How far back phone records can go depends on which record you mean and which carrier holds it. Call logs and text metadata generally survive one to seven years, with a federal rule requiring at least 18 months of toll billing information.1eCFR The actual content of text messages is a different matter: most carriers either never store it or delete it within days. Cell site location data sits somewhere in between, and messages sent through encrypted apps typically can’t be recovered from the provider at all.
Call Logs and Billing Records
Call detail records — the logs showing who called whom, when, and for how long — are the longest-lived category of phone record. Federal regulation requires carriers offering toll telephone service to keep billing information for at least 18 months, including the caller’s name, address, phone number, the number called, and the date, time, and length of each call.1eCFR
In practice, most major carriers hold call detail records well beyond that floor. Some keep them for five to seven years. Others retain them for roughly one to two years. Carriers don’t always publish exact retention timelines, and policies can change without notice. Billing records that summarize charges and payments for each cycle fall under the same 18-month federal minimum.1eCFR Data usage records tend to be retained for shorter windows, often tied to billing cycles rather than long-term archiving.
Text Messages: Metadata Versus Content
Carriers treat information about a text message very differently from the message itself.
Text message metadata — who texted whom and when — is retained for roughly one to five years depending on the carrier, in a pattern similar to call logs. The words inside your messages have a much shorter life. Most carriers either don’t store message content at all or purge it within days of delivery. Among the major carriers, only Verizon has publicly acknowledged retaining text content, and only for three to five days. AT&T and T-Mobile have indicated they don’t store text content.
If a case turns on what was said in a text message from more than a few days ago, the carrier is almost certainly not the source. Recovery generally has to come from one of the two phones or from a cloud backup.
Cell Site Location Data
Every time your phone connects to a tower, it generates location data. Carriers retain this cell site location information for roughly one to five years, depending on the carrier and whether the location data is embedded in call detail records or tracked separately. Tower information tied to a call record may survive longer than standalone GPS or real-time location logs.
The legal reach into this data changed in 2018. In Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the government generally needs a search warrant supported by probable cause before accessing historical cell site location records. Before that decision, law enforcement could obtain the data through a court order under the Stored Communications Act on a showing of “reasonable grounds” that the records were relevant to an investigation. The Court found that standard “falls well short of the probable cause required for a warrant.” The warrant requirement has exceptions for genuine emergencies. The Court specifically noted that situations like active shootings, bomb threats, and child abductions could justify warrantless access.2Carpenter
Messages Sent Through Apps
If your conversations happen through apps rather than standard carrier calls and texts, the carrier’s retention timelines are beside the point. The app provider controls what’s stored, and most modern messaging services store very little.
Apple’s iMessage uses end-to-end encryption, so Apple has no access to message content or communication logs. Apple does maintain logs showing whether a phone number is capable of receiving iMessages, and it keeps FaceTime call invitation logs for about 25 days. Neither reveals what was actually communicated.3Apple
WhatsApp, owned by Meta, also uses end-to-end encryption and does not store messages after delivery. Undelivered messages are deleted from its servers after 30 days. In response to legal process, WhatsApp can provide basic subscriber details — name, service start date, last-seen date, IP address, email address — but not message content.4WhatsApp
Signal retains almost nothing. The only data Signal can produce in response to a legal demand is when an account was created and when it last connected to the service. No message content, call logs, contact lists, or group information.5Signal That has been confirmed through actual responses to federal search warrants.
Getting Your Own Records
As the account holder, you can pull recent call logs, text metadata, and data usage through your carrier’s website or app. Most carriers make roughly 18 to 24 months of billing and call detail records available through self-service portals, though some provide less. You won’t find message content through your online account. Carriers don’t make that available to customers even during the brief window when they hold it.
If you need records older than what the portal shows, contact customer service directly. Carriers sometimes maintain archived data beyond what’s visible online, though they vary in their willingness to retrieve it. Be prepared to verify your identity. Federal law requires carriers to protect customer data from unauthorized disclosure, and making a fraudulent request for someone else’s phone records is a federal crime.
What Law Enforcement Can Pull
The Stored Communications Act creates a tiered system for government access, and the type of legal process depends on what’s being sought.618 USC 2703
For the content of stored communications held by a carrier or service provider, law enforcement needs a search warrant if the content has been in storage for 180 days or less. For content stored longer than 180 days, the government can use a warrant, a court order under Section 2703(d), or a subpoena with prior notice to the subscriber.618 USC 2703
Non-content records face a lower bar. Call logs, subscriber information, and billing data can be obtained through a warrant, a court order based on “specific and articulable facts” showing the records are relevant to an ongoing investigation, or, for basic subscriber details like name, address, and payment method, an administrative subpoena. Cell site location records, as noted above, generally require a warrant after Carpenter.618 USC 2703
Phone Records in Civil Cases
Getting phone records for a divorce, personal injury case, or employment dispute is harder than most people expect. The Stored Communications Act restricts what carriers can release to private parties, not just what they hand to the government. A standard civil subpoena sent directly to a carrier will often draw an objection, because the Act’s compulsory disclosure mechanisms are built for government entities.
The practical path: if you need your own records for a lawsuit, request them directly from your carrier as the account holder. If you need the other party’s records, serve discovery requests on that person and ask them to produce their own records. Going straight to the carrier typically requires either the subscriber’s written consent or a court order specifically authorizing release.
Courts tend to take a privacy-protective approach in civil cases, limiting discovery to what’s directly relevant and proportional to the dispute. A judge is unlikely to order blanket production of years of call records when only a narrow time window matters.
Preserving Records Before They’re Deleted
Because carriers delete on a rolling schedule, the retention windows above only matter if someone asks the carrier to hold the records before they age out.
Law enforcement has a specific statutory tool. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f), a government agency can send a preservation request requiring a carrier to hold specified records for 90 days, extendable for another 90 days with a renewed request.618 USC 2703 Preservation freezes the data in place while investigators obtain the appropriate warrant or court order; it doesn’t hand the records over.
Private parties don’t have that statutory mechanism, but a written preservation letter to a carrier can still be effective. It lacks the binding force of a Section 2703(f) request, though carriers often comply to avoid liability for destroying evidence relevant to known or anticipated litigation. If you’re involved in a civil case where phone records matter, having your attorney send a preservation letter early is one of the most important moves you can make. Records deleted on schedule before anyone asks the carrier to hold them are gone for good.