How To Get Texts From Iphone

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Step 3 Transfer Text Messages from iPhone to iPhone. You are able to transfer SMS, videos, contacts, photos and music from one iPhone to the new one. But since all you need to copy is SMS, you need to uncheck the boxes of contacts, music and photos. When it's done, click “Start Copy”. For iPhone 4/3GS, you should enter the scanning mode of your iPhone to scan lost data. Hold your device, then click the green 'Start' button. After clicking the 'Start' button, press the 'Power' and the 'Home' at the same time immediately for exact 10 seconds. The program will count the time for you.

Sometimes we are just stupid enough to delete some SMS，or for some occasions we just tap the trash can icon accidentally and deleted all our text messages. Whatever in which case, retrieving lost information is what we really care about. Fortunatly, with iPhone Data Recovery program, regaining data back to our iOS device is not an impossible task.
The iPhone Data Recovery, program is a very effective software to recover deleted data on your device. By using program, your lost texts will be presented clearly back to your iPhone SE/ 7/6s/ 6s Plus/ 6/ 6 Plus, etc. It allows you to select missing messages according to their names, phone numbers or contens. Keep rolling for more details.
A beard well lathered is half shaved, please click the icon below to help your messages regained!
  • Part One: Regain Deleting SMS from iPhone
  • Part Two: Restore Lost Texts from iTunes Backup
  • Part Three: Resume Missing Messages from iCloud Backup
  • Tips: How to Delete SMS Permanently

Part One: Regain Deleting SMS from iPhone

Step 1

How To Get Texts From Iphone

Connect to PC
Get everything ready by installing and launching iPhone Data Recovery. Then connect your handset with the computer and click the first recovery mode to scan.
Step 2 Retrieve Lost Text Messages
After the scanning process is done, you can see those missing messages are being showed on the screen with red color. Tick the ones you like and click 'Recover'.

Part Two: Restore Lost Texts from iTunes Backup

Step 1 Scan your iTunes Backup
Start iPhone Data Recovery Program and choose 'Recover from iTunes Backup File'. Choose the contents you want to recover. Then click 'Star Scan'.
Step 2 Preview and Restore SMS
Wait a few seconds while your iOS device is being canned. After that, you can see the window down below. Choose the items you want and click 'Recover' button.

Part Three: Resume Missing Messages from iCloud Backup

Step 1 Sign in to iCloud
Start iPhone Data Recovery Program and choose 'Recover from iCloud Backup File' mode. Enter your ID and Password to get your backup.
Step 2 Download iCloud Backup
Download the information you need, and move on to the next step.
Step 3 Get Lost Phone Messages Back
This step is simple and final. If you have made your choice, click 'Recover'. Print

Tips: How to Delete SMS Permanently

The reasons that sometimes users need topermanently delete text messages can be:
1. You need to sale your smartphone or pass it to others. So for the data on your device, of cause you don't want it to be checked by others and permanetly deleting it is a good choice.
2. The text messages are useless for you and you don't want to keep it anymore. Permanently deleting SMS can release the menory storage space for your device.
But how to do? The first method is to perform a factory reset on your device and then enter or import the other data, for example, download several videos. In this way, the previous data would be overwritten and could not be retrieved even with the data recovery tool we introduced above.
The other way to permanently delete SMS is to use the Secure Eraser program to wipe out all the private data, clear cache and erase the deleted files in one-click. If you want to save your time, it can be a good choice for you.
Whether the lost texts can be recoverd or not is totally depending on if the data is overwritten by new adding files or not. In that case, if you want to get data back to your device, please try not to use device which could mess your phone space. Always remember to do iPhone SMS backups by the way. You can click the download button below to get iPhone Data Recovery installed on your PC, and your precious texts will come back to you safely.

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Difficulty: easy
Steps: up to 4
Time needed: 5 minutes

How to recover messages and attachments

This article will help you to recover deleted text messages (from iMessage or SMS) and attachments from your iPhone or iPad. It'll also guide you through exporting your iPhone messages in a number of different formats.

We start the guide out with the easiest approaches first, as many of these are built into the free edition of iPhone Backup Extractor, our flagship application. As the guide progresses, and the techniques get more sophisticated, we'll dig into some additional options.

Those steps in brief:

  1. Download and install iPhone Backup Extractor
  2. Add your iCloud account or local iTunes backup
  3. Browse through your messages -- including deleted ones
  4. View or export texts as PDF or HTML files

Going deeper?

