How to recover Hangouts messages

If you have got used to chatting via Google Hangouts, perhaps, you have experienced the situation when you accidentally delete the text message which contained some important link, note or a name which you need to use later. You can apply default Hangouts features which offer a chance to restore the deleted message. If they are not applicable, luckily, there are some third-party products which extend the existing Hangouts features and are eligible to recover the chat history without excessive efforts. In this detailed manual, we will provide an instruction how to recover Hangouts messages that involve both built-in solutions and third-party app applications with screenshots and clarifications.

How to recover Hangouts messages via embedded means?

If the chat you need is not displayed within the Hangouts section in your Gmail account, perhaps it is just hidden. First, let’s check whether the conversation is still stored in your actual Hangouts account. In order to find Hangouts chats:

• Log in to your Gmail account by going to the Gmail service and selecting the username in the top-right corner of the visible browser screen area.

  

Note: if the account name is not available in the suggestions list, click “Add account” below and proceed with the authentication procedure, as you haven’t logged in to the requested account yet.

• Put the cursor into the search field at the top and type in “in:chats” command. After you hit the “Search” button on the left, the whole list of Hangouts chats will be displayed on the screen.

  

If you want to browse through the stored Hangouts chats list:

• Move the cursor to the Gmail folders list on the left and click the “More” option below to reveal the hidden categories.

  

• Refer to the Chats in the folders list by clicking the category title or by scrolling the list down. As a result, Hangouts conversations list appears on the screen.

  

• Find the needed chat from the center screen area. Hangouts conversations are marked with the app logo displayed next to the textual content of the messaging chain.

Another solution helps to view and recover from the archived Hangouts chats:

• After accessing the Gmail Inbox or hangouts.google.com web-service:
• click the arrow down next to the active username within Gmail

  

• click the menu icon and choose “Settings” from the pop-up list within the Hangouts web-service

  

• Click “Archived Hangouts” in the list of the options displayed on the screen

  

• Select the Hangouts conversation you want to restore

  

• Click the gear icon at the top-right corner of the Hangouts chatting section

  

• Pick “Unarchive conversation” option to bring back the chosen Hangouts messaging chain.

  

How to recover Hangouts chat vby a third-party software suite?

Ultimately the best recovery app for any of the actual operating desktop or mobile systems is “Wondershare dr.fone — Recover (Android Data Recovery)” suite. The product is shared on the proprietary base. However, you can test the program opportunities and its essential features for free. This involves backing up Hangouts chatting data on Windows and macOS operating systems and making the general preparations to restore. There are also separate setup packages for Android and iOS environments in Google Play and App Store markets respectively, but you cannot use them for free at all. Even the essential features of the product become available only after the in-app purchase. The same concerns the recovering ability on the desktop platforms. After the backup is generated, you are allowed to view the contents of the backup file. However, in order to restore it, you need a paid registration.

A few words about using third-party software for restoring Hangouts messages

As a thorough investigation reveals, the developers cannot guarantee that your chats history will be entirely restored. As the Hangouts service is constantly evolving and advancing, it may occur some day that you are simply not able to recover your chats within the Hangouts messaging service by a third-party suite. However, the developers are aware of the situation and update their software. Hereby, you only need to wait for a third-party utility upgrade and update your installed app from the official project server in the appropriate way. Nevertheless, the built-in Hangouts functionality always serves solid stability and reliability.

How to restore Hangouts messages with the “Wondershare dr.fone — Recover” utility on Windows or macOS?

The first step which you are suggested to do is to go to the official web-site of the utility and download the setup package for the corresponding operating system: Windows or macOS. The build you choose compliant with the selected platform sustains operations within the restoring data on the predefined environment. In this article, we will describe the processing of the Hangouts data on Windows OS only. However, you can find the setup package for macOS system as well, and proceed with the same routine on Mac or MacBook.

• When the tool is installed, run the executable file from the Start menu.

  

• Now, when the main form of the suite appears on the screen, pick the “Recover” option to initiate the restoration process.

  

• Connect your mobile phone or tablet to the computer through USB-interface. Take the cable and plug it into the available USB-slot before proceeding.

  

• For recent Android versions, the USB-debugging option should be turned on in the phone settings. If you see the following warning on the phone screen, set the checkbox on “Always allow from this computer” item, click OK on the confirmation box and move on to the next step.

  

Note: in order to activate the USB-debugging feature on your mobile device, go to “Settings” – “System” – “About phone” – “Software information” and tap “Build number” from the menu 7 times. After the 7th tap, you will see a warning that developer options are now available.

Tap the Back arrow several times until you access the “System” menu and go to the “Developer options” submenu. Find the “USB debugging” option in there and move the slider to the “On” position.

