macOS deleted my messages
The “Keep messages” setting was on 30 days or 1 year. Here is what can still be saved.
The problem
Messages has a setting called Keep Messages with three choices: Forever, One Year, or 30 Days. Many Macs are set to a short window without their owner choosing it. Once the window passes, older messages are removed from every device on the same account, and there is no undo.
Why Message Vault helps
- Reads the setting and contrasts it with what the archive holds, so you can see whether history is being deleted right now.
- Recovers what still exists in old iPhone backups on the Mac, which often reach back further than the live database.
- Merges every backup, so messages that survive in only one of them are not lost.
- Archives on a schedule from then on, so the next window closing does not cost you anything.
How to do it
- Open Messages, then Settings, then General, and read the Keep Messages value. Do not change it yet.
- Install Message Vault, add the Messages database and every iPhone backup on the Mac, and scan.
- Check the coverage view. What is in the vault is what you have. Then set Keep Messages to Forever.
Messages that were deleted and were never in any backup on this Mac are gone. Message Vault cannot recover them from iCloud or from the phone.
$29 per year, per Mac. 14-day free trial. Cancel any time. Requires macOS 14 or later.
Other use cases: Family memories · Corporations · Executive teams · Legal cases · Custody disputes · Estate and executors · Journalists and researchers · Switching Macs or phones · Small business owners