Hi all.
Nexus S user with CM7 ROM.
I want to make sure deleted text messages are truly gone for good. Not moved to some kind of stupid "Trash" folder or "Deleted Items" folder.
I have both Handcent and the stock APP. Can anybody clarify: Are messages perm. deleted by default, or is it something I need to configure/do manually?
Thanks in advance!
Wow,
Just watched a CBS murder mystery show last night, and they mentioned this exact same thing!
Apparently, the police were able to retrieve the dead wife's cell phone texts because the husband was threatening to kill her before he actual did.
The police retrieved deleted texts from boths cell phones, and that's what did him in. They had nothing else for proof on him.
I guess that answers your first question.
As for your second question, I would presume that unless you do a military grade reformat before you install your next ROM, I would go ahead and assume that the texts are still there.
Heeter
Related
I would be willing to start a bounty for a auto text delete app... like delete texts for each person after 100 texts... is this possible?
Its not auto, but try SMS Quick delete
No Offense. But Its not that hard to Delete Text Messages.
I agree with this post. I think getting sms quick delete to do a nightly scheduled delete would be amazing.
ebartolon said:
No Offense. But Its not that hard to Delete Text Messages.
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I think youre missing the point.
I agree, btw something like this would be great. Either running to deleted messages by scheduled task and or delete message based on a specified count.
ebartolon said:
No Offense. But Its not that hard to Delete Text Messages.
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Click to collapse
It's not that hard to mail a letter via postal service, but I'd still rather email.
I think it's a great idea, you could adjust it to purge anything over x number of messages or older than x number of days.
I'd love to see this happen.
OP I think you may have a better chance by emailing SMS Quick Delete because they already have the app started...
I haven't looked into what APIs the SDK offers for dealing with text messages, but just thinking this through real quick, this shouldn't be a hard app to write.
When I get a text, it appears in both the stock app and in Handcent. This indicates that the messages are stored in a central location. The existence of Handcent and Chomp also make it clear that third party apps can access and manipulate this storage.
Performing tasks on a schedule is easy to code.
What sort of features would people like to see in this? Delete by age? Delete by count? Exempt certain contacts from having their messages deleted? etc...
I've been looking for an idea for a simple app to write to get more familiar with coding for the Android environment. If there's interest in something like this, it seems like as good a project as any to practice with.
subliminalurge said:
I haven't looked into what APIs the SDK offers for dealing with text messages, but just thinking this through real quick, this shouldn't be a hard app to write.
When I get a text, it appears in both the stock app and in Handcent. This indicates that the messages are stored in a central location. The existence of Handcent and Chomp also make it clear that third party apps can access and manipulate this storage.
Performing tasks on a schedule is easy to code.
What sort of features would people like to see in this? Delete by age? Delete by count? Exempt certain contacts from having their messages deleted? etc...
I've been looking for an idea for a simple app to write to get more familiar with coding for the Android environment. If there's interest in something like this, it seems like as good a project as any to practice with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Issue is
1. You want to delete it when no one is sending you messages as to delete one you missed which would make you think that scheduled at night is best but...
2. Either count or time (i.e. middle of the night schedule) can screw you up if you get a message and the app then deletes it before you are able to check your messages...
I think it could be anything if you could prevent the deletion of new texts then I guess it wouldn't matter as much.
pipskicks said:
Issue is
1. You want to delete it when no one is sending you messages as to delete one you missed which would make you think that scheduled at night is best but...
2. Either count or time (i.e. middle of the night schedule) can screw you up if you get a message and the app then deletes it before you are able to check your messages...
I think it could be anything if you could prevent the deletion of new texts then I guess it wouldn't matter as much.
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I see what you're saying, but if it's properly designed, neither one should really be an issue. If, for example, it's set to auto-delete anything over 30 days old, well, frankly if it's been sitting on your phone for 30 days and you haven't read it yet, then either it wasn't important, or you've been sitting in jail and likely have more important things to worry about.