• At last, you are suggested to specify several options for the recovery routine. “Wondershare dr. fone — Recover” offers a chance to restore multiple objects, including deleted media files, contacts from the address book, call history, gallery and documents. Hangouts messages are also enlisted. So pick the objects you need to restore, set the checkboxes on and click “Next”.

  

• On the next window, select the restoration method to apply. You can either scan for deleted files only, saving the time in such a way by filtering, or scan all of the files, which requires much longer time period but has better chances of finding valid file objects. Pick the suitable option and click “Next”.

  

• Before the main procedure is started, Wondershare dr. fone informs about granting the root-privileges to your mobile gadget during the recovery process. That won’t affect your warranty conditions or make any influence on the physical status of your gadget. So read the predefined instruction and click “Start” to begin the main phase of the recovery routine.

  

• While the procedure is in process, don’t plug your mobile device out of the computer and wait until the whole procedure is completed. During the recovery, your mobile phone can be restarted several times, so don’t be surprised of any device activity. In total, the procedure may take from 30 to 60 minutes, so you can make yourself a cup of tea, and leave your phone to the processing by the utility —until everything is done, you’d better not run any apps on it.

  

Note: when the work is done, you can see the following message, which indicates that your mobile gadget isn’t rooted.

Rooting the phone or tablet is a process that requires some skills and abilities from the person who is executing the overall procedure. After the phone is provided root-rights, you can manage the predefined app installations on your mobile device, reassign hardware keys, record videos from the screen of the gadget, handle overclocking, etc. In this case, until your phone is given root-privileges, the restoration of deleted Hangouts chats via “Wondershare dr.fone — Recover” won’t be possible.

• If the recovery operation is successful, the list of suggested elements to restore is displayed on the screen. If the lost Hangouts chats were found during the phone memory scan, they are also available in the list. Check the appropriate elements from the list and click “Recover” in the bottom-right corner of the visible form.

  

How to back up Hangouts messages by a third-party program?

“Wondershare dr.fone — Recover” offers a chance not only to restore data after scanning the device in general, but also to back up all user data to maintain the consistency of your whole phone disk structure and to be able to restore from the back up copy any moment afterwards. This method provides a 100% opportunity that any of your contacts, media files, documents, photos and messages (including Hangouts chats) will be successfully restored. The principle works in the following way: firstly you create the backup file, which stores all of your disk database in a single file entity, and after that, when the file is generated, execute the restoration routine from the backup copy stored on your PC hard disk drive.

Here’s how to implement the overall solution:

• Run the “Wondershare dr.fone — Recover” suite, move the cursor over to “Backup & Restore” from the start menu of the suite and click “Download” under the title.

  

• After the component is downloaded, run the plugin from the dr.fone primary menu. When the starting menu with options appears, click “Backup” to initiate the generation of the backup file instance on your PC.

  

• Connect your mobile device to the computer. When you see the following message on the screen, attach the USB-cable to the available slot on your computer and connect your phone or tablet to it.

  

Note: to proceed, activate the USB-debugging feature in the settings of your phone. Refer to the detailed manual on this issue, which is precisely described in the previous section of this guide.

• The next step requires specifying the type of data you want to back up. You can choose contacts from the address book, call history, videos, audios, photos, documents, installed apps and, what we need the most, messages. Regarding the latter, the suite is capable to back up not only the textual content of incoming and outgoing messages, but also all of the attachments, clips and embedded data. Mark the items with checkboxes to back up, specify the destination path of the backup file to be saved on the hard disk and click “Backup” to execute the procedure.

  

• The essential process is on the way. Wait until it is completed and don’t plug your phone off the computer.

  

• When it’s all over, you will see a notification which informs you about the successful completion of the backing up routine. Now, the file is stored into the predefined destination on the hard disk, and you can restore it any time later in case your phone data is lost, erased or corrupted.

  

From now on, you are granted a solution to restore from the saved backup copy. In order to do that:

• Click “Backup & restore” from the list of available options to execute once again.

  

• This time, select the “Restore” option among the suggestions.

  

• Pick the suitable backup among the file instances stored on your hard disk drive and click “Next”. If the required file is not available from the list, click “Select” and specify the path of the backup instance to be restored.

  

• Wait for a few seconds until the file is initialised. When the whole content is prepared, set the relevant checkboxes next to the items you want to restore onto your mobile gadget, and press “Restore to device” to start the overall procedure.

  

• Hereby, that is everything you can do with trial version of the suite. If you wish to restore the files from the backup Hangouts instance, the suite requires a paid registration. Otherwise, you may use the embedded messenger service, such as searching for hidden and inactive conversations or unarchiving the Hangouts message chains to restore the lost chat data.

As a rule, none of chat data within Hangouts is deleted completely. You may hide or archive the proper conversation, but most of the Hangouts messaging chains can be easily restored by the integrated features. Take it into consideration before you decide to use a third-party software product for these purposes.