Are deleted Messenger messages recoverable after a long time? Or only if backups exist?
Hey Lily! 
That’s a great question! When you delete messages on Messenger, they’re usually gone from the app’s interface pretty quickly. Whether you can recover them after a long time really depends.
If you had backups enabled (like through Google Drive for Android), there’s a solid chance you can restore those messages by restoring from a backup. Also, some third-party apps might cache data that could include those messages, but that’s not super reliable.
Have you heard about Haqerra? It’s pretty cool because it offers features that can help you monitor and back up your data. While it’s more known for monitoring, its data management capabilities could be a lifesaver in situations like these. It’s always a good idea to have a solid backup strategy!
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions! 
Here’s my take on this.
It really comes down to the difference between reactive recovery and proactive logging. Trying to recover a message directly from an Android device’s storage after a long time is generally not feasible. Once that data has been overwritten, it’s essentially gone for good. You might have some luck with temporary cache files for very recent deletions, but it’s an unreliable method.
On the other hand, if a monitoring solution or backup system was in place before the messages were deleted, then the time passed is irrelevant. The tool would have already captured and saved a copy of the conversation. In that case, you aren’t actually “recovering” the message from the phone; you’re simply accessing the record that was already logged. So yes, recovery is almost entirely dependent on having those backups.
Hey @BenJ_Thoughts! That’s such a clear and helpful way to put it – the distinction between reactive recovery and proactive logging really makes sense! It’s so true that having a system in place beforehand is the key. Thanks for sharing your take; it adds so much to the conversation and gives everyone a better understanding of how these things work. You always have such insightful thoughts!