1. Decipher Tools
  2. Recover Deleted Text Messages

DECIPHER TEXTMESSAGE

Recover Lost/Deleted iPhone Text Messages.
Save, View, and Print iPhone Text Messages.
iOS 26.2 and iOS 26.3 beta Compatible.
Latest update: January 15, 2026 (Release notes)

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When you erase a text message on an iPhone, it is simply marked as "deleted", to be overwritten with new messages later. Decipher TextMessage finds those deleted messages and shows them to you in a simple, searchable interface.

To recover deleted iPhone text messages:

  1. Download Decipher TextMessage.
  2. Run Decipher TextMessage and click the "Recover" button in the upper left corner of the window.
  3. Search and sort through your recovered messages.
View Our Complete Deleted Message Recovery Guide

Decipher TextMessage Features:

  • Recovers SMS, MMS, and iMessage text messages.
  • Compatible with backups from iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
  • Uses iOS backups, for your privacy and the best recovery experience.
    (We may find the message in a backup from before it was deleted too!)
  • Aggressive recovery mode shows you more erased data.
  • Deleted text message data is searchable and sortable.
  • Works with encrypted backups (with the backup password.)
  • We offer a 30-day moneyback guarantee, in the event that your messages are not recoverable.
  • No jailbreaking required! (And also works for jailbroken iPhones.)
  • Each purchase comes with two unique device activations. When you activate a device you can save all the text messages forever for that specific iPhone or iPad.
  • Software is good for installation on an unlimited amount of computers.
  • There are no recurring monthly fees or subscriptions.
  • All updates to the software are included free with your license.

Click here to see the Decipher TextMessage FAQ page.

Click here to see the latest Decipher TextMessage release notes.

Click on a screenshot below to enlarge it:

System Requirements

Mac Version

  • macOS 10.12 through 15 and macOS Tahoe 26
    (Tahoe, Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, and Sierra)
  • iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 26, iOS 18, iOS 17, iOS 16, iOS 15, iOS 14, iOS 13, iOS 12, iOS 11, iOS 10, iOS 9, iOS 8, iOS 7, iOS 6, iOS 5, or iOS 4

Windows Version

  • Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7
  • iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 26, iOS 18, iOS 17, iOS 16, iOS 15, iOS 14, iOS 13, iOS 12, iOS 11, iOS 10, iOS 9, iOS 8, iOS 7, iOS 6, iOS 5, or iOS 4

Decipher TextMessage is Mac and Windows software to recover deleted text messages in the Messages app, including iMessages, group chats, and MMS messages. Decipher TextMessage works with backups from iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.

All of your text message data remains private, since all of the deleted text message recovery work is performed locally on your computer.

We love building on Decipher TextMessage and helping our customers get the data they need. If you have any questions or problems with Decipher TextMessage please feel free to contact us. Before contacting us via the support email, we ask that you read our FAQ since many helpful answers are available there.



Decipher TextMessage Reviews

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Average rating: 4.97/5.0 from 209 ratings and 345 reviews.

initials for Trina

Trina

January 11, 2026 4:49 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I got a new computer and need to download my decipher text message program again and could mot find my license anywhere. So I emailed the company and within 24 hours had a reply and my license number to reinstall. The I have always loved the program. But the customer service is top notch. Thank you decipher text message group for putting customer service first and foremost. Highly recommend the product. Ant to top it off it is a one time purchase rather than a yearly fee which is also appreciated.

initials for Cheyne T.

Cheyne T.

January 6, 2026 9:35 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I have to say your customer support is some of the best I've ever received from a company, let alone a small business.

initials for Stephen Hobbs

Stephen Hobbs

January 1, 2026 6:15 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Background: I wanted to not only backup my past 7+ years of IPhone text messages with my partner but also be able to read/search them for specific dates or events that might be of interest to us. I tried one 3rd-party software (unnamed here) that cost me over 6 hours of frustration and STILL failed to load or process my texts as promised (by their own product description).

Then I Googled again and tucked into some Reddit comment was a listing of 2-3 softwares that might work. I downloaded one called “Decipher TextMessage” from Decipher Tools onto my Windows 11 laptop and within an hour, everything loaded and worked to perfection. I was able to download 8,323 pages of all our texts since 2018 into a searchable PDF and archive the whole thing. Amazingly, for only one reasonable purchase price with no monthly/annual subscription required (unlike the software that failed so miserably!)

