You've probably deleted a Facebook message at least once in your life. Maybe you were annoyed at that person, or perhaps you wanted to organize your inbox.
But whatever the reason, the chat is gone from your app and computer forever once you delete it. So, what happens if you need that information back?
You can try various methods to retrieve these messages, or at least what was said in them. This article explains how to recover deleted Facebook messages.
Your first place to go is the archived messages. If you can’t find the message you need in your chats, the reason could be because you deleted it. But you might have archived it instead, which is possible since the buttons on the app are one below the other.
Free Checklist: Download The Ultimate Facebook Security Checklist
Follow these steps to find archived messages on your computer:
If you want to find archived messages in the Messenger app, the only way you can do this is with the names of the other people in the chat. Follow the steps below to do this:
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In both cases, you need to send a new message if you want to put the chat back in your main inbox.
If you can’t find the messages you're looking for using this method, you probably deleted them. But don't lose hope—you can still try a few other things.
Android devices store cache data from almost every app you use.
So, if you use your Messenger on your Android phone, there's a good chance you'll be able to dig deep enough to find the deleted chats:
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Unfortunately, if you use an iPhone, it's much harder to access the phone's backup for Messenger correspondence. In that situation, you may need to try a third-party iPhone data recovery tool.
If still can't find the deleted messages, another way to go is to contact the other side of the conversation. When you delete a Facebook chat, it’s gone forever on your end.
However, the person you were talking to probably still has a copy.
The easiest thing to do is to ask them for a screenshot of the conversation, or to resend it to you by copying and pasting.
If you need the information for official purposes, such as proving that you were talking to someone at a certain time, you can ask them to download a copy of their Facebook data.
Remember, though, that they don’t have to share all the information with you, and can pick and choose what to download and send over.
As a final attempt, you can check two more places. If you know some of the content in the messages, search your email inbox. This method will only work if you have email notifications enabled on Facebook.
The last place to check is your most recent Facebook backup file. If you don’t know how to create that backup, you probably don't have one. In that case, you’ve exhausted your options.
To stop this situation from happening again, back up your messages.
One way to do this is by enabling your email notifications. Follow the steps below to do this:
You can also create a backup of your messages. Unlike WhatsApp backup, which allows you to recover any deleted message, Facebook's version only saves your messages until a certain point in time.
Related: How to Recover Deleted or Missing WhatsApp Messages
However, creating backups on Facebook can still be useful.
If you want to do so, follow the steps below:
The process takes a few minutes. Once it’s done, you’ll receive an email with the backup file. You can also download it from the Available copies tab.
So, can you recover deleted Facebook messages? On some occasions, yes. But only in a limited number of cases.
Even if you like everything to be completely organized and easy to access, it doesn’t mean you need to delete old messages.
This goes for any messaging software—not just Facebook Messenger.
Most places offer an archive option, which keeps your main inbox neat, but still allows you access that information in the future if you need it. Utilize these to ensure that your messages are available.
It happens to everyone: You've scoured your message history, but the one message you're looking for just isn't there. For one reason or another, you deleted it. But now you want it back.
Once you delete a Facebook message, it's gone for good — at least, from a strict Facebook Messenger perspective.
But there are things you can do to get those messages back from other sources, like your app cache, archives, or previous Facebook messenger downloads.
Here are a few methods you can use to recover deleted Facebook messages, as well as back up your messages so you don't lose them in the future:
Here are five methods that could help you retrieve those messages:
Check your archived conversationsIf you archived the messages instead of deleting them, you can easily recover them, as Facebook always keeps your archived chats.
1. Open the Messenger desktop, web, or mobile app.
2. From the chats section of the app, type the name of the person you were talking to in the search bar.
3. Then simply click or tap their name to open the conversation and view everything.
Tap on the name of the recipient in the search results.
Devon Delfino Quick tip: If you don't want to see certain chats in your inbox on Messenger, but you're not sure if you should delete them, consider archiving the messages instead of deleting them.
Ask the recipient for a copy, or screenshot, of the message or conversationWhen you delete a message, it only happens on your end. The person you're talking to will still be able to see it, so they can help you fill in the gap if they didn't delete them on their end as well.
Check if your Facebook messages were sent to your emailThis only works if you have all email notifications enabled for your account. But if it's enabled, you should be able to search for the conversation or message within your email account.
If you're using an Android device and you have Messenger installed, your device could have those deleted messages in the app's cache. You can access it using any Android file manager, and if you don't have one installed, you can find plenty of them on the App Store.
1. Open the file manager app on your Android device.
2. Navigate to the Internal Storage > com.facebook.katana > fb_temp
3. Here you'll find messages from your recent history, and with any luck, your deleted ones will be among them.
Quick tip: If you're using an iOS device, you can't recover your deleted Facebook messages using any file app — however, you can download your messages by backing them up beforehand.
Download your Facebook informationBacking up your Facebook information, including your messages, is a good idea if you don't ever want to lose any of it.
1. Using the desktop app or browser version, go to your Facebook settings.You can also access these settings in the Messenger app on iOS.
2. Within the Your Facebook Information tab on the left sidebar, click Download your information.
You can download your information from the "Facebook Information" settings page. Stefan Ionescu3. Under the Select file options heading, make sure you've selected a date range in the last dropdown.
Don't forget to select a date range, as this is required.
Stefan Ionescu 4. To only get your messages, click Deselect All under the Select information to download heading and recheck the box next to Messages.
You have to deselect everything and then reselect Messages. Stefan Ionescu5. Scroll all the way down to the Start your download heading and click Request a download. Facebook will email you the file once it's ready for viewing.
Devon Delfino
Devon Delfino is a Brooklyn-based freelance journalist specializing in personal finance, culture, politics, and identity. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, Business Insider, and CNBC. Follow her on Twitter at @devondelfino.
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Read about whether you can recover deleted messages or chats on Facebook.
Where to find a copy of your Facebook messages and how to prevent them from being lost in the future.
This article will be relevant both when using Facebook through a browser on a PC, and for Android or iOS devices.
Unfortunately, there is no official way to recover Facebook messages or chats that you have already deleted. After deleting messages or chats, they disappear from your account forever.
In support of these words, here is a screenshot of the Facebook Help Center page, with the answer to the question posed.
Although data recovery via Facebook is not possible (according to official data), in this article we will try to find ways to recover our Facebook messages, chats and correspondence.
All correspondence on Facebook is done through Facebook Messenger. It has an in-Facebook version, a Web version, a PC version, and a mobile version for Android or iOS.
Each version has its own specifics, but all chats and correspondence are synchronized between them, inside the user's account.
An article about "How to restore access to Facebook Messenger and save history on an Android or Windows computer " is already on our blog.
Of course, if a message or chat on Facebook is deleted, then you can't get it back. But Facebook Messenger has a lot of features and settings, you can use it on different devices, and there is always a chance that a copy of the message or correspondence you need is saved in the system.
Let's look at the possible options to get back a copy of the desired chat or message:
Before you panic, make sure that the message has indeed been permanently deleted . Scroll the chat window again and see if you just didn't see the right message.
The fact is that accidentally deleting a message or conversation on Facebook is not easy.
The social network will definitely require you to confirm your action.
It doesn't matter if it's a smartphone or a computer.
Ask the recipient of the message or chat to send you a copy. If you deleted a chat or a specific message you want from your side, you can always ask the person (or people) on the other side to forward a copy of your message, screenshot or conversation.
When deleting messages in your messenger, they are not deleted from your interlocutor, but remain until he deletes them. You can ask the recipient or sender of the message to send you back a copy of it.
Check archived chains.
Facebook has the ability to both delete chats and transfer them to an archive (archive).
Go to archived threads. There is always a chance that the chat you need is there. To do this:
Just keep in mind that individual messages are not archived, only entire chats.
Check if you have set up a message notification to your e-mail.
Facebook can be configured to send email notifications of your account activity. If such settings are made in your account, then the deleted message or correspondence can be searched in the mailbox that is associated with Facebook.
