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Deleting Text Messages

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PenguinLorrie

Lurker
I've seen several threads on here regarding deleting text messages and several suggestions to try apps like ChompSMS, Handcent and Delete Old Messages. I have a question I haven't seen directly answered yet, and that is what happens with Locked messages? Do all of these apps delete those too? I've got a HUGE thread I'd like to pare back but I'd like to keep the select few locked messages.
Right now my phone is painfully slow, especially messaging. I have learned my lesson: keep them pared back from the start! However I'd like to get to a start point without using Verizon's answer of "reset to factory default." The phone will delete an entire thread if I have to do it, but it takes hours and locks up the phone while it does it.

(I have an HTC Incredible running Droid v 2.2 if that has any relevance.)

Any suggestions or anyone know if any of the apps out there for deleting loads of text messages at once work without deleting locked messages?
 
If you want to delete and pare down your text messages, you should look into an app like "SMS Backup & Restore (Ritesh Sahu)" (I use this app and it works very well) and/or "SMS Backup + (Jan Berkel)" to handle the deletion and ability to restore your SMS messages. There's also an app by Ritesh called "Call Logs Backup & Restore)" and "CallTrack (asterdroid mobile", which I use, to backup my call logs to a google calendar that I created specifically for tracking call logs (you can create and have multiple calendars for a particular gmail account which is advisable to do so that the "Call Logs" calendar does not clutter the primary calendar or the US Holidays calendar. You can then decide whether to display all of the calendars (on your pc browser) or some of them (on your phone calendar or adgenda widget views).
 
ninja_reject, I thought they would be but I saw a few "warning! deletes locked messages!" comments in the market about all the apps I looked at.

rbasusparky, I have already installed SMS Backup but when I tried to use it to backup messages it did nothing at all, despite several attempts. Go figure...

I presume my worst problem is that the one really big thread I have is at about 10000 messages. (That's really bad, I know.)
 
According to the changelog for SMS Backup & Restore, it handles locked message handling as of version 3.5, and you can also set (in preferences) to select the conversation to be backed up. Do you have SMS Backup or SMS Backup & Restore (also, SMS Backup +)? They are all different apps and I use SMS Backup & Restore (check out the developer's site for more information). SMS Backup & Restore backs up to your SD card (restores from there as well) and allows ability for an xml file to be viewed on your pc. SMS Backup (I believe this was one of the first) and SMS Backup + are similar in that they backup to your gmail account (Gmail Calendar label) but SMS Backup + allows the possibility to restore sms messages back to the phone.
 
rbasusparky, thanks for the suggestion on SMS Backup & Restore, I installed it and it worked like a charm for backing everything up. (I hadn't expected to be able to do that, a Big Bonus! :) ) I had SMS Backup before and it didn't work at all.
One last question, does the "delete all messages" delete absolutely everything or leave the locked messages? Since I have the backup file I can now stand to lose them on the phone, but I'd prefer not to.) I looked through their website and can't find anything to say for sure if it does or does not effect those.
 
I just found a note that says "Locked Message Handling" in v 3.5 so I'm taking a chance and pressing the "Delete messages" button... Here goes nothing!
 
I think you'll like SMS Backup & Restore. Did it handle the deletion of the sms messages (except for locked messages) correctly though? I've used it to delete messages but I did not have any locked messages. I know you could specify which conversation to backup ... I wonder if you could specify as well which conversations to delete. Either way, we'll know soon enough .... keep us posted. I'm sure your phone will run faster as well with the deletion of all those text messages! :)
 
It's still deleting, with as many messages as I had in there I know it will take a while. I'm just glad it seems to be working! I have no doubt it will run a LOT faster, it's been getting slower... and slower... and slower. I finally decided it just can't run much slower and be usable!
 
Well it finished but now the message screen won't do anything but appear blank. And I know I have messages that just came in. What now? I am getting close to going for a full reset and really would prefer to avoid it.
 
