Is there any way to recover deleted SMS messages on the iPhone 4?

[charlenec123]

So I was on my iPhone today and I got a message from a random person and I wanted to delete it. So I swiped my finger across the first entry in my Messages folder and hit delete. Then I looked at my screen and saw the same message, still there. Then I realized that I deleted the wrong one. I had deleted the entry for one of my friends who I've been texting for years now. I don't know how to get all our messages back. Is there any possible way? Please tell me there is.

[upaymeifixit]

Don't think so. A device like that doesn't usually have a "Trash" directory like a computer. Once you delete something it is marked as free space.

It's possible you could take it to a data recovery place and have them recover the messages, but that would be expensive.

[Dave Felix]

contact your provider? Thats kind of tough man

[Hermes Monster]

if you've backed up your phone via iTunes, all of your messages will still be there as of that point. Hopefully you do it often and wont lose many of the new ones..

[Orion126]

As long as the deleted text hasn't been overwritten by other data you can use Undelete SMS on a jailbroken iPhone. It's not a free program but you should be able to copy/pasta onto your notepad.

Hope that helps!

[-YK]

Originally Posted by Hermes Monster

if you've backed up your phone via iTunes, all of your messages will still be there as of that point. Hopefully you do it often and wont lose many of the new ones..

That's the way I have done it before. Definitely the most simple.

[h4lp m3]

Originally Posted by Orion126

As long as the deleted text hasn't been overwritten by other data you can use Undelete SMS on a jailbroken iPhone. It's not a free program but you should be able to copy/pasta onto your notepad.

Hope that helps!

I paid $7 for that app and it didn't work!
They DO NOT give refunds either

[johnfoster]

These guys have a free trial program which lets you see if your deleted sms messages are recoverable. http://www.deciphertools.com

[mtreys]

Originally Posted by charlenec123

So I was on my iPhone today and I got a message from a random person and I wanted to delete it. So I swiped my finger across the first entry in my Messages folder and hit delete. Then I looked at my screen and saw the same message, still there. Then I realized that I deleted the wrong one. I had deleted the entry for one of my friends who I've been texting for years now. I don't know how to get all our messages back. Is there any possible way? Please tell me there is.

While you won't be able to restore any deleted messages, look for a program that will backup your messages in case you accidentally do this again. I use PhoneView from eCamm...I think that's who made it. It cost me $20 and has been the best app I've bought recently. It will save all of your messages and will allow you to export them to PDF or CSV file. It also saves your call logs and voicemails. It's a wonderful app and one that I absolutely swear by now.

[TriJetHero]

Originally Posted by h4lp m3

I paid $7 for that app and it didn't work!
They DO NOT give refunds either

Works on my 4S 5.1.1

[wiliswene]

It's not a free program but you should be able to copy/pasta onto your notepad.

[sheels]

There is a Software named Dr.Fone for iPhone 4 which can recover deleted iPhone text messages. It did a decent job recovering my iPhone 4 SMS without even any iTunes backup.

[Ajaes]

I don't think you it recovery deleted messages from an ios device.

[bloutrein]

Always good to keep a safe backup of your iPhone data and to backup iphone sms text messages either via iTunes sync (at the end of the day as I do) or via alternative methods to avoid having to worry about restoring.

[zorinlynx]

If you back up to iCloud or iTunes, and have not backed up since you deleted the messages, you can restore the backup and they will come back.

Caveat: You will lose all changes made to the phone since the last backup. Whether this is acceptable is entirely up to you.

Simply "erase all content and settings" and restore from the backup.

[SkippyThorson]

Originally Posted by zorinlynx

If you back up to iCloud or iTunes, and have not backed up since you deleted the messages, you can restore the backup and they will come back.

Caveat: You will lose all changes made to the phone since the last backup. Whether this is acceptable is entirely up to you.

Simply "erase all content and settings" and restore from the backup.

Exactly.

Folks, SMS text messages are backed up with the iPhone - whether it's locally or to iCloud. If you've already written over the backup that had them (as in, backed up after the delete) then they're gone.

If you still have a backup available from a time where you had the messages on your iPhone, all you have to do is erase the iPhone and restore from that backup. Simple as pie.

In fact, I just went through that recently, and it worked without a problem. Only things I lost were some photos in the camera roll (taken after that backup) but they were up in Photo Stream anyway.

[joankaisa]

Originally Posted by charlenec123

So I was on my iPhone today and I got a message from a random person and I wanted to delete it. So I swiped my finger across the first entry in my Messages folder and hit delete. Then I looked at my screen and saw the same message, still there. Then I realized that I deleted the wrong one. I had deleted the entry for one of my friends who I've been texting for years now. I don't know how to get all our messages back. Is there any possible way? Please tell me there is.

If you had connected the iPhone to computer before, your iTunes may keep some data of your iPhone, and you may have chance to recover the sms from your iTunes backup. But it is not sure.

[Someoneloveyou]

Try to do via iCloud:

settings>icloud>check to see if your signed in or have contacts on, if you do then turn off contats, keep on phone, turn back on, merge and your contacts should show up again.

[herryclesi]

Usually, iTunes will automatially backup your iPhone when you sync with iTunes. If you have the backup, then you can recover deleted sms messages on the iPhone 4 will be easily:

Here are the steps:
Click the "File" menu and select "Devices" > "Restore from Back up".
Or
Open the iOS device's "Summary" tab. There are two ways to access this:
Click the device button in the upper right corner. (If viewing the iTunes Store, click the Library button in the upper right corner. The device button will then be visible.)
From any view in iTunes, click the "View" menu and select "Show Sidebar". Select your iOS device in iTunes under "Devices:.
Click the "Restore Backup" button.

[Clice]

iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names

Windows XP Directory: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7 Directory: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

For every device you have, there will be a folder for each that keeps your backup. Just rename the file extensions to .jpg and they'll be the original picture images that you can view on your device. If you have it shown in thumbnails, they should change from the broken/corrupted files to an actual image you can open up.

Know more here: any-data-recovery

[Garylinri]

Hi friend,

The following is the procedure for solving the problem of restore deleted SMS in iPhone 4.

At first you have to go to home screen.

Then tap on to the menu screen.

Now press the settings option.

There the option of 'iCloud' is to be selected.

After that the username and password are to be entered for logging into the account.

Then in order to restore the backup,you can press the backup option.

Now the backup is to be restored.

After that the device is to be restored.

Thanks.

[justus213]

Hey, don’t worry. It is possible to recover your deleted text message, doesn’t waste time on common hard drive data recovery, since it won’t works for iPhone as iPhone use NAND flash drive, not SSD, therefore, it won’t recognize iOS devices.

I collected two methods to recover lost data from iOS devices:

Method 1: Restore from your iCloud backup
Restore from your iCloud backup, if you used iCloud to backup your phone, see iCloud: Backup and restore overview, or estore from a backup you made with iTunes on your mac or PC.

Method 2: recover with iPhone data recovery software
Even the data was deleted from iPhone, but it is still stored in the NAND flash drive, with iPhone data recovery, uses can easily restore deleted text message from iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Suggestion: It is highly recommended to have a regular backup for your iPhone in order to minimize you’re lost of iPhone.

Hope my answer helps you!!!

[bloutrein]

Depending on whether you backed up your iPhone via iCloud or iTunes and depending on when you last backed up your iPhone, you may be able to restore your iPhone to a previous backup date prior to the date you deleted your iPhone SMS messages.

Here is how iOS restore works and what additional data it restores:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766