To make sure that the settings for forwarding notifications to your e-mail are made, go to Menu / Settings / Notices / Email address .
Check that, among other functions, receiving is active "All notifications except those you have opted out of" .
If this function is active, there is a possibility of having a copy of the message in the mailbox.
By the way, you can find out the mailbox linked to Facebook in the Settings / General menu.
How to back up Facebook messages and chats
If your Facebook chats are important to you or you use them for business, you can back them up to avoid problems with accidental deletion of chats.
To do this:
Go to facebook.com on your computer and log in to your account.
In your account go to Menu / Settings .
Further, your information on Facebook / Download information .
You can download a copy of your information from Facebook at any time. You can download all the information at once or specify specific data types or date ranges. You can also choose the download format: HTML files are easier to view, and JSON files are easy to import into other services.
Downloading your information is a secure, password-protected process available only to you. Once you create the file, it will be available for a few days.
Deselect all data types and select messages only.
After that, click the button "Create file"
After some time, you will receive a notification on the readiness of the file with a backup copy of messages for downloading to the e-mail associated with your account.
Follow the link in the message "Available files" or click on the message in your Facebook account. And download the created backup copy of messages to your computer by pressing the button "Download" .
A backup of Facebook messages looks like an archive, which contains folders with all chats and files received or sent using the messenger.
In the folder "Inbox" you will see folders with the names of the addressee of the correspondence.
Files with correspondence will be located inside them.
Double click on the file "message.html" . The file will open in your computer's web browser, where you can read the messages from that chat.
Read the full version of the article with all additional video lessons in our blog...
The editors of CNews are not responsible for its content.
You can chat on Facebook through the Messenger service. All correspondence data is stored not on the device itself, but on the platform servers. This allows you to ensure the safety of your contacts and the contents of the messages.
But what if you can't find important correspondence? How to recover deleted messages in Messenger? To find out the answers to these questions, read this article.
Content:
The site's developers insist that messages deleted by the user themselves cannot be recovered.
But do not despair. There are several ways to fix this. It all depends on how you did the cleaning.
The easiest way, but not suitable for all cases.
If you interrupted communication with the user and do not know whether you will continue it, then there is an option to send all correspondence to the archive. This option is very convenient. The chat will not be overloaded with irrelevant correspondence. However, if you decide to resume communication again, or your interlocutor sends you a message, then the entire message chain will be automatically restored.
If you have important correspondence (for example, business correspondence), be sure to use archiving so that you don't rack your brains later on how to recover lost data.
The archiving process from the computer is started as follows:
Warning : This feature may not work anymore.
If you want to read deleted messages in Messenger that you have thrown into the archive, then it is not at all necessary to wait for the interlocutor to write you a message. There is also an easier way:
This is the first thing to do if you cannot find an important message. The archive contains only chains, single messages can only be deleted.
If you are convinced that the necessary correspondence is not observed in the archive, then you will have to resort to other available methods.
If you deleted a conversation from your inbox, this action does not delete it from your friend.
You may be lucky and the interlocutor does not regularly delete the chat. Then he will be able to send you the desired message.
By default, Facebook is configured to receive reports of messages that end up in email. If you have not made any changes to the settings, then all messages are located there.
It's pretty easy to check:
This will allow you to see all deleted messages on Facebook.
Procedure:
If earlier it was easy to restore the history of correspondence from the memory of a smartphone, now the process has become somewhat more complicated.
For Android:
For iOS:
Chats in Messenger can be cleared in different ways: deleting all correspondence with a person or deleting messages selectively.
In the Messenger window, there is a “…” icon next to each message. If you click on it, the "Delete" option will appear. There are two options for deleting: only for yourself or for everyone.
If you deleted the message only "at home", then your interlocutor will not even guess about it. If you select "delete from everyone", then your friend will notice this action and will be able to leave a complaint.
To clear the entire message chain, do the following:
It is important to remember that all messages will also appear in the Inbox. It should also be cleaned. To do this:
Messenger Mobile App Procedure:
