How to recover your deleted Facebook messages in 3 ways, and backup your current messages so you won’t lose them

• If you’re trying to figure out how to recover deleted Facebook messages, unfortunately, you won’t have much luck. Deleted Facebook messages that weren’t backed up cannot be recovered.
• However, there are other avenues you may be able to exploit to recover deleted Facebook messages.
• Facebook messages can be backed up to your email account, thereby allowing you to avoid the problem of deleted messages going forward.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

It happens to everyone: You’ve scoured your message history, but the one message you’re looking for just isn’t there. For one reason or another, you deleted it. But now you want it back.

Once you delete a Facebook message, it’s gone for good – at least, from a strict Facebook Messenger perspective. But there are things you can do to get those messages back from other sources.

Here are a few methods you can use to recover deleted Facebook messages, as well as back up your messages so you don’t lose them in the future:

How to recover deleted Facebook messages

Here are a few methods that could help you retrieve those messages:

Check your archived conversations

For this, you'll need to use your Facebook Messenger app.

From the chats section of the app, type the name of the person you were talking to in the search bar. Then simply tap their name to open the conversation and view everything.

For more information on archiving Facebook messages, read our article, "How to archive conversations on Facebook Messenger, and view your archived messages."

Ask the recipient for a copy, or screenshot, of the message or conversation

When you delete a message, it only happens on your end. The person you're talking to will still be able to see it, so they can help you fill in the gap.

Check if your Facebook messages were sent to your email

This only works if you have all email notifications enabled for your account. But if it's enabled, you should be able to search for the conversation or message within your email account. (More on enabling this feature, or checking if it's active for your account, in the next section.)

How to back up your Facebook messages

Whether you were able to get those deleted messages back or not, it's a good idea to backup your messages going forward. That way, you won't run into this problem again. Here's how:

1. Set up the backup-to-email function: Go to your Facebook settings, using the desktop version. Then toggle down to the Notifications tab, scroll down and click to expand the "Email" section. Finally, select the first option, "All notifications except the ones you turn off."

2. Download your messages to your computer: Again on the desktop version, go to your Facebook settings and, within the "Your Facebook Information" tab, click "Download your information." To only get your messages, click "deselect all" and recheck the box next to "Messages." Then click "Create file." Facebook will email you the file once it's ready for viewing.