Your iPhone is designed to help you manage storage space efficiently — but sometimes that can lead to losing important text messages. If you’ve ever noticed that old messages suddenly disappear, your iPhone may be set to automatically delete messages after 30 days.
Whether you want to keep sentimental conversations, essential work messages, or evidence of transactions, this guide will show you how to stop your iPhone from deleting text messages automatically.
We’ll cover both iMessage and SMS, explain why this setting exists, and how you can change it permanently on iOS 17 and earlier versions.
📱 Why iPhone Deletes Messages Automatically
Apple includes an automatic message deletion feature in iOS to save storage space. When this setting is turned on, your iPhone will automatically delete text messages and iMessages after a specified period — either 30 days or 1 year.
This feature is especially useful for users who:
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Have limited iPhone storage capacity
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Receive lots of media-rich messages (images, videos, GIFs)
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Want to keep their device clutter-free
However, if you’re someone who wants to keep all your messages, this feature can be frustrating.
Luckily, you can change the settings to keep messages forever — and it only takes a minute.
⚙️ How to Stop iPhone from Deleting Messages Automatically
Here’s how you can turn off the automatic message deletion feature in just a few steps.
🪜 Step 1: Open the Settings App
On your iPhone’s home screen, tap the ⚙️ Settings app.
This is where you’ll find all your system preferences.
🪜 Step 2: Scroll Down and Tap “Messages”
Scroll down until you find Messages and tap it.
This opens all the iMessage and SMS settings, including delivery, notification, and storage preferences.
🪜 Step 3: Tap “Keep Messages”
Under the Message History section, you’ll see the option labeled Keep Messages.
Tap it to access the duration options for message storage.
🪜 Step 4: Choose “Forever”
You’ll see three options:
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30 Days
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1 Year
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Forever
Select Forever to ensure your iPhone never deletes old messages automatically.
🔒 Tip: After selecting “Forever,” your iPhone will keep all messages until you manually delete them.
🪜 Step 5: Confirm Your Choice
If you’re switching from 30 days or 1 year to Forever, your iPhone may ask:
“Do you want to keep previously deleted messages?”
Choose Keep Messages to preserve your current conversations.
And that’s it — your iPhone will now keep all messages indefinitely.
🧠 How to Check if Messages Are Being Deleted Automatically
To verify that automatic deletion is turned off:
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Go to Settings → Messages → Keep Messages.
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Make sure the Forever option is selected.
If 30 Days or 1 Year is checked, messages older than that period will still be automatically removed.
🧮 How This Setting Affects Storage
When you set messages to “Forever,” they’ll accumulate over time — including photos, videos, voice notes, and attachments.
While this ensures no data loss, it can also lead to storage issues on smaller iPhones.
📊 To check message storage usage:
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Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage.
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Scroll down and select Messages.
Here, you’ll see how much space your conversations, attachments, and media files are consuming.
If storage becomes tight, you can delete large attachments without removing entire message threads (we’ll explain how below).
🧰 Optional: Delete Large Attachments (Without Deleting Messages)
If you want to keep your text history but free up space, you can delete only the media files stored in your Messages app.
Here’s how:
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Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage → Messages.
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Under Documents & Data, select categories like:
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Photos
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Videos
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GIFs and Stickers
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Other Attachments
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Tap Edit, then delete the large files you no longer need.
This way, you keep the message text but remove the bulky media files.
📦 Alternative: Back Up Messages to iCloud
If you want to retain all your messages but are running out of storage, consider backing up messages to iCloud.
🪜 How to Enable iCloud Message Backup:
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Open Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud.
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Toggle on Messages.
This ensures all your conversations are synced and safely stored in iCloud, accessible from all your Apple devices.
💡 Tip: Even if your phone is lost or reset, your messages will reappear once you sign in with your Apple ID.
🧾 How to Stop iCloud from Deleting Messages Automatically
Even if your local storage is safe, iCloud also has its own syncing behavior. If you delete a message on one device (like your iPhone), it disappears from all other devices using the same Apple ID.
To prevent this:
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Turn off Messages in iCloud sync if you want to keep separate message histories per device.
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Go to Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Messages, and toggle off.
📱 How to Recover Deleted Messages (If It’s Too Late)
If your iPhone has already deleted messages after 30 days, there are still a few ways to try and recover them.
🧩 Option 1: Restore from iCloud Backup
If your iPhone was set to back up automatically via iCloud, you may be able to restore deleted messages.
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Go to Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Manage Storage → Backups.
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Check if a recent backup was made before the messages were deleted.
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If yes:
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Go to Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase All Content and Settings.
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After reset, choose Restore from iCloud Backup during setup.
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⚠️ Note: This replaces all current data with the backup version.
