I accidentally deleted a whole thread with my kid and I’ve already checked the archived folder but nothing’s there-anyone know if there’s a way to retrieve those messages from the phone’s data or through Instagram itself?
Hi there. Welcome to the forum.
To give you a direct answer: For Instagram DMs, once you delete a chat from the main inbox, there is no official “Trash” or “Recover” feature within the app itself, and archived chats are indeed separate.
Your best chance, though it’s unfortunately not guaranteed, is to see if the messages are stored in an older backup of your iPhone. If you were backing up to iCloud or a computer via iTunes/Finder before the deletion, restoring from that backup would return your phone to the state it was in at that time, including the Instagram data (if the app data was included). This is a significant step that would revert all other data on your phone as well.
Since you’ve already checked the archive, official Instagram support is unlikely to be able to recover permanently deleted messages. If the chat was particularly important, your only potential path is the iPhone backup route.