no longer match the screen.
When the folder is empty or the 30 days have passed, you still have three places to look, in this order: a Mac or iPad with its own copy, the person you were texting, and an older backup. Each has a catch, and the steps below say what it is before you rely on it.
We checked every menu name below against Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 and its iOS 16, 17, 18, and 26 editions in October 2026.
Make sure the message is really gone
A message that seems to have vanished is sometimes only filtered out of view, so spend a minute here before you start recovering. Search for it. In Messages, tap the search field below the conversation list and type a word you remember from the message, or the person's name. Check the other lists. On iOS 26 and iOS 27, tap the Filter button at the top of the conversation list. The menu that opens holds Spam, and Unknown Senders when Screen Unknown Senders is on. With screening on, texts from numbers that are not in your contacts go to Unknown Senders instead of your main list. Check Keep Messages. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and scroll to Keep Messages (on iOS 17 and earlier, it is Settings > Messages). If it says 30 Days or 1 Year, your iPhone removes older conversations on its own. Set it to Forever now so nothing else disappears while you look.
Recover it from Recently Deleted on iOS 26 or iOS 27
Every iPhone from the iPhone 11 and the iPhone SE (2nd generation) onward can run iOS 27, so this is the path most people need. To check your version, go to Settings > General > About. In Messages, go back to the conversation list. Tap the Filter button at the top, then tap Recently Deleted. Select the conversations that hold the messages you want back, tap Recover, then tap Recover Messages. Go back to the conversation list and open the conversation to check. Apple's iOS 27 guide to recovering messages gives the window as up to 30 days after you delete something. If you use Messages in iCloud, recovering on your iPhone also brings the messages back on your iPad and Mac. If Recently Deleted is not in the menu, the likely reason is that it is empty. Apple's Mac guide gives that reason for a missing folder: no conversation deleted in the last 30 days. Go to step 4.
Heads up: Recently Deleted also has a button that deletes permanently, and that cannot be undone. Check that the button you tap says Recover.
On iOS 16 to iOS 18, look in the top-left corner
Recently Deleted arrived with iOS 16, and on iOS 16, 17, and 18 it sits behind a different button. On the conversation list, look in the top-left corner. You will see either Edit or Filters. If you see Edit, tap it, then tap Show Recently Deleted. If you see Filters, tap it, then tap Recently Deleted. Both lead to the same folder. Select the conversations, tap Recover, and confirm with Recover Message or Recover Messages. This is the path for every iPhone that stopped getting updates on one of these versions. The iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max top out at iOS 18. The iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X top out at iOS 16. The iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, their Plus models, and the first iPhone SE cannot run iOS 16, so they have no Recently Deleted folder at all. The same goes for any message you deleted before you updated to iOS 16. Apple's support article on deleted texts says those messages cannot be recovered this way. For those, skip to step 5.
Check your Mac or iPad for its own copy
If Messages in iCloud is off, a Mac or iPad that was signed in to iMessage with your Apple Account when the message arrived keeps its own copy of it, and deleting a message on your iPhone does not touch it. Check whether the setting is on first. On your iPhone, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, tap See All if Messages is not listed, then tap Messages. If Use on this iPhone is on, Messages in iCloud is on. If it is off, open Messages on the Mac or iPad and search for the message. If it was deleted there too, on a Mac choose View > Recently Deleted in the menu bar, select the conversation, and click Recover. On an iPad, use the same steps as on the iPhone. If it is on, skip this step. With Messages in iCloud, a deletion on one device deletes the message on all of them, and recovering on one device recovers it on all of them, so the folder you already checked is the one that counts. We left out the trick of turning Messages in iCloud off and on again to bring messages back. By the time you try it, the deletion has already reached iCloud, so there is nothing left to merge back in.