🧩 Option 2: Restore from iTunes (Finder) Backup
If you’ve backed up your iPhone to a Mac or PC:
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Connect your iPhone to your computer.
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Open Finder (macOS Catalina and later) or iTunes (Windows/macOS Mojave and earlier).
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Select your iPhone under devices.
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Click Restore Backup and choose the version made before messages were deleted.
This method can recover messages that were still on your iPhone at the time of backup.
🧩 Option 3: Check Your Other Apple Devices
If you use the same Apple ID on multiple devices (like an iPad or Mac), open the Messages app there — the deleted messages might still be visible if that device hasn’t synced yet.
🧠 Understanding the “Keep Messages” Setting in Detail
Apple’s Keep Messages feature isn’t just a storage trick — it’s part of a larger system for managing your iPhone’s data lifecycle.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| 30 Days | Messages older than 30 days are automatically deleted to save space. |
| 1 Year | Messages older than 12 months are deleted automatically. |
| Forever | Messages are stored indefinitely until you delete them manually. |
Changing this setting immediately applies to future messages — it won’t restore ones already deleted.
🧩 Bonus: How to Save Individual Messages or Conversations
Even if you don’t want to keep everything, you can manually save specific conversations.
Method 1: Screenshot Important Messages
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Press Power + Volume Up (Face ID models) or Power + Home (Touch ID models) to take a screenshot.
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Saved in your Photos app for quick reference.
Method 2: Copy and Paste Messages into Notes
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Tap and hold a message → Copy → Paste into the Notes app.
Method 3: Export Entire Conversation via Email
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Open the Messages thread.
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Tap and hold any message → Select More → Choose multiple messages → Tap Forward (arrow).
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Send them to your own email for backup.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
| ❌ Mistake | 💡 Correct Approach |
|---|---|
| Leaving “30 Days” active | Change to “Forever” immediately. |
| Forgetting iCloud sync behavior | Turning off iCloud Messages stops automatic deletions across devices. |
| Ignoring storage usage | Periodically clean up large attachments to avoid full storage warnings. |
| Relying only on backups | Enable both iCloud and local backups for redundancy. |
💬 What Happens When You Change from 30 Days to Forever
When you switch the Keep Messages setting from 30 Days to Forever:
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Your iPhone stops deleting old messages automatically.
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Any messages already deleted cannot be restored unless backed up.
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New messages and existing ones will stay permanently until you remove them manually.
It’s an immediate change that takes effect right after you select “Forever.”
🔋 Tips to Manage Message Storage Efficiently
Even with “Forever” enabled, you can prevent clutter and slow performance by managing messages smartly:
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Delete unnecessary group chats.
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Use “Filter Unknown Senders” (in Settings → Messages).
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Regularly clean up old attachments from large conversations.
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Enable iCloud Messages for cloud syncing instead of local storage buildup.
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Archive important messages externally using screenshots or exports.
🧾 Recap: How to Stop iPhone from Deleting Messages
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1️⃣ | Open Settings |
| 2️⃣ | Tap Messages |
| 3️⃣ | Tap Keep Messages |
| 4️⃣ | Select Forever |
| 5️⃣ | Confirm your choice |
Your iPhone will now retain all text and iMessage conversations permanently — unless you delete them manually.
🏁 Conclusion
Automatic message deletion on iPhone can be helpful for storage management, but it’s not ideal if you value keeping your message history intact.
By simply changing the Keep Messages setting from 30 Days to Forever, you regain full control over your conversations — no more disappearing texts or lost memories.
To make the most of this:
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Keep messages Forever
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Regularly manage large attachments
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Use iCloud backup for safety
Now you can keep your important messages, cherished chats, and media files without worrying about automatic deletion.
🧩 Key Takeaways
| 💡 | Quick Summary |
|---|---|
| ⚙️ | Change “Keep Messages” to Forever in Settings → Messages. |
| 💾 | Keep storage under control by deleting large attachments. |
| ☁️ | Back up messages to iCloud for extra protection. |
| 🧩 | Turn off iCloud Messages sync to keep texts on one device. |
| 🔁 | Once deleted automatically, messages cannot be recovered unless backed up. |
❓ FAQs
1. Why are my iPhone messages disappearing after 30 days?
Your iPhone is set to automatically delete messages under Settings → Messages → Keep Messages → 30 Days.
2. How can I stop my iPhone from deleting messages automatically?
Go to Settings → Messages → Keep Messages and select Forever.
3. Can I recover deleted messages after 30 days?
Only if you have a previous iCloud or iTunes backup that includes them.
4. Will keeping messages forever slow down my iPhone?
Not directly, but large attachments may consume storage over time. Delete unnecessary media periodically.
5. Does iCloud delete old messages automatically?
If you use iCloud Messages, deleted texts on one device are also removed from all synced devices — but not automatically after 30 days.