How to recover deleted Facebook messages (2023)

In this article, we will look at what to do if a user accidentally deleted important correspondence and will consider several ways to recover deleted Facebook messages.

Content:

1. Part 1: Basic ways to recover deleted Facebook messages.
2. Part 2: Recovering deleted messages on Android and iOS.
3. Part 3: What to do if nothing has helped?

Part 1: Basic ways to recover deleted Facebook messages.

The developers’ official position is that in case of accidental deletion of important correspondence – it will be impossible to recover it, and it does not matter how important it is for the user.

However, you should not get upset ahead of time as there are several ways to restore important correspondence. Let’s look at them in more detail.

Method 1: Using archiving as a source to recover deleted Facebook messages

If communication with a person is suspended for an indefinite time, you can send correspondence to the archive. It is a very convenient option: message lists and Inbox folder will not be burdened with unnecessary correspondence. At the same time, if the user decides to resume communication and sends a message, the whole chain will automatically renew.

For important correspondence (e.g., on working questions), it is strongly recommended to use the archive, to avoid the question of how to recover deleted messages on Facebook.

To archive your correspondence, you should:

Step 1: Click on the Messenger icon in the upper right pane and then click “See all in Messenger” at the bottom of the drop-down window.

Step 2: Select the desired dialogue, click the three dots icon on the right, and then select “Hide”. This action will automatically hide the dialog and transfer it to the archive.

To view the archived dialogues, click the gear icon on the top right and choose “Hidden Chats”.

Method 2: Using email to recover deleted Facebook messages

By default, reports messages are sent to e-mail. If you have not changed the settings, all messages will be saved in your mailbox. Just check the incoming messages. Besides, in Gmail, such notifications can get into the folder “Social” in other mail services, it will not be superfluous to check “Spam” as well. It is also recommended to check the “Recycle Bin”, because old e-mails may sometimes be there.

In order to check that sending reports to the mail is enabled – you should:

Step 1: On Facebook, select the triangle icon in the upper right corner and choose “Settings & Privacy”.

Step 2: In the settings window, select “Notifications”, scroll down the page and make sure the “Email” column shows “On, Suggested”

If you have everything as in the screenshot above – you can go to your mail and restore the message.

Method 3: Creating your Facebook data backup file

Another way to restore deleted messages on Facebook is to download a file with your data generated by Facebook. To download your data, you need to perform the following steps:

Step 1: Go to Facebook settings as described above, select “Your Facebook Information” and in the “Download Your Information” field click “View”.

Step 2: Select the necessary data types and click the “Create File” button.

Wait for the end of the process, after which a notification will arrive at the e-mail. Open the message and download the attached file. The system will require you to enter the password from your Facebook account. ZIP – the archive will be downloaded after you click the “Send” button in the pop-up window.

Unzip the archive: there will be folders called by the interlocutors’ names, inside you will see the HTML files that can be opened in a web browser.

Part 2: Recovering deleted messages on Android and iOS.

In the past, when the entire correspondence history was stored in the device memory, it was easy to extract the important data from the cache. Now it’s harder to do, but it still is possible to recover lost messages.

Recovering deleted messages on android

To restore a deleted message, you should:

Step 1: Go to “File Manager”. If it is not available by default – download any file manager from the Play Market.

Step 2: Go to the following address: Internal Drive – Android – data – com. facebook.orca – cache

Step 3: If there are any files in the destination folder, they should be copied to the folder fb_temp.

After that, just turn on the messenger, and the deleted chat should appear.

Recover deleted Facebook messages on iOS

With Apple smartphones, the recovery process looks a little different:

Step 1: Download Dr.Fone and install it on your computer.

Step 2: Connect the device to your computer.

Step 3: Choose the “Recovery” option, then “Start Scan”.

Step 4: After the program finishes scanning, click the “Messenger” button and select the desired messages for recovery.

Part 3: What to do if nothing has helped?

If none of the above methods helped, we recommend using professional data recovery software. The best example for today will be the RS Partition Recovery program.

To restore deleted messages, follow these steps:

Step 1: Install the RS Partition Recovery program on your computer and run it.

Step 2: Connect your Android smartphone to a computer in data transfer mode (the device’s internal memory should be detected in the folder “This PC” as a removable disk.)

Step 3: In the built-in data recovery wizard, select your device and click “Next”.

Step 4: In this step, we select the scan type. The program offers two options: a quick scan and full analysis. It is better to choose “full analysis”, as in this mode, the program can recover files that were deleted even a few months ago.

Besides, RS Partition Recovery supports ALL file systems that use modern Android smartphones.

After you have selected the scan type, press “Next”.

Step 6: After the scanning process is complete, a window opens with the files available for recovery. Go to: the Your device drive – Android – data – com. facebook.orca – cache, select the desired files, and click “Recovery”.

Step 7: Choose the place where the recovered file will be written (any drive different from your device) and press “Recovery”.

Step 8: Go to the specified location, select the recovered file, and copy it to the folder fb_temp.

After that, all lost messages should appear in Messenger.

It should be noted that RS Partition Recovery program does not require any computer resources, which allows to use it even on office laptops.

Another advantage of this application is its intuitive interface – accordingly, you will not have any difficulties while recovering deleted Facebook messages.