Article: "Messages" are specific lines of text (or photos, videos, links, etc.) inside of a conversation between you and at least one other person, while "conversations" are entire records of messages between you and your recipient(s). If you think you've deleted specific messages from a conversation, finding them may prove time-consuming. Looking for conversations which you think you deleted is much easier. Go to https://www.facebook.com/messages in your computer's web browser. This will open your most recent Facebook message in Messenger if you're logged into Facebook. If you aren't logged into Facebook, you'll be prompted to enter your Facebook email address and password before proceeding. Before you embark on a mission to find (or mourn) your lost messages, scroll through your Facebook Messenger inbox and look for the conversation which you think you deleted. There's always a chance that your conversation just got buried under several newer ones. If you did delete your side of the conversation (or specific messages), you can always ask the person (or people) on the other side of the message for screenshots or copies of the conversation. As long as they haven't deleted the conversation/messages, you should be able to obtain it from them. You can have your message recipient download a copy of the messages and send the file to you. There's always a chance that you archived the conversation you're looking for rather than deleted it. To check for archived conversations, do the following: Click the gear-shaped icon in the top-left corner of Messenger. Click Archived Threads in the drop-down menu. Review any archived conversations. You cannot archive individual messages. If you have all email notifications enabled for your account, you should receive copies of messages in your inbox. You can check on this by doing the following: Click the "Menu" {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/8\/82\/Android7dropdown.png","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/8\/82\/Android7dropdown.png\/30px-Android7dropdown.png","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":460,"bigWidth":"30","bigHeight":"30","licensing":"<div class="mw-parser-output"><p>I edited this screenshot of an Android icon.
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<\/p><\/div>"} icon in the top-right side of the Facebook page. Click Settings in the drop-down menu. Click the Notifications tab. Click Email to expand it. Look to see if the "All notifications, except the ones you unsubscribe from" box in the "WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE" section is checked. If it isn't, your messages weren't backed up to your email address. If your conversations were backed up to your email address but you can't find them, try clicking the Trash folder and browsing for them there. Most email providers delete emails after a certain amount of time (e.g., 30 days), so your messages still may be gone.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Understand the difference between messages and conversations. Open Facebook Messenger. Make sure you actually deleted the conversation. Ask message recipients for a copy of the messages. Check your archived conversations. Determine whether your conversations were sent to your email. Check your email's "Trash" folder.