If this guide helps you or you want to go deeper, please buy a license. It helps us ship updates at the crazy rate that we've kept up since 2008.

Don’t forget: if you’re a customer you can always reach out to our support team to guide you through the process. We'll happily work through the whole thing with you.

If you'd like to skip the introduction, you can click on the links above to dive straight into the action. If you're not a words person, we've included a video below to take you through it.

You'll need

iCloud backup and credentials

iPhone Backup Extractor

How to access text messages on an iPhone

Let's start with the basics: how to access texts on an iPhone. iOS is a secure system and does a great job of protecting its data, but every now and then it's helpful to be able to extract it. At Reincubate, we've been finding ways to do this since 2008, when our founder first built iPhone Backup Extractor to rescue his own lost data.

There are four sources of text message data:

  1. Local iTunes backups
  2. iCloud backups of the iPhone
  3. Undeletion from either of the above
  4. Synchronisation with Messages on iCloud

We pioneered all four of these techniques -- and built them into iPhone Backup Extractor -- so let's use them to help you.

“Why use a backup? The data was lost long ago.”

You may wonder why creating a new backup is helpful for recovering messages which are no longer on your phone, or why it's worth using a backup that is more recent than the deletion of your texts.

Of course, it'd be better if your backup was taken at the point your phone still had the messages on it. But iPhone Backup Extractor can still recover messages which were deleted prior to the backup in many cases. We can do this both by looking at a temporary store of deleted messages that the iPhone keeps for just under a month, and by using a forensic technique to recover much older deleted data. We've written more about how this works and have published a technical deep-dive into forensic recovery of text messages with iPhone Backup Extractor if you're interested to learn more.

Getting access to an iTunes or iCloud backup for message recovery

Depending on how your phone is set up it may either back up via iTunes to a PC or Mac, or automatically to the iCloud. The quickest way to check is to look on your iPhone. Go into Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Backup. If you have iCloud backups enabled, that section will tell you when the last backup was completed. Like this:

If you haven't enabled iCloud backups on your phone, you can use this screen to enable them and to take a backup straight away. However, it is quicker to create a backup on your PC or Mac, and you may already have one. If you install the free version of iPhone Backup Extractor (download) it will show you all of the backups on your computer. Here's what that looks like:

If you are satisfied that your backup is recent enough, you can skip this section. If not, let's get your backup created or updated. For users of iCloud backups, that's pretty straightforward: again, go into Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Backup. Hit 'Back Up Now'. That'll start the process of updating your phone's iCloud backup. It's helpful to be in range of a fast wireless network when doing this, as that'll make the process quicker.

More information on backups

We publish another guide with more information on the differences between iCloud and iTunes backups, and how you might choose between them. It also includes advanced topics such as enabling iTunes backups over wifi. You can read it here.

If you aren't using iCloud backups and want to create or update an iTunes backup, the first step is to ensure you have iTunes installed. Apple has a clear guide which explains how to get your backup created.

Recovering deleted or lost messages from an iPhone

Now we've established there's a backup available, let's take a look at the data available in it.

Having loaded Reincubate iPhone Backup Extractor, you'll be presented with a list of iPhone data on the left-hand side of the application. It'll show your iTunes backups, and has a section which explains how to add your iCloud account and iCloud backups. (It's safe to do this, but if you're keen to learn more, you can read more about who we are and how we feel about privacy and data.)

Once the backup is added, select it in the left-hand menu of iPhone Backup Extractor. That'll lead to an overview of available data being shown, like so:

The overview will show you how many messages can be seen in the backup, and you can extract them by clicking on the familiar green messages icon. In order to examine them, though, there's no need to export them straight away. Instead, if you choose 'Preview' from the tabbed controls on the overview, you'll see you can select 'messages' and dive straight into a list of the message history on your iPhone.

Recovering WhatsApp or other messages

Is it also possible to recover messages from other messaging apps, like WhatsApp, Hike, Kik or Viber? Yes. iPhone Backup Extractor can automatically extract or preview all of these for you, and messages from a number of other apps, too.

The techniques used are pretty similar to those in this guide. That said, we've got a standalone guide for recovering WhatsApp messages. Don't forget, if you get stuck: reach out!

