How To Recover Deleted Messages On Your Phone: Android, IPhone

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

"Letter from the Past": how to recover deleted messages on your phone

Most smartphone users will find important messages in the SMS archive, the loss of which can lead not only to a depression of mood, but also to real problems, if, for example, these messages contained logins, passwords and activation codes of any online services or services … Fortunately, there are ways to recover lost messages, but this process is not always easy and does not guarantee success.

Content

• 1 Recover Deleted Messages on Android System

• 2 Recovering deleted SMS on iPhone

  • 2.1 Recovery via iCloud
  • 2.2 Recovery using iTunes utility
  • 2.3 Recovery using third-party utilities

Recover Deleted Messages on Android System

Despite the fact that deleted messages temporarily remain in the smartphone's database, there are no internal system tools to restore them. Therefore, for devices with the Android operating system, there is only one way to "reanimate" SMS - using third-party specialized utilities.

Temporary storage of deleted SMS on a smartphone is located along the path: / Settings / Service / My files / data / data / com.android.providers.telephony / databases / mmssms.db

There are various message recovery utilities (both paid and free), but the most popular are the following:

1. GT SMS Recovery.
2. "SMS recovery".
3. Coolmuster Android SMS + Contacts Recovery (you will need to connect your smartphone to a PC to recover).
4. Android Data Recovery.
5. MobiKin Doctor (for recovery, you need to connect your smartphone to a PC).

The main feature of all android utilities for recovering personal data is that for them to work, the user must be given root rights.

It should be noted that the assignment of superuser rights can lead to a number of serious problems: loss of the smartphone warranty, malfunction, and even complete failure of your mobile device. Therefore, all responsibility for the possible consequences rests solely with you.

Let's analyze a detailed algorithm for SMS recovery using the example of the GT SMS Recovery utility. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Play Market, enter the name of the utility in the search box, then select the application and click on the "Install" button.

   

   GT SMS Recovery is free

2. Run the utility, select the "SMS Recovery" item and click "Start Scan", having previously selected the "Grant" option in the "Superuser Request" window.

   

   Root rights are a kind of administrative rights to manage the system settings of a device

3. Wait until the end of the scanning process and search for deleted SMS on the smartphone.

   

   During scanning, it is advisable to no longer perform any actions on the smartphone

4. At the end of the automatic check, mark the groups of messages that need to be restored with markers. Click the "Recover SMS" button.

   

   All found messages are grouped by recipients: the contact name or phone number will be displayed in brackets next to the number of messages

5. Done, now you can re-find previously deleted SMS in the memory of your smartphone.

   

   By clicking on the "View" button, you will be automatically redirected to the "Messages" directory of your smartphone

The step-by-step process of restoring messages through other utilities is not fundamentally different, except for the ways of navigating through the internal program menus. It is worth remembering only one important feature: if you need to restore SMS, you should not hesitate with this process, since deleted messages are stored in the backup memory of the smartphone for a short time, and besides, newly received SMS will replace the oldest ones.

If we talk about the degree of effectiveness of various recovery utilities, including options using a PC (via connecting a smartphone via a USB cable), then, based on personal experience and comments from several users, I can note the following: each case is unique. There are not many differences between the utilities, and I have not yet found among them a single universal program that would equally help everyone. Therefore, my advice: if one utility did not help you, then be sure to try recovery with others.

Unfortunately, there are no ways to recover deleted messages in Android without rooting a smartphone. Whether or not to use third-party utilities is up to you.

Recovering deleted SMS on iPhone

Owners of "iPhones" were a little more fortunate, since devices with the iOS operating system have not only internal resources for recovering deleted messages (iCloud), but also the official software from Apple - iTunes, which can also be used to reanimate SMS.

ICloud recovery

iCloud is a cloud service for storing data backups on devices such as iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The ability to restore via iCloud is available only if the function of automatic data backup is not disabled on your smartphone (this function is initially enabled by default). To recover deleted messages in iPhone, do the following:

1. Open the Settings / iCloud Options window in iPhone and check that the iCloud Backup scroll button is ON. If the function is active, you can continue the recovery process; if it is inactive, this method becomes irrelevant.

