Greetings, Desperate for help to retrieve 'lost' messages (going back some years) from a few close contacts (husband as well) which have disappeared from my phone. All have suddenly disappeared from early this year, some March, some May and one since early June. This is NOT of my doing and I have spent 2 weeks and countless hours with Samsung tech help seeking assistance. All this 'seemed' to happen about the time of the last update to my phone. The 'roundabout' you get from Samsung is frustrating to say the least. None of my phone settings are activated to mass delete messages in this way. Any help please???
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Deleted Messages Not of My Doing
- Thread starter JulieH
- Start date
Milo Williamson
Extreme Android User
Head to messenger plus, or a back up cloud account throughout messenger and it will retrieve all your messages.
Thanks your reply Milo. I don't have Messenger plus to try this. Since the missing messages go back, in the case of those missing from my husband, sister and best friend, some years. Samsung, one would think, could have fixed this. Hesitant about putting messenger plus app on my phone, and not sure what a back up cloud account throughout messages is......not the most technical minded person away from run of the mill stuff.
you should also look into SMS Backup and Restore
also you can use samsun's utility on your pc called Smartswitch to backup your phone:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/app/smart-switch
i use this about once a month to back things up.
as for retrieving your deleted texts, not sure on how to do that.....they might be gone for good.
also you can use samsun's utility on your pc called Smartswitch to backup your phone:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/app/smart-switch
i use this about once a month to back things up.
as for retrieving your deleted texts, not sure on how to do that.....they might be gone for good.
You say that some old messages have gone missing, but have any newer ones disappeared as well? Understanding the pattern may be useful in understanding the cause. Many message apps have settings to clear out old messages, but you say those are not turned on in your case. I assume that you have also not done anything like experiment with different message apps (since all SMS apps share the same database anything one app did to messages would affect any other)?
Although I tend to be unimpressed by large corporations' technical support, I have some sympathy with Samsung here, or at least with their staff. It will feel like you are given the run-around as you'll mainly end up speaking to lower-level techs who work off a script (and may not be allowed to deviate from it), and of course scripts only work for the sort of common problem that they are written for. A phone deleting messages without the settings to do so being active is not a common problem, so the person you are speaking to probably has no clue what's going on, and all they have to work with is what you are able to tell them (i.e. that some messages have gone missing). The fact that it is older messages that have gone missing (or that some of the missing messages are older ones?) doesn't help them find a solution unless the "delete older messages" setting has been set.
What can I suggest? First thing: if your Messages app is the same as the Samsung app on my s21 then it has a "recycle bin" setting which keeps messages for 30 days after deletion (if enabled). Have you looked there? If it is the Samsung Messages app that has deleted them that may be your best chance of recovering the recently-deleted ones. Since that's app-specific it might also point to that app as the cause if any of them are in there.
Second thing: if it's possible that the Messages app is the culprit switch to a different app and see whether it helps. If you use the "chat" feature then Google's app (also called Messages) supports that. If you don't then you have more options (I've used Textra for years with no problems). Changing your default app will mean that the current one no longer has write access to the message database. It also means that if the problem persists then your current message app is probably innocent.
Third thing: start making backups. I have SMS Backup & Restore set to run once a week and copy the backup file to Google Drive. Once a message is deleted it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to recover it without a backup. I know that last is not what you want to hear, but I'm afraid it's true.
Fourth thing: try a different message app just in case the problem is that your current one isn't showing the messages rather than their having been deleted. That's a long shot, but would cost nothing and only take a minute to check.
Unfortunately I've very few ideas what might be going on here. If it coincides with updates then that suggests a Samsung software problem. If it's selective, i.e. only deleting a few messages, and particularly if only older ones, then that might make one suspect the message app. But it's impossible to be sure.
Although I tend to be unimpressed by large corporations' technical support, I have some sympathy with Samsung here, or at least with their staff. It will feel like you are given the run-around as you'll mainly end up speaking to lower-level techs who work off a script (and may not be allowed to deviate from it), and of course scripts only work for the sort of common problem that they are written for. A phone deleting messages without the settings to do so being active is not a common problem, so the person you are speaking to probably has no clue what's going on, and all they have to work with is what you are able to tell them (i.e. that some messages have gone missing). The fact that it is older messages that have gone missing (or that some of the missing messages are older ones?) doesn't help them find a solution unless the "delete older messages" setting has been set.