The new messages are not appearing? If the messages arrived after the backup was done and before the delete message feature was executed, then they have been deleted. It's probably better to put your phone on airplane mode while manipulating the text messages. Are the locked messages amongst the conversation with 10,000 texts? It seems that the locked messages are being deleted as well. A possible workaround would be to backup selected conversations as separate files (you may need to add the conversation topic/contact to the suggested file name so that you can keep track of the backed up files) and backup by selected conversations and that way you can restore the conversations with the locked messages after the deletion is completed. It doesn't really help you speed up your phone if the conversation in question is the very large thread. Do you need to keep this locked messages constantly accessible and displayed on your phone then? Will it work if you can view this messages through a browser when viewing the xml file? SMS Backup + backs up to your gmail calendar as a calendar label. Will that work to have those messages viewable then and does SMS Backup + do a better job of not deleting locked messages? I'm not sure if there are backup apps that do not delete the locked messages though it seems like they should! You can try to contact the developer to see why it is deleting the locked messages, otherwise a full restore may be your only choice, though it may be good to backup the backup file first.
 
It looks like I'm down to having to pull the trigger on a reload. I've attempted about every angle and it's just refusing to delete the messages. Hopefully the reload won't be too painful. Not exactly an exciting way to spend my Friday night, but such as it is!

Thanks for all the help with this today!
 
PenguinLorrie, did you mean that after clicking on the delete all messages button on SMS Backup & Restore, you had a blank screen and messages were not deleted? Did the app force close then? Did you restart the phone (or had to do a battery pull to restart the phone, not a factory reset yet) and try to check the message app if there were still messages to delete and try to redo the delete all messages action again? I read this may take a long time, especially if you have a huge thread to delete and may have to do it several times. Have you also tried opening the message app and click on Menu->delete threads? I guess you'll need to ensure your sms threads don't get too big from now on ... I hope you're able to resolve it without having to do a factory reset. BTW, make sure to backup all your stuff to your SD card as well as to your pc if you have to do a factory reset and reload everything. You may have to use apps like Astro or ES File Explorer to backup certain free apps as well, especially if you wanted to stay with an older version of a free app instead of a newer one whose version you did not like and then reload the backed up apps using one of those file manager apps again.
 
I had a blank screen, then eventually it did reappear (after several reboots) and all the messages were still there. It was a blessing to see the "force close" option come up on occasion. Otherwise it just sat there hung up.
The other real big issue is that it was absolutely draining the battery at an alarming rate. Apparently something was running in background that wouldn't kill off, and I couldn't figure out what exact process it was to kill it.

I did give up and do the factory reset, but surprisingly it hasn't been that difficult to get back up and going again. It does run super fast now (imagine that) and that gave me an opportunity to clear off some junk I wasn't using in one swoop. I definitely backed everything up and made some notes so I wouldn't forget what all I needed to put back on it post haste.

I did try deleting things from the message app, locked up the phone. Tried using other ways to go around and do that, also locked up phone or didn't delete messages. Eventually I stopped by a local Verizon store to see if they had any insights (desperate move) and the guy I got actually helped. He said he'd had the same thing happen with other Droid phones and once you get past a certain point, the choices are reset or reset. Not much else will fix it. He said he'd had to do it on his own phone, and we tried a couple more possible fixes just to give it all efforts.

I'm back cruising along now already, and definitely learned my lesson. Configuring Backup & Restore tonight plus setting to a max of 300 msgs to keep this from being an issue again!
 
I'm glad that your phone is up and running, quickly and efficiently. We all learn from experiences like this (consequences of large sms threads on phone performance) as well as how well a number of apps that we have available on the android market do with regards to their functionality (SMS text backup and/or restore as well as file manager apps). I'm quite impressed (but not surprised) that SMS Backup & Restore can back up huge SMS threads. I'll definitely continue to use it myself to maintain my SMS text counts and perhaps check out how well the other features it has like the restore functionality (may have to backup a particular conversation or several days worth instead of several weeks worth) or the viewing of the backed up file as an xml file through a browser works.
 
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