Accidentally delete a conversation in the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16? Easily restore them and move them back to the Messages app with this quick tip.
With iOS 16, Apple makes it easier to perform many new tasks in the mobile operating system and, in some cases, do something that was never possible before. One of those new things you can do in iOS 16 is undo conversations you accidentally deleted in the Messages app.
We’ve all been there: we’re cleaning up the messaging app threads and swiping and then deleting on the wrong one, only to delete the entire message history for that contact or group. With iOS 16, you can now recover accidentally deleted messages right from the Messages app.
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When you delete a message thread in iOS 16, the messages now go into a hold for up to 40 days, after that they are deleted from the device itself forever (Image A).
Image A
Follow these steps to undelete a message:
- Open the Messages app in iOS or iPadOS 16.
- Select the Edit button at the top left of the screen.
- Select the Show recently deleted option (Figure B).
Figure B
The Recently Deleted view shows all message conversations that were, well, recently deleted. Tap Delete All or Restore All to delete or restore all messages in this list, or tap to select individual conversations and then tap Delete Selected or Restore Selected to restore only a subset of the recently deleted conversations.
The “Recently Deleted” view shows all messages that have been deleted, regardless of whether you deleted an iMessage, SMS, or an individual message from a thread.
Messages in this view will be deleted after some time. iOS keeps the deleted conversations for up to 40 days and then deletes them when this period is up. If you delete them from the Recently Deleted section, they will be deleted immediately without this waiting period. Restoring conversations from this view will return them to the Messages app and allow them to be searched and viewed again.
