years of imessages disappeared

I have an iPhone 12 pro running the latest software. Five years of imessages between me and my daughter disappeared, seemingly after an update. We typically message a few times a week and have done so since the beginning of iPhones. All messages between July 1, 2023, and sometime in 2018 just vanished. there is one message from 2018 and all the messages from 2017 and prior are still there, none prior to 2017 are missing. My messages are set to keep forever. We pay for the large iCloud storage and all our phones backup automatically. Any suggestions for fixing this?

iPhone 12

Posted on Jul 8, 2023 11:22 AM

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Posted on Jul 6, 2024 10:49 AM

Same! August 2019 - April 2024 deleted!


did you find a solution to recover? Or a reason why this happened?

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2 replies

Jul 9, 2023 01:20 PM in response to 730pm

Hello 730pm,


Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.


These steps can help you recover deleted messages:


"Recover deleted messages on iPhone

In the Messages app, you can recover deleted messages on your iPhone.

With Messages in iCloud, anything you delete and recover from iPhone is also deleted and recovered from your other Apple devices where Messages in iCloud is turned on.

Deleting and recovering messages changes only your own Messages conversations, not those of your recipients.

You can restore messages you deleted for up to 30 days.


  1. In the Messages conversation list, do one of the following:
    • Tap Edit in the top-left corner, then tap Show Recently Deleted.
    • Tap Filters in the top-left corner, then tap Recently Deleted.

If you’re in a conversation, tap the Back button to return to the conversation list.

2.Select the conversations whose messages you want to restore, then tap Recover.

3.Tap Recover Messages."


Additional details can be found here: Recover deleted messages on iPhone


If the issue persists, can you provide a few more details? Which iOS version do you have now? Did you create a backup prior to updating? Also, are you syncing messages with iCloud?


Cheers!

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years of imessages disappeared

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