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Heather80

Lurker
Help! I need to recover a SMS text chain that was deleted and it shouldn't have been. I have tried different apps and have gone as far as a data recovery company. Does anyone else have any suggestions or people that could help with this problem?
 
How a long a time period has elapsed since that SMS chain of messages was deleted?
SMS, with Android, are typically very ephemeral. Once sent they may get saved locally (on the sender's device) and they may get saved on by the receiver (on the recipient's device) and that's it. It's not like email where there are always online email servers retaining copies on both ends. SMS text generally just gets passed from one carrier to the other and held for very for a very limited amount of time.
In your instance, if there was a thread of messages that were inadvertently deleted, it's not likely one of those 'magic' recovery utilities will actually be able to restore them. Some text messaging apps do include some kind of restore function (retaining deleted messages for a limited period). Which text messaging app are you using?

...and this is a completely after-the-fact matter but you might want to install an third-party app like this 'SMS Backup & Restore' utility:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&hl=en_US
Use it to make regular backups of your SMS and phone call logs. (go into the app's Settings menu and enable its 'Schedule backup settings' option to make automatic backups for you.)
 
svim said:
How a long a time period has elapsed since that SMS chain of messages was deleted?
SMS, with Android, are typically very ephemeral. Once sent they may get saved locally (on the sender's device) and they may get saved on by the receiver (on the recipient's device) and that's it. It's not like email where there are always online email servers retaining copies on both ends. SMS text generally just gets passed from one carrier to the other and held for very for a very limited amount of time.
In your instance, if there was a thread of messages that were inadvertently deleted, it's not likely one of those 'magic' recovery utilities will actually be able to restore them. Some text messaging apps do include some kind of restore function (retaining deleted messages for a limited period). Which text messaging app are you using?

...and this is a completely after-the-fact matter but you might want to install an third-party app like this 'SMS Backup & Restore' utility:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&hl=en_US
Use it to make regular backups of your SMS and phone call logs. (go into the app's Settings menu and enable its 'Schedule backup settings' option to make automatic backups for you.)
Click to expand...

Thank you for getting back to me! I am using the Messages app. Since then, I have installed Backup and Restore. The problem that I am running into is that this chain is from October and was deleted then. I have been chasing it since then and have tried everything that I can think of to restore it.
 
October? I don't think you should be putting too much effort in trying to restore a thread of messages that old. A few days, yes, a few weeks maybe, but after a few months have elapsed I wouldn't get your hopes up. Bummer.
 
svim said:
October? I don't think you should be putting too much effort in trying to restore a thread of messages that old. A few days, yes, a few weeks maybe, but after a few months have elapsed I wouldn't get your hopes up. Bummer.
Click to expand...
Thank you for all your help!
 
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