It can be frustrating to lose conversations stored on your Mac in iMessages format. No matter how careful you are about saving important chats and attachments, accidents can happen to everyone. A simple wrong tap on the sensitive screen or keyboard is enough to erase your memories and important messages. If you are in the midst of such a problem, don’t panic. This article is here to tell you about how to recover deleted iMessages on Mac.
Method 1: Use Time Machine to Recover Deleted iMessages on Mac
Time Machine, as the built-in Mac recovery service is called, lives up to its name. Your device goes back in time to when you last backed up your messages. This method only works for those who have a habit of regularly backing up their files. The advantage of using this service is that you don’t have to pay anything as it is built right into your system. The downside to this tool is that it restores your iMessages to the last saved version, so any changes made after that date will be lost.
The procedure for using Time Machine to recover deleted iMessages on Mac is as follows.
- Sign out of iMessage and close it completely.
- Find the Time Machine app on your system and open it.
- From the ‘ Finder ‘ panel, choose the ‘ Go menu.
- You will find the ‘ Library ‘ here, select it and go to the ‘ Messages ‘ folder. All your messages are stored here.
- Then find the chat.db file. Be careful when choosing a file with the correct date so that you can recover iMessages before accidental deletion occurs.
- Strike ‘Â Restore. ‘
- Close the Time Machine app and reopen iMessages.
- Confirm that you see all the messages that bothered you about the deletion.
An important point to note about the Time Machine tool is that it cannot be used to restore a specific message from a specific contact but only to restore an entire backup of conversations existing on your system.
Method 2. Recover Deleted iMessages on Mac by Recovering Messages from Other Devices.
If you just realized you deleted a message from your Mac, stop using all Apple devices like iPhone and iPad and check immediately if the deleted message exists on any of those devices. Until these messages are overwritten with fresh data, they will remain on other devices. This way, you can get rid of the problem of going through the entire recovery process and can retrieve the message you lost from your other devices.
Method 3: Recover Deleted iMessages with a Little Help from Your iPhone, iTunes, and iCloud
You must be using your iPhone to use this method, considering that when you sync earlier, messages deleted from your Mac also existed on your phone. It is a way to recover deleted iMessages on Mac if you have backed up iPhone data to iCloud or iTunes.
The process of recovering iMessages from iCloud is as shown below.
- Open ‘Â Settings ‘ on your iPhone and go to ‘General.’
- Select ‘ Reset ‘ and then ‘ Erase all content and settings.”
- Select ‘ Erase Now ‘
- Continue following the on-screen instructions until you reach the ‘ Apps & Data page.
- After the uninstallation process is complete, select ” Recover from iCloud Backup.”
- The page will prompt you to sign in to iCloud with your valid credentials.
- Once you’re signed in, select the backup you are looking for
- Check the recovered iMessages after the recovery process is complete.
An important disadvantage of recovering data from iCloud is that you will lose all existing data on your phone before restoring with the iCloud version. Hence, it is important to be sure before calling this method.
The process of recovering iMessages from iTunes is as shown below.
- Connect your iPhone to Mac and open iTunes
- Select your phone on the screen
- Click ‘ Conclusion ‘ and select the file with the latest backup date
- Select ‘ Restore Backup ‘
The disadvantage of this method is the same as with iCloud. It deletes all of your data from your iPhone and replaces the most recent backup.
Method 4: Using iMessage Recovery – Third-Party Software
If everything else fails, there are always several third-party programs to help you recover deleted iMessages on Mac. The functions of these tools vary from brand to brand, but the general idea is to offer a personalized approach to the restoration process. Some of these tools allow you to select the messages you want to recover, while others keep old data on your system even when you restore a backup version. Either way, after spending a few dollars, you might find an easier way to recover your lost messages.
Some of the best software to recover your data include:
