Recently Deleted Messages for iOS 16: Our Complete Step-by-Step Tutorial

What are "Recently Deleted" messages on iOS 16?

Recently Deleted is a new section in the Messages app on iOS 16 that lets you see all the messages you’ve deleted from your iPhone in the last month. Any messages you delete from your iMessage account will appear in this section, including text messages, pictures, voice messages, or files you or others have shared. Messages in the "Recently Deleted" section will include individual messages you deleted from the conversation as well as the entire conversation.

Previously, when you deleted a message on iOS 15, the message was immediately deleted from your iPhone and could not be easily recovered. Instead, the only way to recover deleted messages on iOS 15 is to restore your iPhone to an old backup that holds the messages you want to recover.

With iOS 16, you can easily access your deleted messages and even recover them for a limited time before they are permanently deleted from your iPhone.

How to Move Messages to Recently Deleted on iPhone

When you delete a message from the Messages app on iPhone, the message can be moved to Recently Deleted. To move messages to Recently Deleted, open the Messages app on your iPhone.

Note: This is only possible if your iPhone is running iOS 16 or later. If you're running an older version of iOS, you won't be able to access your deleted messages unless you restore your iPhone to an older backup.

Delete an entire message thread

In Messages, find the thread from which you want to delete the message. If you wish to move an entire message thread, tap and hold on the preferred thread.

In the overflow menu that appears, select Delete.

In the prompt that appears at the bottom, click Delete to confirm your action.

Delete a single message from a thread

If you wish to delete a single message from a thread, click on it to open the thread.

When the conversation loads on the screen, tap and hold on the individual message you want to move to the Recently Deleted section.

In the overflow menu that appears, select "More" .

The selected message will now be highlighted with a blue tick icon on the left. On this screen, you can select more messages from the thread that you want to move to the Recently Deleted section. After selecting the messages you want to move, click the trash icon in the lower left corner.

In the prompt that appears at the bottom, click Delete message.

The selected messages will now be sent to the Recently Deleted section within the Messages app.

Delete Multiple Message Threads

If you have a bunch of conversations that you want to move to the Recently Deleted section, there is no need to long press and manually delete these messages one by one. You can move entire message threads to the Recently Deleted section by first selecting and then deleting them. To do this, tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner of the Messages app.

In the overflow menu that appears, click to select message .

#You can now select multiple messages to move to Recently Deleted. To make a selection, just click on the desired message and you'll see a blue tick icon appear on the left.

After selecting the message, click in the lower right corner to delete.

In the prompt that appears at the bottom, click Delete.

The selected message thread will now be sent to the "Recently Deleted" section.

What happens when you move a message to Recently Deleted?

When you delete a message on iOS 16, the selected message or thread is immediately moved to the Recently Deleted folder within the Messages app. iOS stores all of your recent messages in this section for up to 30 days from the time you delete a message.

During this time, you can access any messages you sent to Recently Deleted, bring them back to your conversations, or delete them manually from there to permanently remove any trace of those messages.

Once a message is older than 30 days, iOS will delete it from the Recently Deleted folder and delete it permanently. Apple mentions that in some cases it may take up to 40 days to delete these messages.

How long can you view messages in Recently Deleted?

As mentioned above, messages and conversations you move to the Recently Deleted folder will be available in the Messages app for up to 30 days from the date you delete them from the Messages screen . After this period expires, the Messages app will permanently delete the expired messages from your account and you will not be able to view them or recover them from any device.

If a message you moved to the Recently Deleted folder is about to expire, you can move it back to the main messages screen and delete it again to update its expiration date to 30 days.

How to Find Recently Deleted Messages on iPhone

Messages you delete from the Messages app won’t show up with your active conversations on the app. Instead, they are accessible in a separate Recently Deleted folder that can be accessed in the Messages app. To find recently deleted messages, open the Messages app on your iPhone.

Inside the message, click Filter in the upper left corner.

On the next screen you will see all the different filters that you can categorize your text into. Here, click Recently deleted at the bottom.

In the Recently Deleted screen that appears, you will see a list of messages that have been deleted within the last 30 days.

You will not be able to open conversations or messages directly from this screen. If you want to open deleted messages, you need to restore them to your conversations.

How to Recover or Delete Recently Deleted Messages from iPhone

iOS 16 allows you to recover any texts or conversations deleted in the past 30 days from the Recently Deleted section, or if you no longer want to keep them , you can choose to delete them permanently from iPhone.

Recover messages from recently deleted messages

To see the messages you sent to the Recently Deleted folder, you need to recover them first. To do this, open the "Messages" app and go to "Filters" > "Recently Deleted" to access the "Recently Deleted" section.

In the Recently Deleted screen, you'll see a list of messages that have been deleted within the last 30 days. If you wish to recover a message from this screen and send it back to your active conversation, select the message from this list. You can select multiple messages from this list, and as you craft your section you'll see a blue checkmark icon appear to the left of the selected messages.

After making your selection, click Restore in the lower right corner.

#To confirm this action, select Restore Messages in the prompt that appears at the bottom.

#The selected message will now be moved back to the main conversation screen within the Messages app.

You can also recover all messages from the Recently Deleted screen and move them back to your conversations by tapping Recover All in the lower right corner.

To confirm this action, select Restore Messages in the prompt that appears at the bottom.

#This will restore all your recently deleted messages and move them back to the Messages screen; thus clearing out the recently deleted section.

Delete Messages from Recently Deleted

If you no longer want to keep messages sent to the Recently Deleted section, you can permanently delete them from your iPhone. To delete messages from the Recently Deleted section, you need to go to this section first by going to Messages > “Filters” > “Recently Deleted".

In the Recently Deleted screen, you'll see a list of messages that have been deleted within the last 30 days. To delete one of the messages from this section, select the message you want to delete and a blue checkmark icon will appear to the left of it. You can select the number of messages to delete to delete them in bulk.

After making your selection, click Delete in the lower left corner.

#You will see a prompt at the bottom asking you to confirm your action. At this prompt, select Delete Message.

When you do this, the selected messages will be deleted from all your Apple devices and cannot be recovered at any time in the future.

You can also delete all messages you have moved to the "Recently Deleted" section by clicking Delete All in the lower left corner.

In the familiar prompt that appears, click Delete Message to confirm your action.

Since the Recently Deleted section has been emptied, you will be returned to the filter list and you will no longer see the Recently Deleted folder on the screen.

I can’t see the messages I moved to Recently Deleted. Why?

The Recently Deleted screen will display all messages you have deleted from your iPhone as well as messages you have deleted from other Apple devices. This feature requires you to be running iOS 16 or later; this means this section will not be accessible on devices running iOS 15 or earlier. If you want to move your messages to the Recently Deleted section, you'll need to make sure you delete them from your iPhone running iOS 16.

If you don't see your deleted messages in the Recently Deleted section, it may be because:

• The message you are looking for has expired (i.e. 30 days), iOS It has been automatically and permanently deleted from your iPhone.
• You have manually restored a previously deleted message, which means it can be accessed in the main messages screen alongside your active conversations.
• You have deleted a message from the Recently Deleted section (intentionally or accidentally) and you cannot recover it at this time.
• Messages you deleted before updating to iOS 16 won’t appear in the Recently Deleted folder because they may have been permanently deleted from your iPhone.

If you are unable to access recently deleted messages:

• You will need to follow the instructions earlier in this article to find them in the Recently Deleted section.
• The Recently Deleted screen is unavailable because your iPhone is running iOS 15 or older.

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