How to Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone without Backup [3 Ways]

Many users may have the habit of cleaning spam messages regularly to free up space on iPhone. Sometimes, important text messages may be mistakenly deleted during cleaning. Also, iPhone messages may be lost due to factory reset, iOS update, device jailbreak, software crash, virus attack, etc.

The situation is even worse for users who seldom back up their iPhone with iTunes or iCloud, which means there is no chance to recover deleted messages from backup. Don't fret, follow the tips listed in this post to recover deleted text messages iPhone without backup.

Can You Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone without Backup?

As we mentioned above, if you have the habit of backing up iPhone with iTunes or iCloud, there is a big chance to recover your deleted or lost iPhone messages from the backup.

If you haven't made a backup before, don't worry, you still have the chance to get back you important text messages. When you deleted messages and files on your iPhone, they are not actually wiped out. Actually, they are still in the internal storage until that space is used to save some other new data.

So, when you accidentally deleted some important text messages on your iPhone, stop using the device to avoid data overwriting and follow the methods below to get back deleted messages as soon as possible.

How to Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone without Backup

Way 1: Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone Using Third-party Tool

If you haven't backed up your iPhone before, you can rely on third-party software tool. There are many software programs that claim to recover deleted text messages on iPhone even though there is no iTunes or iCloud backup.

FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery is a professional tool to directly recover deleted messages (iMessages included), contacts, photos, videos, notes, voice memos, WhatsApp chats, Kik messages, Viber, etc without any backup. It ensures higher recovery rate and works well on all iPhone models, even the newest iPhone 14/13 running on iOS 16/15.

The steps are very simple, with no tech knowledge needed. You can download FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery and get back your deleted messages in few clicks.

Step 1. Install this iPhone Message Recovery on your computer and launch it. Select "Recover from iOS Device" to proceed.

Step 2. Now connect your iPhone to the computer using USB able and wait for the program to detect the device.

Step 3. When your device is detected, you can choose "Messages" and any other type of data you would like to recover, then tap on "Scan" to begin scanning.

Step 4. When the scanning process is finished, tick Messages to preview text messages you lost. If you wish to export these data, just cick "Recover" button and the data will be saved as the format of html, csv, etc.

Way 2: Recover Deleted Texts on iPhone by Contacting Phone Provider

Few users know that phone providers may keep a record of iPhone text messages you send on their servers. Thus you may have chances to retrieve deleted text messages from your iPhone cellular provider or carrier. However, the chances of success are very low. They will not deliver the messages to you easily and most providers may only keep these messages for a limited time.

Depending on your phone provider, you can either go to your carrier's website or call its customer service line to get a copy of your text message history. Please note that this will only work for SMS text messages, not iMessages which are end-to-end encrypted.

Way 3: Recover Deleted iMessages by Searching on Other Apple Devices

If you've enabled the iMessages option in iCloud on your iPhone, you can access and view iMessages on any device that sign in with the same iCloud account. When you mistakenly deleted some important iMessages on your iPhone and you haven't synced to iCloud, you can get back them by searching on other Apple devices, such as your Mac, iPad or another iPhone.

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud and ensure the Messages option is enabled.
2. Enable Airplane mode to stop iCloud syncing and avoid iMessage deletion on other iOS devices.
3. Reset your iPhone or other iOS device using the same Apple ID. Then set up the device to restore your deleted iMessages via iCloud.

If You've Backup, How to Retrieve Texts on iPhone for Free?

Way 1: Recover iPhone Texts with iCloud Messages

If your iPhone messages get deleted by mistake, yo can retrieve them from iCloud Messages. This method doesn't require a complete reset, you can just follow these simple steps:

1. Log into iCloud.com using your Apple ID and password, then click on Text Messages. Search the messages to find the ones you need.
2. Now go to your iPhone and choose Settings > [your name] > iCloud to turn off Messages.
3. In the popup message, select the option to "Keep On My iPhone". Then turn Messages back on.
4. Tap on "Merge" and wait for a few minutes. The deleted text messages should appear on your iPhone.

Way 2: Recover Deleted Texts from iCloud Backup

If you have an iCloud backup before you deleted the text messages, you can get them back by restoring your iPhone to that backup. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backup to check if you've made a backup with iCloud. If you did, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Settings > General > Reset and choose to "Erase All Content and Settings".
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your iPhone and in the "Apps & Data" screen, choose "Restore from iCloud Backup".
3. Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and password and select the most relevant backup, then wait for the restore process to finish.

Way 3: Recover Deleted Texts from iTunes/Finder Backup

If you've backed up your iPhone with iTunes before you deleted the text messages, you can go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices to check all your iTunes backups you made before and restore your iPhone from the most recent one. Here's how:

1. Connect your iPhone to the computer using USB cable and then launch iTunes or Finder.
2. Select the device icon when it appears in iTunes/Finder, then click on "Restore Backup".
3. Choose the backup that contains your lost messages and click "Restore".

Conclusion

The above are all methods to recover deleted text messages from iPhone without backup. You can choose the one you need. If you have backed up your iPhone with iTunes or iCloud, you can restore your iPhone from the backup to get back deleted messages. To avoid new data loss, we suggest you use FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery to extract and recover deleted text messages from iTunes/iCloud backup without restoring.