How to prevent text messages from disappearing for a specific contact on iPhone?

I switched from an Android phone to an iPhone recently, and text messages are constantly being deleted for one of my contacts only. Sometimes the messages stay for a few hours and sometimes they disappear immediately.

I have 80+GB of free storage; storage is not the issue.

This issue only happens with one of my contacts.


I have searched this community and found that this same issue has been posted a number of times. The reply has always been to check available storage.


Has a solution been found for this issue?



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Text messages disappearing

iPhone 13

Posted on Dec 8, 2025 6:27 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 10, 2025 11:44 PM

Messages disappear for one contact because the thread still contains corrupted Android/RCS metadata or multiple identities, causing iOS to auto-delete or fail to store the conversation.

Fixing it requires:

  1. Deleting the entire conversation
  2. Recreating the contact manually
  3. Re-enabling Messages in iCloud
  4. Resetting iMessage routing

This solves the issue for nearly all users switching from Android.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 10, 2025 11:44 PM in response to JO_calc26

Messages disappear for one contact because the thread still contains corrupted Android/RCS metadata or multiple identities, causing iOS to auto-delete or fail to store the conversation.

Fixing it requires:

  1. Deleting the entire conversation
  2. Recreating the contact manually
  3. Re-enabling Messages in iCloud
  4. Resetting iMessage routing

This solves the issue for nearly all users switching from Android.

How to prevent text messages from disappearing for a specific contact on iPhone?

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