iOS 16 Update Missing All iMessages!

Question

Level 1

5 points

iOS 16 Update Missing All iMessages!

Just updated to iOS 16 from 15.6 on my wife's iPhone 13 Pro before upgrading to the new iPhone 14 Pro. When the update finished the iMessage app is totally blank except for brand new texts coming through. If you search at the top for a message it finds old messages but when you click on it the search takes you to the current recent message. Just looked in iPhone storage and see there is 50gb of messages in there but the iCloud backup does not have them in there.

Not sure what else to do at this point. Was going to downgrade iPhone 13 Pro back to 15.6 and try to restore but I'm not sure the iCloud backup has the messages in there. It has always worked in the past without issue but for some reason on this go around its not working at all.

Already tried power cycling and turning imessage on and off but nothing has worked.

Please Help!

iPhone 14 Pro

Posted on Sep 16, 2022 7:26 PM

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Answer 1

Rich021 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 21, 2022 9:35 AM in response to K_Faith

Hey K_Faith,

Thanks for the helpful ideas! Unfortunately we do not use messages in iCloud so they are included in our iCloud backups. Did a DFU restore back to iOS 15.6.1 from iOS 16 and was able to get all messages back but the phone storage is full and can't fully restore. Seems like issue was going directly from 15.6.1 to 16.0. Not sure if issue would persist if upgraded to 15.7 first before going to 16.0 since don't have enough storage to fully restore for some reason.

Have there been any other reports of 16.0 breaking messages after the upgrade? Would love to see a software fix for this rather than having to jump through hoops. Also, is there any possible way to download the iCloud backup to do the restore via Mac instead?

Thanks!

Rich

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Answer 2

K_Faith

Community Specialist

Sep 20, 2022 1:45 PM in response to Rich021

Hello Rich021,

Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities, and we'll be happy to help in any way we can. We understand you're having issues with missing messages on your wife's iPhone. Does she use Messages in iCloud? If so, try the steps here to see if they resolve the issue: Use Messages in iCloud - Apple Support

"If you turn off Messages in iCloud on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, your message history will be included in iCloud Backup. If you set up an Apple Watch for a family member, Messages in iCloud is the only way to back up messages."

We hope this helps.

Cheers!

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Answer 3

Sep 21, 2022 9:51 AM in response to Rich021

Thanks for the reply Rich021.

The quick answer to your question about downloading an iCloud backup to work through a Mac: No, you would have to restore that iCloud backup directly to the device.

If you need further help, or have additional questions, feel free to reach out to our support teams directly. You can reach them here:

Apple Support

You can also find our phone number for your region at this link:

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

Take care.

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Answer 4

Nas4c6

Level 1

12 points

Sep 22, 2022 6:36 AM in response to Rich021

I also lost a lot of my text messages in the transfer. I do not use iCloud. I first did a phone to phone transfer and they were no there. Then I did an iTunes restore and they were still not there despite knowing for a fact they’re on my other phone. I received an alert (I should have screen shot it) basically saying there were issue with messages and to update to IOS 16. I did and they all returned. However 4 days later they and many more are gone again! This is super frustrating. I don’t have iCloud backup. I have “forever” turned on. They are not in my deleted messages. And I’ve tried the turn off/on just about everything. This has to be an iOS 16 issue. Please fix this Apple!!!

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Answer 5

Nas4c6

Level 1

12 points

Sep 22, 2022 6:49 AM in response to Rich021

As an add on to my last message: I specifically searched for messages that weren’t showing up but should be there and they show up in the search. Then random conversations would also start showing up again too.

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iOS 16 Update Missing All iMessages!

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