iPhone 13 help I’ve lost my texts

marsaday

Registered User
Messages
95
Had a problem with my iPhone 13 giving trouble so eventually I backed up everything on iCloud , wiped the phone and restored the iCloud back up but I can’t get my texts and some of my contacts back. Everything else , more or less is fine so far.
I obviously did something stupid. Are they gone forever or are they some how out there in cyberspace somewhere? If so how can I get them back , if possible at all. I’m using the same SIM card in the phone.
Thanks in advance.
 
Do you mean iMessage messages or some other text messaging app? I would have expected a full iCloud backup and restore to backup and restore the former at least.
 
I had no luck since with recovery software but what I do have, as Mathepac hinted at I have another older iphone which , when I charged it up has all my texts up to the date when I wiped my newer phone. How do I get these messages ( texts) from my older phone to my current "newer " phone ? At least I have the old texts which is a relief. There's a lesson for any luddites like me after this. Just relieved I have all the old texts , they go back 15 years and are important to me , lots of reference numbers etc contained in them. Thanks in advance.
 
Connect the old phone to your Apple/iCloud account, backup the messages and then restore them on the newer phone?
 
Did I mention I was a Luddite , Clubman? . I know what to do but not how to it.
Go to settings
Click on your name where it says iCloud etc
If you don’t see that then sign in
Click icloud
Click iCloud backup
Make sure messages is selected on apps using iCloud otherwise it won’t back those up

When setting up new phone again simply follow the prompts to restore from back up
 
Did I mention I was a Luddite , Clubman? . I know what to do but not how to it.
My apologies @marsaday , I lost track of this thread and haven't posted any useful help.

Below is a link to apps to help you transfer text messages between phones. Some do a lot more.


I have used iMazing and AnyTrans in the past and found they do exactly what they say on the tin. The versions I used were pre-iOS 17 and pre- Sonoma, but hopefully, some one of them will prove useful. Just be careful "add" messages to the new phone otherwise you may replace new messages. As ever, do a full backup of both phones before you start.

You may need to do a two step process, messages from the iPhone to the cloud, from the cloud to the new iPhone.

HTH best of luck.
 
I have another older iphone which , when I charged it up has all my texts up to the date when I wiped my newer phone. How do I get these messages ( texts) from my older phone to my current "newer " phone ?
Has that older phone been powered off a long time? If it has then it must have got the more recent messages synced down to it from iCloud when you powered it back up.

Check on the new phone that it is logged in with the same Apple ID, then go to Settings->Apple ID->iCloud->Apps using iCloud->Messages. Check that ‘Sync this iPhone’ is enabled.

There should be no reason to use transfer apps or iCloud backup for Messages these days, they can sync up to iCloud then down to all your devices. Same for Photos etc.
 
If the phones have different SIM cards then what @Zenith63 suggests will work.

My suggestion is based on there being only a single SIM card that'll need to be swapped between the phones.