To get your messages back after losing your phone, first sign in to your Apple Account on a new iPhone, iPad, or Mac and turn on Messages in iCloud if it was already enabled before the phone was lost. Apple says messages stored in iCloud become accessible on devices signed into the same Apple Account, and Lost Mode can also show a contact message on the lock screen of the missing device if it comes online later.

What to do now

  1. Set up a replacement Apple device or use a Mac signed into your Apple Account.
  2. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Messages and turn on syncing. Apple notes that messages already stored in iCloud will then appear on the device.
  1. On a Mac, open Messages > Settings > iMessage and enable Messages in iCloud.
  1. If your lost phone is still online, use Find My at iCloud.com to mark it as lost and add a contact message.

Important limit

If Messages in iCloud was not turned on before the phone was lost, your messages may only exist on the old device, and iCloud.com alone will not give you a full message inbox. In that case, restoring from an older iCloud backup may bring messages back to a replacement iPhone, but that depends on whether the backup was made before the phone was lost and before the messages disappeared.

Fast check

  • If Messages in iCloud was on: sign in on another Apple device and the chats should sync back.
  • If only iCloud Backup was on: restore the replacement phone from an old backup that contains the messages.
  • If neither was on: the messages were likely stored only on the lost phone.

TL;DR: Apple messages can usually be recovered on a new device only if they were already syncing to iCloud or included in an older iCloud backup.