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Messages lost forever?

S

southern1986

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
9
0
Good Morning,

I have a real quick question. I deleted a message thread on my phone about 10 months ago. My fear is that it is permanently deleted. Since then, my phone has backed up to iCloud several times. I have no iTunes backups when I go into iTunes and look under preferences and then devices. My latest iCloud backup was yesterday. On top of all of that, I switched phone carriers and have a brand new iPhone. Again, this was a while ago when these were deleted from my Apple ID. Are they stored somewhere else? Or gone forever? Thanks in advance.
 
Sorry to say that without a local backup with those messages, they might be gone forever.

If you're signed in to iCloud on a mac or other device (iPad?), the messages MIGHT still be there.

Otherwise, your only recourse would be to contact Apple and see if there's something they can do, but I doubt they'll be able to do much, specially now that privacy has been much more of a focus and Apple as a result has been a lot more hands-off about delving into people's data.
 
When you say signed into iCloud on a Mac, what do you mean? I can go to iCloud.com but where would they be stored there?
 
Signed into iCloud, as in under the iCloud settings. On a Mac: Settings>iCloud. If you are signed in with the Same Apple ID (same email address as on the iPhone), then you can search 'Messages' and see if you get a hit on the message(s) that you are trying to find. Also, the OS on the Mac has to be a recent version that supports iCloud and iMessage would also need to be turned on in the Mac. Messages>Preferences>Accounts (once again, with the same Apple ID that is being used on the iPhone).
 
stcasey said:
Signed into iCloud, as in under the iCloud settings. On a Mac: Settings>iCloud. If you are signed in with the Same Apple ID (same email address as on the iPhone), then you can search 'Messages' and see if you get a hit on the message(s) that you are trying to find. Also, the OS on the Mac has to be a recent version that supports iCloud and iMessage would also need to be turned on in the Mac. Messages>Preferences>Accounts (once again, with the same Apple ID that is being used on the iPhone).[/QUOT
Click to expand...
stcasey said:
Signed into iCloud, as in under the iCloud settings. On a Mac: Settings>iCloud. If you are signed in with the Same Apple ID (same email address as on the iPhone), then you can search 'Messages' and see if you get a hit on the message(s) that you are trying to find. Also, the OS on the Mac has to be a recent version that supports iCloud and iMessage would also need to be turned on in the Mac. Messages>Preferences>Accounts (once again, with the same Apple ID that is being used on the iPhone).
Click to expand...

In this case, they were not iMessages. This particular thread was SMS. I have never seen an option for messages in iCloud on the MacBook.
 
I'm afraid you're out of luck if you have no archived backups AND a new phone. If you're looking for timestamps for when the messages were sent, you may try contacting your previous carrier.
 
techspin said:
I'm afraid you're out of luck if you have no archived backups AND a new phone. If you're looking for timestamps for when the messages were sent, you may try contacting your previous carrier.
Click to expand...

So you don't think there would be any files on the Mac or any previous iCloud back ups that contain the message thread?
 
Try searching in spotlight if you know what you're looking for. I know people having issues with messages that have been deleted still being there. Might be worth a shot. Only other option since you don't have a local backup is if you use iMessage on a mac or ipad and also enabled sms. Then the messages will be on those devices even if you delete them from your iphone.
 
ZEEN0j said:
Try searching in spotlight if you know what you're looking for. I know people having issues with messages that have been deleted still being there. Might be worth a shot. Only other option since you don't have a local backup is if you use iMessage on a mac or ipad and also enabled sms. Then the messages will be on those devices even if you delete them from your iphone.
Click to expand...

I have never used iMessage on the Mac or iPad. I've never sent messages from any other device besides my phone, which I turned in for a newer iPhone with a different carrier.
 
Highly doubtful you can get it back. You said it was 10 months ago. That's a long time to wait to try and get it back. Newer backups probably would have just overwritten it a long long time ago and forever gone.

For the future, turn on the texting on your Mac in iMessage (since Yosemite and iOS 8 there is a thing called Continuity that allows normal texts and phone called to be made from your phone off the Mac or even iPad.) So that if you do ever delete a conversation on your phone you could still at least have it on your computer.
 
lagwagon said:
Highly doubtful you can get it back. You said it was 10 months ago. That's a long time to wait to try and get it back. Newer backups probably would have just overwritten it a long long time ago and forever gone.

For the future, turn on the texting on your Mac in iMessage (since Yosemite and iOS 8 there is a thing called Continuity that allows normal texts and phone called to be made from your phone off the Mac or even iPad.) So that if you do ever delete a conversation on your phone you could still at least have it on your computer.
Click to expand...

Lagwagon, I was thinking the same thing. 10 months is awful long time ago. I know my older iPhone did at least 50 backups since then and now I'm operating on a new iPhone 6 with a different carrier. As mentioned, my iTunes account on my MacBook has absolutely no backups listed under devices. I have never texted from the MacBook or iPad in my life.
 
Probably unlikely. If you're desperate you can try a service like DriveSavers, especially if you have your old phone.
 
techspin said:
Probably unlikely. If you're desperate you can try a service like DriveSavers, especially if you have your old phone.
Click to expand...

I don't have my old phone anymore. With a brand new phone wouldn't I have a completely clean hard drive? There wouldn't be anything to pull off the new hard drive right?
 
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