It can be disappointing if you mistakenly delete a message that you wish to keep on your Messenger on Facebook without any hope of how to recover it. It happens a couple of times that you will mistakenly delete your Facebook chat and you will not be able to recover it without taking some advanced steps. So, in this article, I will walk you through how to recover deleted Facebook messages if you are using either Android or iPhone or on the web.
Meanwhile, the fast approach you can take to recover your deleted Facebook messages includes archiving your chats. If your Facebook chats are archived you can easily recover it. That is by far the simplest way to recover deleted Facebook messages. If your Facebook messages aren’t actually deleted but Archieve you can easily access the Archieve page to unarchieve it.
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Can You Recover Deleted Facebook Messages on Android
You can follow the steps below to recover archived conversations on your Facebook account. This works on Android, iPhone and iPad.
- Launch the “Facebook Messenger” app on your phone.
- Tap on your “Menu” option at the top left.
- Choose “Archive.”
- Press and hold the “Conversation” that you “Archive.”
- Tap “Unarchive” from the popup.
The archive conversation will be moved back to your Facebook inbox and you can continue your conversation or chat from there.
Request a Copy from the Other Person
Another way to recover a deleted message or deleted messages on your Facebook account is to request a copy from the other person so that you can have a copy of the message you previously deleted. However, you will only get a copy if the person having a copy of the message is willing to send a copy to you.
Meanwhile, if it’s a sensitive message the other person might choose not to send it to you for privacy purposes.
Turn to Your Facebook Downloaded Data
If you enable the Facebook feature to save your data to your computer you will see the deleted messages on the data archive. You can access the Facebook data in a folder named “facebook-yourusername.zip” which is a zip file. You need to unzip the file to be able to access the file inside. Once the file is unzipped the file name will turn to “facebook-yourusername.”
Note: This only works if:
- You have downloaded the Facebook data before you deleted the Facebook messages otherwise the newly downloaded data will not include the deleted messages in the archive.
- If the archive was created after the message was deleted or sent it will be missing in the messages archive folder.
If none of the points above hold water then you should consider the steps below to recover your deleted messages from your Facebook downloaded data.
- Go to your “Download” folder to identify the “Facebook Data” you downloaded.
- Right-click on the “Zip” file and unzip it. You can also choose “Extract All” and select the location where you want to extract the folder.
- Locate the file called “your_messages.html” and double-click on it to open it on your browser. Meanwhile, if this file is missing it implies that you didn’t check the option to download your messages while downloading your data.
- You will see all the messages on your Facebook data on the browser.
- Click on the “Conversation” that you want to recover from the list.
Access Deleted Messages on Android Manager
Another way that you can use to recover deleted Facebook messages on Android is via the Android manager. This is it; with Facebook Messenger on your Android phone, you could still have access to your deleted messages on Facebook via the app’s cache.
- Open your “Android” phone “Manager” app.
- Click on your phone “Internal Storage.”
- Search for and click on “com.facebook.katana.”
- Select a file named “fb_temp.”
This file contains all the messages from your most recent history. However, if you are lucky you could find the deleted messages in the file.
How to Recover Deleted Facebook Messages on Android
If you have a file explorer installed on your Android phone you can take the following steps to recover deleted messages on your Android.
- Open the “File Explorer” app on your Android phone.
- Choose “Storage” and select the “SD Card” directory.
- Click on the “Android” folder in the directory to access all your apps.
- Locate the “Data” folder and search for “Cache”
- Inside the “Cache” folder search for “fb_tempfile.”
You will see all your Facebook archive messages in the file and you can check whether the missing or deleted messages are there.
How to Recover Deleted Messages on Facebook on iPhone
If you are using an iPhone and you find yourself in this condition that you need to recover your deleted Facebook messages on your iPhone. Then you need to try the following steps.
- Launch the “Facebook Messenger” app on your “iPhone.”
- Go to “Chats” and select “Archive.”
- Find the chat whose messages you want to recover.
- Press and hold the “Chat” and choose “Unarchive.”
Your Facebook old messages on the selected chat will reappear in your Facebook chat section.