Ask the other person for a copy
Deleting a message on your iPhone removes it from your devices only. Apple says you can delete messages "without affecting what your recipients see," so the person you were texting still has the whole conversation. Ask them to take a screenshot of the part you need and send it to you. We put this before the backup restore in the next step on purpose. It takes one text, and it works for messages older than 30 days and for iPhones that never had Recently Deleted. The one exception is a message unsent with Undo Send within 2 minutes of sending it. When both of you are on iOS 16 or later, unsending removes the message from the recipient's iPhone as well, and Apple says it is permanently deleted, so it never reaches Recently Deleted on either side.
Restore an older backup, if it can hold the message
A backup only helps if two things are true. First, Messages in iCloud was off when the backup was made (step 4 shows where to check). Apple's list of what iCloud backs up says that when Messages in iCloud is on, your messages "aren't included in your daily backup." The same applies to a backup on a computer. Second, the backup is older than the deletion and newer than the message. To see the date of your last iCloud backup, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup, then tap This iPhone. If that backup is newer than the deletion, it does not have the message either. Before you go further, know what a restore costs. You have to erase the iPhone first, and it returns to the state saved in the backup. Photos, messages, and app data added since then are gone unless they are stored in iCloud. We would only do this for a message that matters more than everything that came after it. If the backup you want is in iCloud, first back up the iPhone to a computer with Finder or the Apple Devices app. If the old backup turns out not to have the message, restore the computer backup to get today's iPhone back. To restore from iCloud, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. When the iPhone restarts, follow the setup steps until you reach Transfer Your Apps & Data, tap From iCloud Backup, sign in, and pick the backup with the right date. To restore from a computer, connect the iPhone and open Finder on a Mac (macOS Catalina or later) or the Apple Devices app on Windows 10 or later. Select the iPhone, click Restore Backup, and choose the backup by its date. Apple's restore instructions cover both routes.
If none of the steps found the message, it is gone. That happens when it was deleted more than 30 days ago, no backup or other device holds it, and the other person deleted it too. To keep this from happening again, leave Keep Messages set to Forever. If you would rather have a backup that holds your messages, turn off Messages in iCloud, which puts them back into your iCloud Backup, and remember that deletions will then stay on the device where you made them. If messages from one person stopped arriving rather than disappearing, the problem may be a block, not a deletion. Our guide to telling if someone blocked you covers the signs in Messages.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
No. iCloud.com has no Messages app. Apple's list of what you can use on iCloud.com includes Mail, Photos, Notes, iCloud Drive, and others, but not Messages. Messages in iCloud only shows up inside the Messages app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac signed in to your Apple Account.
No. Verizon's and T-Mobile's transparency reports say they do not release the content of text messages in response to a subpoena, and hand over stored content only to law enforcement with a warrant. Neither describes a way for a customer to get message content back. iMessages, the blue bubbles, do not go through your carrier's text service at all. They travel end-to-end encrypted through Apple's servers.
Not for anything that is not already in a backup. The forensic software company Elcomsoft writes, "There are no data recovery tools that can recover user files deleted from the iPhone." It adds that since iOS 12 the system wipes deleted message records almost immediately. What these apps can do is read a backup that already exists on your computer or in iCloud, and if no backup has the message, they cannot get it back either.
Up to 30 days on your iPhone. Some Apple pages say 30 to 40 days, and Apple's Mac guide explains the gap. After 30 days the messages are removed from all your devices, and after 40 days they are permanently deleted from iCloud as well. The extra 10 days happen on Apple's servers, where you cannot reach them, so treat 30 days as your deadline.
Not if you both use iMessage on iOS 16 or later. Undo Send works for 2 minutes after sending and removes the message from both iPhones, leaving a note in both conversations that a message was unsent. If the other person uses an older iOS version, the original message stays on their phone, and your iPhone tells you they may still see it. SMS, MMS, and RCS messages, the green bubbles, cannot be unsent at all.
Yes. You can edit an iMessage up to five times within 15 minutes of sending it, and the message is marked Edited. Both of you can tap Edited to see every earlier version. If the other person uses an iOS version older than iOS 16, they get a follow-up message starting with "Edited to" and your new text in quotation marks.
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