Buzz
In reality, there is no way to recover deleted messages or Facebook conversations—once a message is deleted, it no longer appears in your chat history. While retrieving data directly from Facebook is not feasible, this article will guide you on how to locate copies of your Facebook messages elsewhere, as well as how to prevent losing messages in the future.
Steps
Search in Other Places
Understand the difference between messages and conversations. "Messages" refer to the text (or images, videos, links, etc.) within a conversation between you and at least one other person, while a "conversation" is the entire record of messages exchanged between you and the recipient.
- If you believe you’ve deleted specific messages from a conversation, recovering them can be time-consuming. Focus on locating the conversations you think you deleted, as this will be easier.
Open Facebook Messenger by visiting https://www.facebook.com/messages from your computer's browser. This action will display your most recent Facebook messages in Messenger if you're already logged into Facebook.
- If you're not logged in, you'll need to enter your Facebook account's email address and password before proceeding.
Ensure the conversation was actually deleted. Before embarking on the task of searching for (or mourning) lost messages, scroll through your Facebook Messenger inbox to confirm the conversation is truly gone. It might simply be buried under newer chats.
Ask the recipient for a copy of the message. If you've deleted the conversation (or specific messages) on your end, you can always request the other participant to send you a screenshot or a copy of the conversation. If they haven't deleted it, you can still retrieve the information from them.
- You can also ask the recipient to download a copy of the messages and share it with you.
Check archived conversations. The conversation you're looking for might have been archived rather than deleted. To review archived conversations, follow these steps:
- Click the gear icon in the top-left corner of Messenger.
- Select Archived Threads from the menu.
- Browse through the archived conversations.
- Note that individual messages cannot be archived separately.
Determine if your conversation was emailed to your personal account.
Check the "Trash" folder in your email. If the conversation has been backed up to your email but you can't find it, try clicking on the Trash folder and searching for the data.
- Most email providers delete emails after a certain period (such as 30 days), so your messages might still be lost.
Backup Messages to Email
Open Facebook by visiting https://www.facebook.com/ from your computer's web browser. This will take you to your Facebook News Feed if you're already logged in.
- If you're not logged in, enter your Facebook account's email address and password, then click Log In.
- For some users, this icon appears as a gear.
Click on Settings in the options list to open this page.
Click on the Notifications tab on the left side of the page.
Click on Email near the top of the page to expand the "Email" section.
Enable message backup. Check the box next to "All notifications, except the ones you unsubscribe from" under the "WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE" section. This ensures that any messages you receive will be copied to your email inbox, but it will also enable email notifications for all Facebook activities.
- You can also unsubscribe from non-message notifications by opening a notification email and clicking Unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.
Download Messages to Your Computer
Open Facebook by visiting https://www.facebook.com/ from your computer's browser. This will open your Facebook News Feed if you're already logged in.
- If you're not logged in, enter your Facebook account's email address and password, then click Log In.
- For some users, this icon appears as a gear.
Click on Settings in the options list.
Click on the General tab on the left side of the page.
Click on the link Download your information at the bottom of the General settings page.
Click on the link Deselect All at the bottom-right corner of the page. This will uncheck all the boxes currently displayed on the page.
Scroll down and check the box labeled "Messages" in the middle of the page. By selecting only the "Messages" option, you ensure that unnecessary data is not included in your download.
Scroll up and click the Create File button on the right side of the page to request Facebook to generate a backup file.
Open the inbox of the email address associated with your Facebook account.
Wait for the email from Facebook. Facebook may take up to 10 minutes to prepare your download, though this can vary depending on the number of conversations in your Messenger inbox.
Open the download email. Once received, click to open the email titled "Your Facebook download is ready."
- If you're using Gmail with multiple tabs, you'll find this email under the Social tab.
- Remember to check the Spam or Junk folder if you don't receive the email within 10 minutes.
Click the Download Your Information link in the email content. This will redirect you to the download page on Facebook.
Click the Download button on the right side of the file you want to download, located near the middle of the page.
Enter your password. Input the password you use to log into Facebook when prompted.
Click the blue Submit button at the bottom of the displayed window. This will initiate the download of a ZIP folder containing your messages to your computer.
- The download time will vary depending on the size of the archived messages.
Extract the downloaded ZIP folder. Double-click to open the ZIP folder, then select Extract at the top of the window, click Extract all on the toolbar, and click Extract when prompted. Once the extraction is complete, the regular (unzipped) version of the folder will open.
- On a Mac, simply double-click the ZIP folder to extract and open the unzipped folder.
View your Facebook conversations. Double-click the messages folder, open the folder named after the other Facebook user involved in the conversation you want to view, and double-click the conversation's HTML file. This will open the file in your computer's browser, allowing you to scroll through the messages as desired.
Tips
- It's best to develop a habit of backing up your Facebook data (including messages) at regular intervals, such as monthly.
Warnings
- Deleted Facebook messages cannot be recovered without a court order, and even then, messages are only stored on Facebook's servers for 90 days.