I realize that this is a pretty specialized “need” that most people can do without, but I’ve always thought that there should be a way to save/review one’s own texts, and this company’s software has made that possible (and I’m most grateful - enough to give this testimonial.)

initials for Foctor

Foctor

December 18, 2025 9:04 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Excellent product and great support!!! Thanks everyone!!!

initials for Susan Rhoda

Susan Rhoda

December 17, 2025 9:41 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Thrilled with how easy it is to use! Needed to print texts related to a child custody issue and your program made it so easy! Great customer support, too! Highly recommend it! I got the text message program to download texts easily from my iPhone 8 Plys to my PC running Windows 10. Can’t believe how easy it was.

initials for D.A.B

D.A.B

December 10, 2025 12:56 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Recommend this for so many reasons - great way to back up your messages and export them if you needed to. For example - asking chatGPT to analyse the messages from your ex...... interesting when things started to change - ha ha ha.

initials for Sarah P

Sarah P

November 14, 2025 9:35 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This is absolute magic! My Mac was completely full with text messages... but I didn't want to delete... too much sentimental good stuff! I had some challenges at first downloading an insane amount of old texts onto an external drive... but Kelly at Decipher Tools walked me through step-by-step to solve it... never getting frustrated with me when "it still didn't work." She made recommendations, explained everything so clearly, and now I have the full history all downloaded - and super easy to sort by name. IT'S SO AWESOME!!

initials for Bosstra

Bosstra

October 21, 2025 11:13 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

100% recommended. Worth money....

initials for Dustin

Dustin

October 17, 2025 10:22 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Extremely easy to use product as well as fantastic customer service! The product I purchased didn’t have a feature we needed for court and the customer service team responded promptly with a solution. We highly recommend there products!

initials for Fallon

Fallon

October 8, 2025 5:36 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Decipher TextMessage has literally saved me hours/days of screenshotting texts for a custody battle. Thank you again!!!

initials for Jon

Jon

September 12, 2025 10:43 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I love your product. It made organizing texts for court so much easier than taking screenshots. It helped me to get custody of my children.

initials for Alexey

Alexey

September 11, 2025 10:43 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

One can not imagine what you feel when your phone collapses and the backup turns out to be corrupt due to iOS bug while you are out of your home location and need your phone bad just to be able to get back! Thanks to Decipher Tools support I was able to restore my phone and travel normally. My deepest gratitude to Kelly, one of Decipher Tools co-founders, who personally took my issue and provided the assistance. Your help was absolutely precious in the view of Apple having screwed me and all my countrymates by ceasing all the support services in my country.

Kelly, Steve, all the best to you guys and thanks again for your help.

initials for Nellie

Nellie

September 9, 2025 3:15 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I ran into a few snags because Im not very tech savvy. Thank goodness the customer support was outstanding. My tech was very patient, understanding and helpful. We finally got it going and it worked great.

initials for Susan

Susan

August 26, 2025 5:13 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This company is above board. I had an issue with text messages and Decipher solved them for me. Better than that, when I contacted them concerning a license issue; they responded immediately so that I could proceed. Customer Service is stellar!!!!

initials for Susan Fleming

Susan Fleming

August 19, 2025 12:29 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Excellent product. Easy to install and easy to use. I would recommend to anyone.

initials for JP

JP

August 15, 2025 1:28 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Easy to use, reliable, competent software! The customer service was 5*****!

initials for Jessica S.

Jessica S.

August 14, 2025 8:24 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This program is fantastic! I was able to retrieve text messages from my Mom going back to 2017. She passed away in December so having these messages in a document that I can easily access and read when I want is really a wonderful gift. Also, the customer support is top-notch - they answered each of my questions quickly and thoroughly.

initials for DK

DK

July 22, 2025 9:16 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Amazingly easy to use! I needed to back-up my recently-deceased MIL's iPhone and everything was fine until I realized that a normal back-up doesn't encompass text messages. (Everything else I wanted to keep is fine using iCloud back-up and a direct back-up to my Mac.) Lots of photos attached to her text messages are precious to be able to have for our family. Enter Decipher Tools to save the day!

I simply followed instructions and it was done in about 10 minutes. Now the memories are there on my Mac to export to PDF, print, archive, etc.. Don't waste your time and money trying to find another solution. Decipher Tools is it! (And I love that it's not another subscription to pay every month.)

initials for Dawn Todd

Dawn Todd

July 15, 2025 8:24 AM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I can recommend Decipher Backup Repair if you are out of luck with your iTunes back up. I lost hours trying to restore my iphone from the most current back up and even tried with an older back up from 2 months ago. No success ;-(. After researching the issue, I found Decipher Backup Repair - it was straightforward, transparent and walked me through the process step by step. My phone is back up and running! Thank you

initials for David Bernstein

David Bernstein

July 14, 2025 12:12 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This tool worked much better than I expected. Easy to install and activate. No issues with 2 different iPhones. I appreciated all the small touches including the messages displayed about every step. I had a LOT of texts and images which downloaded and were indexed quickly. Helped me with the project of needing to get specific texts from specific date ranges. TWe he download to PDF's worked great. Nice job Decipher folks. Remoinds me of the old days when you could buy software for one fee, it would work forever, do what it said, no ads, no weird drivers or reboots required, no mysterious processes running. Thank You I will consider other products from Decipher!

initials for Trevor S Brown

Trevor S Brown

July 7, 2025 2:13 PM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Recently, I had to file a police report. The detective told me what to bring with me. One of which was screenshots of all case-related text messages. There were so many I would have taken hours, not to mention printing all of them. There had to be a better way. I searched Google for "how to transcribe text messages." After sorting through the nonsense, I found Decipher. Awesome tool. It transcribed the entire conversation to a PDF file. Awesome. Not sure what I need it for now, but I am so glad I have it if I ever need it again. I am a real customer, real person, and this was a true story...