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Track down old phone calls in your iPhone call history
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If you have an iPhone, you may have noticed that you cannot view your entire call history in your Phone app. This can be problematic if you need to find a specific call record or have lost a phone number you used to dial regularly. In this article, we will teach you how to use your iPhone's Phone app to show more of your call history and how to get your call history from your carrier or via an iCloud backup.
Things You Should Know
- Your phone stores the last 180 days of calls but only displays 100 at a time.
- You can delete calls in your Phone app's "Recents" tab to display older calls.
- If you can't find your call on your phone, you can log in to your mobile carrier's website to find a more in-depth call log.
Steps
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Open the Phone app. The Phone app is a green icon with a white phone on it. By default, it's on your home screen, but if you moved it, you may need to look for it in your app library.
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Tap the Recents tab on the bottom of the screen. It's the second option from the left, with a clock icon. Your 100 most recent calls will be displayed in this menu.
- If you need to see a call that is not within your last 100 calls, you can view more by deleting some entries from the Recents tab. An iPhone can store up to 1000 calls in its call history, and it keeps calls from the last 180 days in its history.
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Log in to your carrier's website. If you need to find a call from over 180 days ago or don't want to look at the calls on your phone screen, you can request your call history from your mobile carrier.
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Access your phone usage. This varies depending on which carrier you have:
- Verizon : Go to the My Usage page [1] X Research source
- AT&T : Go to the Phone Features page [2] X Research source
- T-Mobile : Go to the Usage page [3] X Research source
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Download your phone usage. Again, how to do this varies depending on your carrier:
- Verizon : Choose View previous usage on the right. On the activity page, choose a billing period, then select a phone line under the data, talk, or text headings. Select View on the right, then Download to spreadsheet . The spreadsheet will contain call activity for the last 90 days.
- AT&T : Choose Call History . You can then download these logs to a spreadsheet to view later. The logs will contain the last 100 calls or 60 days of calls, whichever comes first.
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T-Mobile : On the usage page, select Calls . You can then download the usage report to view on your desktop. These logs will contain up to one year of phone records.
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Contact your carrier for a more detailed call history. If you need to see your call history from a date earlier than what you can get from your phone provider's website, you will need to contact them for more assistance. You may be required to verify your identity or explain why you need the records.
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Factory reset your phone. You can view older call history by restoring from an iCloud backup. While this can get you access to older call history, you must delete your existing data with a factory reset . [4] X Research source [5] X Research source
- Make a new backup of your phone so you don't lose any new data.
- Go to Settings , General , and then Transfer or Reset iPhone . Select Erase All Content and Settings .
- Enter your Apple ID and passcode if asked, and confirm you want to reset your phone.
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Follow the on-screen instructions until you reach the Apps & Data screen. Your iPhone will walk you through the steps to set up your phone as if it were a new device.
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Select Restore from iCloud Backup . You will be prompted to sign in with your Apple ID.
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Choose a backup. Select a backup that is around the time when you're looking for a specific call so you can find the call in your Phone app.
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Allow the phone to finish restoring. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the phone setup.
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Go to the Recents tab in the Phone app. Scroll through until you find the call you are looking for.
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