What can I suggest? First thing: if your Messages app is the same as the Samsung app on my s21 then it has a "recycle bin" setting which keeps messages for 30 days after deletion (if enabled). Have you looked there? If it is the Samsung Messages app that has deleted them that may be your best chance of recovering the recently-deleted ones. Since that's app-specific it might also point to that app as the cause if any of them are in there.
Second thing: if it's possible that the Messages app is the culprit switch to a different app and see whether it helps. If you use the "chat" feature then Google's app (also called Messages) supports that. If you don't then you have more options (I've used Textra for years with no problems). Changing your default app will mean that the current one no longer has write access to the message database. It also means that if the problem persists then your current message app is probably innocent.
Third thing: start making backups. I have SMS Backup & Restore set to run once a week and copy the backup file to Google Drive. Once a message is deleted it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to recover it without a backup. I know that last is not what you want to hear, but I'm afraid it's true.
Fourth thing: try a different message app just in case the problem is that your current one isn't showing the messages rather than their having been deleted. That's a long shot, but would cost nothing and only take a minute to check.
Unfortunately I've very few ideas what might be going on here. If it coincides with updates then that suggests a Samsung software problem. If it's selective, i.e. only deleting a few messages, and particularly if only older ones, then that might make one suspect the message app. But it's impossible to be sure.
Hadron, thanks your reply. As an example of my problem, ALL of my husband's messages BEFORE 21 May 2022, have disappeared. This would be a few years worth. It is the same for messages from other contacts, 2 or 3 I have found so far. There is no way I have deleted bulk messages from some years worth, in one go, let alone individually. The other deleted contact's messages are all gone from before a similar date, ie 21 May, although one is gone from early March this year. I've had this phone for a few years now and brought all info from my old samsung when this new phone came. No problem happened then. I am now waiting for 'options' from Head Office after going through live chat several times, VOC help a couple of times and then last Friday a 'Case manager' who said they would pass the issue to Head Office. I feel I will not hear a thing and have to chase this up again. Not super technical minded, but I do know I've not clicked any setting such as delete all messages over 1000, and if this IS the problem, why can't Samsung work this out? It 'seemed' to occur about the time of the last update to the phone, which I always do when its notified. I'm really quite distressed about this now, and feel as though I will never get those messages back. Apart from using husband's phone, and other contact's phone, to forward back to me those lost messasges - they come in as of todays date, not chronologically. I should also say that I have seen somewhere in the phone - and now can't find it again!! - that there is 2 thousand something messages still listed by date, just not the texts. I will have another go at Samsung today and see if there is any good news.
I sympathize with you and your issue.
Keep in mind that these messages may be lost forever, regardless who was at fault.
Please use a sms backup app as suggested moving forward, personally, I would never keep years of messages stored on my device, too many problems arise by doing that.
Keep in mind that these messages may be lost forever, regardless who was at fault.
Please use a sms backup app as suggested moving forward, personally, I would never keep years of messages stored on my device, too many problems arise by doing that.
Thanks all for the thoughtful responses .....another wasted 1.5 hrs on phone to Samsung yesterday. Ready to scream now about this problem. Will try with smart switch to move message from husband's phone to mine, to get some back? Also another message app but haven't tried to use Messenger+ and need to perhaps try this? Also under Samsung cloud backup, there shows I now have 2500 messages. This is listed among 'choose the data to restore' which has not worked before, but then why are 2500 listed? As I use my phone mainly for photos and messaging, it is a little daunting to look at different ways to message and back up etc but this is something I need to do, yes?
Hello all again, many thanks to all helping me with this problem. I looked at trying to move all my messages from husband's phone through smart switch, but worried I might do something to his phone, and the process was not clear, nor easy to my mind. So I still haven't worked out why I can see 2500 messages listed in Cloud backup, but can't access them. What is everyone's opinion re making this issue public - ie via facebook or something? I cannot understand why they say they will get help back to you but nothing happens and you end up on the live chat, or phone yet again with no result. Still need to look perhaps also at Messenger+ for saving messages better for the future.