How to Recover Deleted Messages from Snapchat Account [iPhone & Android]

One of the features that have drawn social media users to Snapchat is automatic message deletion. By design, all messages sent through the platform are deleted as soon as the sender and recipient leave the chat. This dramatically alleviates privacy concerns and can help you let your friends participate in your most private moments without leaving a lot of digital footprints.

However, there may be times when you want to recover these old messages. It could be a memorable conversation with a loved one, contact information for a client, or even information that may be helpful in legal matters.

So how can you get these old messages back? In this guide, we are going to show you how to recover deleted Snapchat messages.

Why is recovering messages in Snapchat more difficult?

Snapchat has been at the forefront of giving social media users more control over the content they send, including text, photos, and videos. The platform is one of the few social media platforms to use ephemeral messaging. But what is it ?

Pop-up messaging is a self-destructing type of chat or conversation. Messages are automatically deleted once the receiver has opened and viewed them.

With ephemeral messaging, you can control how long a message stays in someone’s inbox, a feature barely offered by regular text messaging or chat programs. This allows you to send thoughts that you would keep to yourself if you knew they could stick around longer and, most likely, come back to haunt you.

Plus, sending self-destructing messages means you can save storage space on your device. You won’t have to manually delete some items every few days to free up space and keep your device running smoothly.

In contrast, Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging means you can lose valuable data as quickly as you receive it. There may be messages that you want to keep longer. It can be anything from memorable photos, eye-catching text to work progress reports.

While the Snapchat app doesn’t offer a way to retrieve these messages from your chats, you can easily get your hands on any message you’ve ever sent, thanks to a few workarounds.

Let’s see how you can recover deleted messages depending on the type of device you are using.

How to Recover Deleted Snapchat Messages from Android Phone

If you have an Android device, you can easily recover deleted Snapchat messages in several ways:

Method 1: open the cover of your device

Before you try anything complex, you can use your Android’s built-in recovery tools.

Whenever you close Snapchat or any other app on your phone, Android devices are programmed to erase recent memory immediately and you will have to reload the app to run it again. It can take a long time if your data connection is not strong and can cause delays, screen freezes, crashes, power issues, etc. To avoid these problems, your phone caches content for quick access.

Android cache stores recently used or “hot” data that would otherwise require slow recovery from overloaded storage media. It also stores infrequently accessed information close to the processor, where it is more readily available for immediate access. Most importantly, your Snapchat messages are temporarily cached shortly after they are deleted from your chats.

Here’s how to recover deleted messages from your device cache:

1. Connect your Android device to a PC using a USB cable.
   
2. Once your PC recognizes your device, open your device’s settings folder and navigate to “Android”.
   
3. Click on “Data”.
   
4. Look for a file named “com.Snapchat.android”
   
5. Open the cache folder and select the messages you want to recover.
   
6. Click on “Recover”.
   

After following these steps, you will be able to retrieve your messages and view them without the usual restrictions. However, you can only retrieve the most recent messages using this method. Old cached data is deleted over time.

Method 2: Using File Manager

If you don’t have a PC, you can still recover deleted messages from your phone’s internal memory. Here’s how:

1. Open the file manager on your device. If you haven’t installed the file manager on your device, you can easily get a copy from Google Play.
   
2. Navigate to “Android”.
   
3. Click on “Data”.
   
4. Open the file named “com.snapchat.android”.
   
5. Rename all files with the extension “.nomedia”.
   
6. After renaming all the files, you should be able to open any file you want and view your messages.

Method 3: Submit a data request with Snapchat

Snapchat understands that you may want to view some of your messages after they are automatically deleted. Therefore, they have set up a data recovery page where you can easily recover all types of data exchanged through your account including photos, text and videos.

Here is how to use Snapchat data recovery to get your messages back as well:

1. Visit the Snapchat My Data page and enter your credentials.
   
2. After logging in, you should be automatically redirected to the “My Data” page, where you will be presented with a list of data items that can be retrieved. Select the items you want to recover.
   
3. Press “Submit request”.
   
4. After submitting a data request, Snapchat administrators will immediately dive into your records to retrieve the data you requested. You will then receive the data by e-mail, usually in zipped format.
   
5. Once you have received the zip file, press and hold it, then select “Extract.”
   
6. Navigate to the folder containing the extracted files and open a file named “Mydata”.
   
7. Tap the “index.html” file. You will now be able to see all of your deleted Snapchat messages.
   

Method 4: Using Dedicated Third Party Recovery Tools

If you don’t want to retrieve your Snapchat messages using the manual methods we’ve talked about, you’ll be happy to know that there are third-party apps that can do all the work for you. While there are several options to choose from, Android Data Recovery Tool comes highly recommended. Here’s how to use it:

1. Download and install Android Data Recovery on your PC.
   
2. Launch the software and click on “Data Recovery”.
   
3. Connect your Android device to your PC.
   
4. Once the software detects your Android device, you should be able to see a list of the types of data that you want to recover displayed on the screen.
   
5. Check the box next to “Messages” and click “Next”.
   
6. Click “Recover All Files” and click “Next”.
7. At this point, the software will scan your device for all deleted messages and then display all recoverable data. All you need to do is click on the “Recover” button next to an item to retrieve it and save it to your computer.

Recover Deleted Snapchat Messages on iPhone

If you have an iPhone or other large iOS family device, you can easily recover deleted snapshots with third party tools. While there are several alternatives, we will be looking at two of the most popular apps: FoneLab and iBeesoft iPhone Data Recovery.

Method 1: Using FoneLab

FoneLab was first launched to help iPhone users recover their data from dead or broken handset. It now offers a wider range of different services including device repair, file backup services and everything related to Apple devices.

Here is how to use this tool to recover lost Snapchat messages:

1. Download and install FoneLab on your PC.
   
2. Connect your iPhone to your PC using a USB cable.
   
3. Once the software detects your device, a “Start Scan” button will appear on your iPhone screen. Tap on it to start the recovery process.
   
4. After the scan is complete, all recoverable items will be displayed on your screen. Select “Snapchat Messages”.
5. Select the messages you want to retrieve and then tap “Recover”.
6. Choose the destination folder, then wait for the software to retrieve your messages.

Method 2: Using iBeesoft iPhone Data Recovery

iBeesoft iPhone Data Recovery is professional iOS data recovery software for all Apple mobile devices. It can quickly recover photos, messages, contacts, text notes, videos, etc. Here’s how to use the software to retrieve your snaps:

1. Download and install the software on your PC.
   
2. Connect your iPhone to your PC using a USB cable.
   
3. Once the software detects your device, a “Recover from iOS Device” button will appear on your PC screen. Click on it to start the recovery process.
   
4. Click on “Scanner” to confirm.
   
5. After the scan is complete, all recoverable items will be sorted into categories and displayed on your screen.
6. Select “Snapchat Messages” and then click “Recover”.
7. One of the best things about iBeesoft iPhone Data Recovery app is that you can also recover data from your iTunes or iCloud backups. You just need to select the desired source when initiating the recovery process. For example, to recover items from your iTunes backups, just click “Recover from iTunes” in step three above.

Recover your messages safely

If you’ve deleted a message on Snapchat and want to get it back, the built-in and third-party tools can help. That said, it is important to choose a trusted tool that will not damage your messages or even damage the rest of the data on your device.

Have you tried recovering your Snapchat messages using any of the methods described in this article? We would love to hear about it. Please share your experience in the comments section below.