At the bottom of that window, there's a drop-down control which lets you include the display of deleted messages. Setting it to 'show everything' will include deleted messages in the previews. We highlight these in red, like so:

Exporting iPhone messages, attachments and texts

With SMS and MMS messages on your iPhone shown in iPhone Backup Extractor, it's easy to export them. The free edition of the app will export up to four at a time, whilst the licensed edition removes this limitation. (If you only need a handful of messages, you could get around this by getting your messages out four at a time, although it's easier just to register!)

To export your iPhone's messages, click back on the 'Overview' tab, then click the 'Extract Messages' icon. That'll prompt you to choose a format in which to extract your messages. Can you export them in the following formats:

  • PDF
  • HTML
  • CSV

For most users, PDF format is the best choice. PDF files can be read by any computer or smartphone, and always look the same. They're also most useful if you ever need to supply proof of message, for instance if you're showing cancellation of an appointment or order.

iPhone Backup Extractor even recovers deleted iMessage drawings

Since iOS 10, the iPhone has let you include drawings, animations, handwriting, and richer emojis. As soon the first preview shipped, our expert team updated iPhone Backup Extractor to support this feature, and we can preview, extract and recover iMessage drawings.

When exporting in HTML mode, iPhone Backup Extractor extracts your iMessage drawings as SVG files. You can open them with any normal web browser.

If you're after deleted iMessage drawings, you'll find they're stored as PNGs, and are available when doing an export of Photos through iPhone Backup Extractor.

What about Messages in iCloud?

Apple's iOS 11.4 feature to synchronise message data with iCloud is pretty handy, but deserves noting some caveats. By centrally storing your messages in the iCloud, it means any given device on your account can 'offload' older messages if it doesn't want to store the full set. (This isn’t the same as backing up your iPhone’s messages to the iCloud; we’re talking specifically about Apple’s “Messages in iCloud” service here.)

A good few years' of iPhone use can leave you with over 100,000 messages. The data we've seen shows iOS devices typically retain around 10% of that locally when iCloud sync is enabled. If you do enable it, be aware of this:

  1. Enabling Messages in iCloud will reduce the number of messages saved on your iPhone, and thus potentially the amount you can recover.

  2. You can use the forensic techniques in iPhone Backup Extractor to recover deleted content, but if the message offloading has just offloaded and deleted tens of thousands of text messages, you may be looking for a needle in a haystack.

  3. Enabling the function synchronises deletions across devices. Consequently, if you delete a message with Messages in iCloud enabled, you're definitely deleting any copies of it that would otherwise be on other devices. (Because your iOS and macOS devices can already synchronise messages together over a local network.

These caveats aside, Messages in iCloud is pretty cool. Just make sure you've got enough iCloud storage space!

Need help getting your texts or SMS messages back?

If the earlier techniques haven’t led you to get all of your texts and iMessages back, then not all is lost. Reincubate’s iPhone Backup Extractor is built around a piece of technology which we call the Cloud Data API. This lets us do some pretty advanced things which are unique to Reincubate. We can use it to recover the data in question from a “partial snapshot” which has older data than your iCloud backup. If your data was stored on an unencrypted disk, it may be that a disk recovery has potential.

We have a number of tricks we can harness for you, and we genuinely love talking to our users. 👩‍💻 Don't be a stranger: reach out to the support team with the email address at the bottom of this page, and let them know what you’ve tried and how you’ve got on.

Frequently asked questions

How can I view iMessage on a Windows PC?

The easiest way to get iMessages on Windows is by following the instructions above: iPhone Backup Extractor gives you a fully-featured iMessage viewer for Windows. It'll let you see attachments, diagrams and messages on your Windows PC, just like you would on your iPhone.

How can I get iMessages on Mac?

The 'Messages' app on newer Macs integrates with the iCloud to give you access to iMessages and texts on your desktop. Setup is easy:

  1. Make sure you're signed into the same iCloud account on the Mac as on the iPhone

  2. On your iPhone, go into Settings → Messages → Text Message Forwarding, and you'll see a list of the iMessage-compatible devices associated with your iCloud account.

  3. Enable or disable the devices you'd like to use text message forwarding on; you'll be able to send and receive texts on any of these iPads or Macs

Is it possible to get iMessages on Android?

There's no simple iMessage client available on Android at this point; Apple take care to protect the iMessage experience. However, we have a guide to help you migrate iMessages to Android. Reach out if you get stuck!