How to restore deleted text messages on Android

If you’re anything like us, your Messages app is a pretty busy place. While still hosting conversations with friends, family, and others, the humble default messaging app has also become home to two-factor verification, banking alerts, and—of course—the occasional spam message. Cleaning it is as essential as it is a quick exercise in self-care—it’s important to clear out the clutter and make sure your most important messages don’t get lost under a tide of other messages.

But even the most careful of us slip up from time to time, and it’s all too easy to accidentally delete the wrong message while lost in the rhythm of deleting. But don’t worry, there is often a way to recover deleted text messages from your Android phone. In this guide, we will show you how to properly restore deleted text messages on Android.

how to recover deleted text from google messages

There isn’t a native way to recover deleted messages in Google Messages, but there is a way to recover messages if you’re willing to use a slightly different approach to clear out the clutter. Instead of deleting messages, try archiving them, as there is an archived section from which you can retrieve messages while keeping them out of sight. A good rule of thumb is to archive rather than delete in modern messaging apps, as it’s a lot more forgiving than deleting outright, but still keeps unwanted messages out of the way.

step 1: To archive, swipe your message left or right, and it will be moved to your archive.

step 2: To recover messages from your archive, select the three horizontal lines in the top-left of the message.

step 3: then choose stored, All your stored message threads are kept here.

step 4: To move a message thread back to your inbox, open it, tap the three dots in the upper-right corner, and select remove from archive,

Step 5: To transfer multiple messages at once, go to stored screen, long-press the first conversation you want to send back, and then select all conversations to send back. then select remove from archive icon in the top-right, next to bin icon. make sure not to hit bin icon, as that would remove them instead.

how to recover deleted text on samsung phone

Unlike Google’s Messages app above, Samsung’s app includes a way to recover deleted messages via an in-app recycle bin. While we still recommend archiving rather than deleting in most cases, at least there’s a safety net to catch you here.

step 1: From your Messages app, select the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner.

step 2: then select recycle Bin,

step 3: From here choose the message you want to restore, then select edit , restore all,

step 4: If you want to restore multiple messages at once, select editTick ​​the messages you want to return, and then select restore all,

how to recover deleted text with google drive

Google Drive keeps comprehensive backups of everything from SMS messages to your app lists if you want to, so Google Drive is a good option to help you recover data after it’s lost. However, this is an extreme option in this case as Google doesn’t really offer SMS and MMS message restoration without a full factory reset. Yes, you can restore your WhatsApp data via Drive easily enough, and your photos, videos and documents are available at a moment’s notice – but if you want to get your texts back, you’ll need to back up your WhatsApp data. The phone has to be completely nuked.

It’s a good backup option if you’ve lost your phone and want to offload all your old data onto a new device, but it’s not particularly useful if you want to hold on to messages you accidentally deleted. Still, if you’re willing to go to the lengths of factory resetting to get your messages back, you’ll find the option to restore from a backup during the new phone’s initial setup phase.

how to recover deleted text with your carrier

You may have a few options for restoring your text messages, depending on your carrier of choice. AT&T’s Message Backup & Sync And Message from Verizon Both offer backup and sync options that synchronize your messages across devices. However, once synced, any deleted messages will still be deleted from the cloud, so this isn’t a perfect solution by any means.

In a desperate situation, you may be able to reach out to your carrier to see if it will be able to locate and restore a backup of sent messages on your device. However, this is by no means guaranteed.

How to Recover Deleted Text with Third-Party Apps and Software

As always with Android, there are third-party apps that can help you fix any problems you may be having. In this case, many of them involve connecting your phone to a computer and using software to break into your device and find the deleted data. Therefore, it can be a more technical process — and more expensive. Here are some solid options, both free and paid.

Android Data Recovery ($50)

One of the more popular data-recovery tools, Android Data Recovery is available for macOS and Windows, and is great for recovering deleted data from your phone, including text messages. Boot it up and connect your phone, and it will scan for all deleted items and present a list of data that you can choose to recover.

Wondershare DrFone ($50)

Another strong paid option, Dr.Fone offers most of what Android data recovery can do, as well as being able to recover files lost from system failures, rooting errors, and other unfortunate situations.

SMS Backup & Restore (Free)

This free app is a tool for backing up and restoring your messages, so it’s a great way to make sure you don’t lose anything in the future. However, it won’t be able to restore any lost messages without an existing backup, so it won’t be able to help you if you don’t already have a backup to restore from.

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