It’s true. Even after you’ve hit “Yes” for confirmation after being prompted, “Are you sure you want to delete this text message?”, that message still stays somewhere inside of that tiny little device for some time to come. This is good news for those that delete their text messages willy-nilly and want to get back some valuable information that they have accidentally gotten rid of. There are actually many options for retrieving deleted text messages from your iPhone, but many of them require jailbreaking your iPhone, something that not all users want to do; or they require savvy technical knowledge, not something that everybody has. This method seems to be the easiest and the most straightforward.
Find the program TextPad, which is a free download and install it on your computer. When finished installing, open the program and select “Search>Find in Files…” A new dialogue box will appear. In the “Find What” field, type (without quotes), “newest_message” In the “In files” field just below it, type “**”. In the “In folder” field, type the path, “c:Documents and Settings[username]Application DataApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup.” Then, make sure that you have “Search subfolders” checked, or else this will not work. Then click “Find.”
You will then be given a list of search results in a pop up pane. There will be a lot of gibberish and programming talk but somewhere amongst all of that, will be your text messages. Open them up and enjoy getting all that info back that you thought was lost forever!