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Is your iPhone or Mac deleting old text messages? How to check the Keep Messages setting before you need them

By Kayabyte · Last updated 11 November 2026

Short answer: Messages has a “Keep messages” setting. If it is set to anything other than Forever, Apple says conversations, including all attachments, are removed automatically after the period you chose. If you might need old texts for a lawyer or a court, check that setting now on the Mac and on the iPhone, turn it to Forever, and make a backup. This is general information, not legal advice. Ask a lawyer what you should keep in your case.

Why check before anything else

Messages removed automatically may be hard or impossible to get back, so do not count on it. Changing the setting does not restore messages that were already removed (we have not found Apple saying otherwise). So the order is: stop further loss, make a copy, then export.

Step 1: Check the setting on your Mac

Apple’s Messages guide for Mac (checked 11 November 2026) gives these steps:

  1. Open Messages and choose Messages, then Settings, then click General.
  2. Click the “Keep messages” pop-up menu and choose an option.

Apple says that if you choose an option other than Forever, your conversations, including all attachments, are automatically removed after the time period elapses. Pick Forever if you want to keep everything. We did not verify here which other options your macOS version lists, so read the menu on your own Mac.

Step 2: Check it on your iPhone

The same setting exists on the iPhone. We did not verify Apple’s current wording for its path on the iPhone, so open the Messages settings on the phone and look for “Keep Messages” (it may be under Settings, then Messages, or under Apps). Set it to Forever.

Step 3: Know what Recently Deleted does

Apple’s page (checked 11 November 2026) says you can view and recover items in the Recently Deleted folder for up to 30 days. After 30 days the messages are removed from all your devices, and after 40 days they are permanently deleted from iCloud. If you deleted something recently, look there first.

Step 4: Make a backup now

A Finder backup of the iPhone keeps a full copy of the messages as they are today. See how to make an iPhone backup on a Mac, and choose to encrypt it, so it includes everything. Keep the backup and do not delete the phone’s messages afterwards.

Step 5: Export what matters

Screenshots work for a few messages. For a long conversation you want a document that shows date, time and sender on every message. See how to print text messages from iPhone for court.

Where Exhibitly adds something

Exhibitly is a Mac app we make. It reads an iPhone backup made in Finder (encrypted ones too, with your own backup password), the Messages app on the Mac, or WhatsApp export files, and writes a PDF with date, time and sender on every message, page numbers (“Page 3 of 41”), an Excel file with one row per message and the original attachments with SHA-256 fingerprints. A verification page says which source was read.

It cannot recover deleted messages. It can only export what is in the backup or the Mac at the moment you read it, which is why the Keep setting and a backup come first.

The free preview has every feature but exports the first 15 messages and watermarks the PDF “PREVIEW, NOT FOR FILING”. Personal is USD 39 one time and Evidence Bundle is USD 69 one time, with one year of updates, up to 3 Macs and a 30-day refund. Download Exhibitly (free preview). macOS 15 or later, Mac only, works offline.

Questions

Does changing Keep messages to Forever bring back deleted texts? No. It stops further automatic removal. Check Recently Deleted and your backups for earlier loss.

Are attachments deleted too? Apple says conversations, including all attachments, are removed automatically when you choose an option other than Forever.

Can Exhibitly recover texts that were deleted? No. It reads what is in a backup or the Messages app.

Should I keep the phone itself? Usually yes. Courts decide what they accept, so ask your lawyer and keep the phone and the backup.