How to Fix Missing Messages in the iPhone Inbox

The disappearance of messages on an iPhone can be caused by human error, hardware malfunction, or software corruption. When this occurs, it's crucial to find effective solutions to rectify the issue and prevent similar incidents in the future.

By the way, if your lost iPhone text messages are very important to you, it's best to use a tool like MobiSaver to retrieve them.

Anyway, use the solutions in this article to fix the issue of missing messages on your iPhone.

Solution 1: Restart your iPhone

If the information has disappeared from your iPhone, a simple and useful way to get it back is to restart the iPhone. Try this and see if the missing information returns.

Reset: Hold down the Sleep/Wake button, slide to power off, and then turn your device back on.

Force restart: Press and hold both the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

Solution 2: Restart the Messages app

Sometimes, issues with the Messages app can also lead to the problem. It's wise to restart the Messages app to fix the disappearing message error.

Step One: Tap the Home button twice to see all your open apps.

Step 2: Find the Messages app and swipe up to close it.

Step 3: Tap the Messages app to re-open it.

Solution 3: Change your message settings

If you ever set the “Messages” app in the “Settings” app to keep messages for 30 days or one year, then your texts will be deleted when that time period is up. To avoid this, you should change it to “Keep Forever.”

1. Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Scroll down and tap on “Messages.”

Step 3: Tap “Message History” and then “Keep Messages.”

Step 4: You'll see three options: 30 days, One year, and Forever. Choose the last one.

Solution 4: Reactive iMessage

Another way to fix deleted messages on your iPhone is to turn iMessage off and back on again, which refreshes your message data.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Tap Messages.

Step 3: Slide the button next to iMessage to turn it off, then back on again.

Solution 5: Recover Lost Text Messages with a Third-Party Tool

If none of these work for you, your best bet is to retrieve any important information from the device and then reset it to factory settings to fix the problem.

To recover deleted iPhone messages, you need a reliable iMessage recovery tool to assist you. MobiSaver is such a tool. After installing it on your computer, you can recover lost messages and other iOS files in three ways: from iTunes backup, from iCloud backup, and directly from your iPhone without a backup.

Unlike retrieving messages from iTunes or iCloud, the MobiSaver tool lets you preview data before restoring it. Apart from messages, it also supports recovering iPhone photos, contacts, notes, and other data.

Now you can download the MobiSaver tool to your computer and retrieve your messages.

Step 1. Choose the Recovery Mode

Connect your iPhone to the PC and launch the MobiSaver tool. Click on “Recover from iOS Device” on the left, and then click “Start”.

Step 2. Scan your iPhone to find the lost text messages

The tool MobiSaver will scan your iPhone 13/12/11/X/XR/XS/8/7/6/5/4 automatically and find your lost text messages and text message attachments for you.

Step 3: Preview and recover the lost text messages

Check “Messages” and “Message Attachments.” Select the messages and attachments you want to recover. Click “Recover to Computer” or “Recover to Device” to choose where you want to restore them.

Solution 6: Reset iPhone to Factory Settings

If all else fails, it's time to pull out the big guns and reset all settings on your iPhone. This will revert your device back to its factory defaults.

Step 1. Open your iPhone's Settings.

Step 2: Tap on “General.”

Step 3. Tap Reset, then tap Reset All Settings.

Bottom line

As you can see, the solutions provided in this guide can easily fix the "iPhone messages disappeared" issue. Some of these tricks also apply to fixing other iOS issues, such as iPhone contacts missing no names only numbers, AirDrop not working on iPhone, Bluetooth not working on iPhone, and more.

To avoid losing data in such cases, it's best to have MobiMover installed on your computer so that you can recover deleted files anytime.