How to recover lost Voice Memos with a friend's voice on iPhone?

I desperately need help. I don’t think i’ll be able to get them back but i still need to try. anyways, a week or two ago i opened my voice memos app and this open up came up and i stupidly didn’t read it and just clicked something and next thing i know all of my voice memos are gone. like every single one. i really need to know if there’s any way i can get them back because a good friend of mine passed recently and those voice memos were all i had left of his voice and now they’re gone. i’ve tried everything i found on the internet to get them back and nothing worked. coming here is my last hope, please please tell me there’s a way to retrieve them from wherever they went.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: all voice memos disappeared.

Posted on Sep 20, 2026 9:13 AM

1 reply

WheelieNick

Level 9 (74,110 points)

Sep 20, 2026 10:52 AM in response to i_love_emo_boys

I am so sorry for the loss of your friend and I want to express my sincere condolences. Please try this:

Sometimes memos are accidentally deleted but held in a trash folder for 30 days.

Open the Voice Memos app.
Look for a back arrow (<) in the top-left corner to view your Folders list.
Check if there is a folder named Recently Deleted. If it's there, open it, tap Edit, select your memos, and tap Recover

The prompt you saw was very likely asking if you wanted to enable or disable iCloud syncing for Voice Memos. If it turned off or switched accounts, your memos might just be sitting safely in iCloud instead of your phone.

Open your iPhone Settings.
Tap your Name/Apple ID at the very top.
Tap iCloud, then under "Saved to iCloud," tap See All (or look for Voice Memos in the list).
Make sure the toggle next to Voice Memos is turned ON (green). If it was off, turning it back on should make your memos sync back to your app.