Message Disappeared?

[Caitlin]

I sent a chat message to a friend about a month ago. Up until a week ago, the message remained in the chat window when I'd click on my friend's name in the chat sidebar. It has now disappeared. Do messages only last a certain amount of time, even if the person has not read it yet? Or do they disappear after the person has received and read it? It says this person has not signed on in a few months time, so that's why I'm not sure if he's read the message or not. He could also be online but choosing to remain invisible. This might be a really basic issue to be posting about, but I don't use Steam very much anymore so I might not be up to date with how things work nowadays. Basically, just trying to reach a family member who has gone "missing" in some ways, and reaching him on here is unfortunately one of my last resorts. Hoping someone can answer my questions. Thanks!

[Carolynne]

If you mean the historic chat messages that tend to display few last chat messages that were sent, they remain for two weeks and then fade away from the chat window but only to the sender, the receiver will still have the message pending until they've read it.

[Mr. G]

Messages tend to disappear as said above. For the person you sent it to, they'll have a notification till they actually click and read it.

[999999999]

See how far yours goes back...

https://help.steampowered.com/en/accountdata/GetFriendMessagesLog

[Caitlin]

Thanks everyone! It means a lot! :)

[Tempest]

I have a similar question. How long do chat messages remain visible for the recipient after the recipient views them? I noticed all of my chat messages that I read disappeared today after being visible for a few months or something like that.

[Carolynne]

Originally posted by Tempest:

I have a similar question. How long do chat messages remain visible for the recipient after the recipient views them? I noticed all of my chat messages that I read disappeared today after being visible for a few months or something like that.

They usually last for two weeks before they're automatically discarded from the chat window.

[Tempest]

Thanks. Is there any way to recover them once they are discarded? Is there a recycle bin or some other way to retrieve them?

[999999999]

Originally posted by Tempest:

Thanks. Is there any way to recover them once they are discarded? Is there a recycle bin or some other way to retrieve them?

No.

[Carolynne]

Originally posted by Tempest:

Thanks. Is there any way to recover them once they are discarded? Is there a recycle bin or some other way to retrieve them?

They're not actually discarded, they're just hidden and stored with Valve's own databank, it's kept for legal reasons however for some dreadful reason we're not permitted to have any of them.
Officially they're meant to act as discarded. Inofficially they're not.

You are still able to view any messages you have exchanged in chat through this Steam page:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/accountdata/GetFriendMessagesLog

However it's literally any chat message you have exchanged throughout any chat window you've had, all crammed in one, ordered by time and date. So that one is hardly convenient but could be a tad helpful in rare occasion. It also has a limit but I'm not entirely sure what the limit was, I haven't monitored or inspected that page carefully.
Still worth to know about it at least!

[Tempest]

Thanks. That only showed a grand total of one message.

[999999999]

Originally posted by Tempest:

Thanks. That only showed a grand total of one message.

2 weeks. That's as far back as it goes.

[SGAMEZ]

This 2 weeks limit can not be extended?

[Cathulhu]

No.