   

   By clicking "Create a backup", you will create another point for data recovery

2. Go to "Settings / General / Reset" and select the "Erase content and settings" function. Wait until the end of the process, then restart the device.

   

   Factory reset is irreversible

3. After rebooting, in the "Programs and Data" menu that appears, select "Recover from iCloud Copy".

   

   When you click on the "Recover from iCloud copy" item, you will be presented with a list of all available restore points (by date)

4. Done, all your lost data, including SMS messages, has been restored to the device.

After restoring, you can check if all data has been returned to the device.

If this folder does not contain any previously deleted data, then you can try to perform the recovery process again.

Recovery using iTunes utility

iTunes is the official software for iPhones and iPads and is a multimedia player for playing music and movies on a PC. However, its tools also allow you to recover personal data deleted from iPhone. That being said, it should be noted that successful data recovery will also require iCloud cloud storage technology. If this feature was enabled on your iPhone, then:

1. Go to the official Apple website and click the Download button on the iTunes page.

   

   After clicking the "Download" button, you can select the required version of iTunes, depending on the bitness of your OS

2. Install and launch iTunes.

   

   After the first launch of iTunes, you will need to accept the Apple User Agreement

3. Connect your iPhone to your PC using a USB cable and wait until the program detects your mobile device.

4. If the detection is successful, a smartphone-shaped icon will appear. Click on it and select "Sync automatically if iPhone is connected" in the options.

   

   The iPhone detection process takes from a few seconds to a minute

5. After selecting the options, the working window of your iPhone's settings will appear. Go to the "Browse" tab, find the "Backups" information block and click on the "Restore from a copy" button.

   

   After restoring data via iTunes, the current version of the firmware of your iPhone will remain the same

6. In the restore window that opens, select a suitable restore point ("iPhone Name") from the list and click "Restore".

   

   The date of the restore point must be selected before all messages were deleted

7. Wait until the end of the process, after which you can disconnect the iPhone from the PC.

   

   After disconnecting the iPhone from the PC, it is advisable to restart

Recovery using third-party utilities

Of course, as in the case of Android smartphones, there are third-party data recovery utilities for iPhones, for example: iSkySoft iPhone Data Recovery, SmartPhone Recovery Pro, Tenorshare UltData, etc. It makes sense to resort to their help if message recovery cannot be performed from the iCloud cloud storage (utilities try to recover data from the smartphone's memory cache). Let's look at the recovery algorithm using the Tenorshare UltData utility as an example. Do the following:

1. Download the utility from the official website and install it on your PC.

   

   Tenorshare UltData has two versions: free trial (30 days) and paid (monthly subscription format)

2. Launch Tenorshare UltData and then connect your iPhone to PC via USB cable.

   

   You need to connect iPhone to PC only after starting Tenorshare UltData program

3. In the program window, select "Recover from iOS device" and click the "Scan" button.

   

   Before starting the scan, you can select the categories of data that need to be restored

4. At the end of the root directory scanning process, check the box next to the category "Text content recovery / Messages". Click on the "Recover" button and specify the location to save the recovered data.

   

   In the free trial version, the user can only restore to a computer (the file is saved in.txt format)

Unfortunately, all third-party iPhone data recovery utilities are stationary, that is, they work exclusively on a PC. Therefore, if you cannot use your computer or the iCloud cloud storage function has been disabled, you will not be able to reanimate your SMS messages.

Deleted messages can be recovered on any mobile device, be it a smartphone with an Android operating system or an iPhone. The main thing is to remember that you should not delay the recovery process, since erased data is stored in the backup memory of devices only for a certain time. And to ensure that such incidents no longer cause significant damage, be sure to manually back up your data from time to time. This feature is available in the settings on both Android and iOS devices.