We’ve all been there — accidentally deleting an important voice message: something vital from work, a memory from a family member, or even a joke from a friend that you suddenly wish you could hear again. Luckily, it’s possible to recover deleted voice messages on iPhone and that’s exactly what we’ll cover in this guide, step by step. Apple provides built-in methods you can try first. If those don’t work, we’ll also introduce you to Eassiy iPhone Data Recovery, a tool that can bring back both auto-expired voice clips and manually deleted ones with ease.
How to Recover Deleted iMessage Voice Messages on iPhone
There are two reliable ways to bring back deleted iMessage audio clips. One method works directly on the iPhone itself and doesn’t require a computer. The other involves using a Mac or Windows system — but it also gives you a much higher chance of success and can recover messages that seem permanently lost. Let’s see them both.
Way 1. Use iMessage
When to Use This Way: Your device is running on iOS 16 or later providing the Recently Deleted folder.
Anything deleted before updating to iOS 16 won’t appear here at all. Plus, recovery is only possible for items removed in the last 30 to 40 days.
How to Retrieve Deleted Audio Messages from iMessage:
Step 1. Open the Messages app and tap Edit at the top left. If message filtering is turned on, tap Filters instead.
Step 2. Select Show Recently Deleted.
Step 3. Look through the list of conversations and pick the one containing the deleted audio message.
Step 4. Tap Recover and then confirm with Recover Messages.
The conversation will return to your inbox and the audio message will be playable again.
Note that Only messages you delete manually show up in the Recently Deleted folder. Expired audio messages will vanish automatically after two minutes and cannot be recovered this way. Many users mix the two up, but only manually-removed clips are recoverable.
Tip: How to Keep Audio Messages in iMessage Forever
You don’t always have to let voice clips vanish after a couple of minutes. Apple gives you two ways to hold on to them:
- Change the default setting: Open Settings > Messages > Expire under Audio Messages, and set it to Never. Every voice message you receive will now stay in your conversations until you delete it yourself.
- Save individual messages manually: When listening to a voice clip in iMessage, tap Keep. This locks that specific recording in place while others will still follow the normal expiration rules.
Way 2. Use Eassiy iPhone Data Recovery
When to Use This Way: Turn to this method when you want your deleted voice messages back with a high guarantee and a higher success rate.
A data recovery software is helpful because anything played on your device leaves a record pointing to the audio file (somewhere on the iPhone’s data disk). So, while iOS unlinks that record from your access, the file itself still remains there. That’s why Eassiy iPhone Data Recovery can scan iPhone directly and restore what the system hides.
So, this method will be useful regardless of your iOS version. And it works whether audio clips disappeared automatically after the two-minute rule or were deleted more than forty days ago.
Eassiy isn’t limited to recover voice messages. The tool supports 36+ file types, covering deleted photos, contacts, calendars, text conversations, and more. Whether the data loss is caused by expiration, factory reset, manual deletion, a misstep with backups or other reasons, Eassiy gives you a straightforward way to recover it quickly.
How to Recover iMessage Voice Messages with Eassiy
Open Eassiy iPhone Data Recovery. Choose Recover from iOS Device (or iTunes/iCloud) and then click Start Scan.
Eassiy will scan and list all the recoverable files.
Click Messages in the left panel to see your lost audio iMessage. Choose the audio iMessage you want and hit Recover.
The recovered audio message will be saved to your computer. You can listen to them. And if you prefer, you can even move them to your iOS devices.
Bonus: How to Recover Deleted Voicemails on iPhone Without Backup
Voicemails are a different kind of voice message. Instead of being sent in the Message app, they’re left in the Phone app by callers. The good thing is that they don’t vanish after two minutes. Instead, they stay on your device until you delete them yourself.
We’ll walk through two ways to get them back.
Way 1. Through Phone App
Once you play a voicemail on your iPhone, it gets cached for a limited time — usually anywhere from 24 hours up to seven days. After that window, the cached copy expires.
If you delete one yourself, though, it moves into the Deleted Voicemails folder inside the Phone app, where you still have a chance to bring it back — for a longer period than the cached copy would survive.
Here’s How to Recover Voicemails via the Phone App:
Step 1. Open the Phone app and head to the voicemail section.
- On iOS 26 or later, tap the three lines in the top-right corner, switch to Unified view and pick Voicemail from the list.
- On iOS 18 and older, just tap the Voicemail tab at the bottom right.
Step 2. Select Deleted Voicemails. You’ll see a list of recently removed voicemails still sitting there.
Step 3. Tap the caller’s voicemail you want to restore. An undelete option appears, shown as a crossed-out trashcan. Select it and the voicemail returns to your main voicemail inbox.
You can repeat these steps for other voicemails available in that folder.
Way 2. Via Carrier
Voicemails aren’t really stored on your iPhone. They live on your carrier’s servers for a limited window — often 24 hours to seven days, even after you play them. That means the other place to turn for voicemails recovery is your carrier.
The outcome depends entirely on carrier policy. Most providers keep server backups for only 7 to 30 days. Policies also shift over time.
Verizon is a clear example: in 2017, their support guides said you could call technical support within 24 hours and restore a deleted voicemail.
By 2019, that changed. Till now, Verizon’s position remains the same. Once a voicemail is gone from both the iPhone and their servers, it cannot be recovered.
Still, it’s worth trying:
Step 1. Sign in to your carrier’s website or mobile app. Some providers like AT&T’s Voicemail Viewer (compatible with iOS 11 and later) allow you to recover the voicemails easily.
Step 2. If you don’t see recovery options on the app or their website, you can call the carrier’s support team. In some cases, they can re-push the voicemail to your inbox, provided it’s still stored on their servers.
If neither the Phone app nor your carrier can help, the final option is Eassiy iPhone Data Recovery. Just like with iMessage audio, it scans your iPhone’s data disk for voicemail fragments that haven’t yet been overwritten. So, you can connect your device, run a scan and bring the voicemails back with Eassiy easily.
External Tip: How to Listen to Old Voice Messages in iMessage
If you set your iPhone to never expire voice messages or you tapped Keep on certain audio clips, those voice messages will remain in your iMessage conversations. You can scroll back through the chat and play them again whenever you want.
Unfortunately, neither iOS 18.4 nor the iOS 26 beta has introduced a search function for audio messages. So, you’ll need to remember roughly when the message was sent or received. And scroll back to that date in the conversation to find it.
For future reference, it helps to save important clips outside of iMessage:
- You can long-press a message, copy it, and paste it into the Files app or save it to Voice Memos.
Final Words
Recovering deleted voice messages on an iPhone is not as complicated as it first appears. Apple’s built-in method is straightforward, provided you’re on iOS 16 or later, the message was deleted within the past 30 days, and it hasn’t auto-expired.
When those conditions aren’t met, Eassiy iPhone Data Recovery steps in. It scans the iPhone’s data disk and allows you to recover auto-expired iMessage audios, erased voicemails, missing photos, videos, and other older files you thought were gone for good.