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thommo14

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2017
31
4
G'day!

I went and stupidly deleted a whole thread on my iPhone. It was full of rather important messages that I need to reference from time to time.

Not using iCloud to sync messages, I still have the thread available on my iPad. I am at some point wanting to use iCloud to sync messages, but that can wait for another day.

Is there a way I can get the messages on the iPad transferred to the iPhone? I've done a search for such a situation, but I'm mostly getting software recommendations.

All advice greatly appreciated!
 

cruisin

macrumors 6502a
Apr 1, 2014
962
223
Canada
No built in way to do this, unless you had a previous backup and you restore the phone.

If the messages are that important you should spend the 5 minutes and take screenshots or copy them to Notes. It is only a matter of time until they are also accidentally deleted or a glitch takes them out.
 

Minorite

macrumors 6502a
May 8, 2018
521
123
Poland
I don't remember that there was a way except iCloud sync to restore only one thread, regardless of software. Some claim they can 'undelete' messages though.

I think you should just make a backup of you iPad to make sure that messages are saved and just sync with iCloud.

Alternatively, if you don't mind paid apps you can get iMazing and save this thread as PDF, then upload it to Files app or any reader on your phone. Also browsing backups is free so you can keep the backup of your iPad (save it to safe location so it won't get overwritten!) and just read this thread within the app.
 

tarsins

macrumors 65816
Sep 15, 2009
1,197
859
Wales
Switching Messages in iCloud on should combine your iPhone and iPad messages. As suggested, backup first and if it doesn't work you could restore.
 

thommo14

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2017
31
4
That would be incredibly handy if iCloud combined messages from both devices! Got to give that a try.

Thanks all for your input.
 

KoolAid-Drink

macrumors 68000
Sep 18, 2013
1,859
947
USA
Screen record the important conversation first in case, then turn on iCloud Messages on the iPad first, so that the messages will beam up to iCloud. Delete the conversation on your iPhone, then turn on iCloud Messages on the iPhone. It should then sync over the conversation from your iPad, thereby "restoring" it.
 

fountaineer

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2008
79
5
Curious what you ended up doing. If you ever solved your problem. One app I would suggest to get is the backuptrans imessage backup and restore. I've been using it for years to simply backup only the sms/imessage on my phone and do a factory reset or on a new phone only put back my entire backup messages. so i got a new phone with all my messages back.

In this case you could backup up your ipad messages and then for safety iphone messages into their seperate backups and try restoring the phone with only the ipad messages.
 
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