How To Recover Deleted Messages On iPad [4 Solutions]

Need to recover deleted iMessages on your iPad but they’re gone forever?

Don’t stress, I’ve got 4 solid methods to show you right now (plus a bonus method at the end!).

You can have the deleted iMessages restored within 30 min – 1hr.

Let’s do this.

4 Ways To Recover Deleted iPad Messages

1. Check your other devices for the messages
2. Restore from iCloud backup
3. Restore from iTunes backup
4. Use a third party data recovery app

Solution #1 – Check Your Other Devices

You might not have thought of this, but if you’ve deleted iMessages from your iPhone, check on your iPad to see if they’re still there.

There’s an option in iMessage settings to sync messages between devices. If this is disabled, you might be able to see the messages.

To check if iMessage sync is enabled on your iPhone or iPad, do this:

Tap On The Settings App

Tap On Your Photo

Tap iCloud

Check If iMessage Is Toggled On or Off

• Turned ON = Your messages are synced across your devices, if you delete a message on one, it’ll delete it on all. 🙁
• Turned OFF = Your messages aren’t synced, so you could have your missing text messages still on your iPhone, iPad or even Apple Watch.

Solution #2 – Restore From iCloud Backup

Another option you have to recover deleted text iMessages from your iPad is to use iCloud restore.

How this works is by erasing all current content on your iPad and then downloads a backup file from Apple’s iCloud server to restore your iPad to a previous date. This recovers and restores everything – messages, photos, apps, contacts.

CHECK THIS BEFORE DELETING

Be aware that when you erase all content and settings, your iPad will rely on your iCloud backups to restore all data, apps, contents, messages and more.

Any data that you added to your iPad since the last iCloud backup was taken will not be restored. 

* CHECK THE LAST iCLOUD BACKUP DATE BEFORE ERASING ALL CONTENT! *

Settings App -> Tap Your Name -> iCloud -> Manage Storage -> Backups

If you see “No backups” when viewing iCloud storage. Don’t erase anything.

To restore your iPad from an iCloud backup follow these steps:

Open The Settings App

Tap General Then Restore

When you’ve opened the settings app, tap on General and then scroll down on the right hand side until you see Reset.

Tap Erase All Content And Settings

Tap Restore From iCloud Backup

Once your iPad has finished rebooting, you’ll see a screen like the one above. Tap Restore from iCloud Backup to begin the restoration process.

If the backup contains the deleted messages, you’ll see them restored in the iMessage app.

Solution #3 – Restore From iTunes Backup

Maybe you didn’t backup your iPad to iCloud and you use iTunes on your computer to manage your iPad. iTunes has a built in backup system that regularly takes a backup of your iPad when you plug it into your computer to sync.

You can use this backup to restore your iPad to an earlier date, potentially recovering your deleted messages.

This method is similar to the step above.

Open The Settings App

Tap General Then Reset

When you’ve opened the settings app, tap on General and then scroll down on the right hand side until you see Reset.

Tap Erase All Content And Settings

Tap Restore From PC or Mac

Connect Your iPad To Your PC/Mac And Restore

Use a cable and connect your iPad to your computer. Open iTunes and click on your iPad. Under General, tap Restore Backup.

Be sure to choose a backup that includes the deleted messages you want to recover. There’s no guarantee that the backup will include the messages, but this method has a good chance – as long as you take backups frequently.

Solution #4 – Use A Third Party App To Recover Deleted iPad Messages

This method should be the last resort before you give up trying to recover deleted messages (or sometimes called iMessages) from your iPad.

You can use a third party app that’s downloaded to your computer. It will attempt to recover lost messages by searching the flash storage of your iPad for deleted messages that aren’t actually 100% deleted yet.

It works by scanning a database that keeps all the message data organized. Even when you delete a message, the message data is still on your iPhone, but it’s able to be overwritten.

Messages aren’t singled out and individually deleted. They’re replaced.

Here are some third party iPad message recovery apps you can check out:

https://www.imobie.com/phonerescue/

https://drfone.wondershare.com/iphone-data-recovery.html

https://www.apowersoft.com/iphone-data-recovery

This method usually requires you to pay for an app that can help you recover your deleted iPad messages, but if it’s your last resort, it may be worth it.

You can usually find a demo to test the iPad message recovery attempts before you pay. This is a good way to check if the iPad message recovery software is worth it and it will do what it needs to do.

Summary

You can use any one of these four methods detailed above to recover deleted messages on your iPad. My recommended method is to first check your other devices to see if messages are still stored on them – even check your Apple Watch or your spouses iPad if they’re using the same Apple account.

What do you do if you don’t have a backup in iTunes or iCloud? How can you restore your messages? Maybe you don’t have a computer available.

Try this next way:

One lesser-known method to recover deleted text messages from your iPad is to do this:

1. Go the settings app
2. Tap your picture
3. Tap iCloud
4. Toggle Messages from ON -> OFF -> back to ON

Sometimes this re-syncs your messages with iCloud and you’ll see your deleted messages on your iPad again in the messages app.

If you don’t see messages on your other devices, a restore from backup is the next best solution. You will loose some data though, between the last backup date and the current date.

That means you might make things worse because the messages between the backup date and now will be erased. Be sure to check the dates of backups and choose one that’s the most recent to the date you think the messages were deleted.

Something to think about – your iCloud backups and your iTunes backups may be different. By this I mean your iCloud backup may be a month ago, but your iTunes backup may be only a few days ago. Check both to make sure you don’t loose more data than you recover.

You can also backup your iPad before you restore, so you can go back to square one if things don’t work out.

These are the best ways to recover any message on your iPad. Restoring your iPad to a backup in either iCloud or in iTunes also recovers any other messages, so maybe you’ve lost Facebook Messenger messages, SnapChat or TikTok messages. Just be sure to check that you’ve taken a backup recently and your lost data should be restored.