Same with going by number of messages, you'd want the threshold set at a level where there's not really much chance of you not getting to it before it gets deleted.
Ideally, these thresholds would be user configurable. For me, deleting anything over 100 texts would easily retain a month's worth, but for my daughter, it would be blasting stuff that was only a few hours old. (I've honest to god seen this girl sleep with her phone in her hands, thumbs never leaving typing position....)
That said, it would definitely be a good idea to never, ever delete unread messages. Or, at least have separate criteria for unread messages.
isn't this a feature that's included in non-Sense messages app??? I much prefer that version, but I don't know how to replace the sense version with that one (if possible)
I think having delete by both age and number would be best... for example, if it could delete any message that is more than say 5 days old, up to the point where there is <10 messages left in the thread then stop deleting from that thread
and if you could adjust the two variables...
and:
adjust which persons messages get deleted...maybe even make it so that you could adjust the two variables individually depending on the person?
dmc971989 said:
maybe even make it so that you could adjust the two variables individually depending on the person?
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Ultimately, that's the idea. Let each user specify their own criteria.
To be honest, if I decide to take a crack at this, my initial "proof of concept" version would probably just have a couple criteria hardcoded in, and then I would add configurability in increments.
The actual "guts" of this program should be crazy simple to code, but being new to Android, I'm still getting used to designing UIs on the platform, so that would be the portion that slows me down (and also the part that I'm looking to get some practice with...).
the file for storing texts is /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
and no that's not a typo, there is a data folder within the data folder
also, by the way, I tried messing with it once to restore some old texts from a previous rom, and kept force closing my handcent and the stock app until I just deleted the file and let it recreate itself
Yeah honestly i am shocked that no one has done this. My friend and i have had so many texts our phone slows way down. And then when we try to delete txts of the contact(s) with the largest amount of texts the phone will lock up for along time or untill we pull the battery. After the phone lock up the texts are still there. i would be happy if all my contacts where limited to 100 texts. this issue normally happens around the 1000 mark (for a single contact) from what i have noticed.
Also this has happend on sevral roms that i have used so its def not a rom issue
danaff37 said:
the file for storing texts is /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
and no that's not a typo, there is a data folder within the data folder
also, by the way, I tried messing with it once to restore some old texts from a previous rom, and kept force closing my handcent and the stock app until I just deleted the file and let it recreate itself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's a database file. Probably not a great idea to edit it directly, you would want to make changes through the sqlite interface....
any solutions?
Hi all, I'm using an unrooted HTC Wildfire and yesterday all of my texts just disappeared - about 8000 in total. I think it was after I recieved a text from someone. I reasoned that the messages have to still be on the phone somewhere due to the fact that data is just marked as overwritable, or am I wrong about that? Either way, I hunted through the SD card with some file recovery software (PC Inspector File Recovery, to be precise) and found a few files that may be useful - "com.gb.gosms-1.asec" in "android_secure" that's 4.09MB (about the right size for the data my messaging app was reading in the "Settings>Applications", and "40123", found in "LOST.DIR" that is 14.0MB, probably too large but the closest I could find as the other two in that directory were only a few hundred kilobytes.
I can't open any of them - I tried "40123" as .db and .xml files and the .ASEC file seems to be an encrypted Android file.
I'm looking for a few things, I guess - Where should I look to use the file recovery software to find the old SMS files? How do I open a .ASEC file, and might it be the right one? And does anyone know of any way to recover my texts? I just would quite like to recover my texts as there are some important ones on there!
Many thanks in advance, and sorry if I am repeating anything, I ran a search but couldn't find anything.
P.S., I am using GoSMS, but my stock messaging app is just as empty!
Why do you have 8,000 texts on your phone? Typically any SMS app you download will automagicly delete any texts once you collect a certain amount.
I like to keep all my messages so I can know what has been said and because there are some important texts in there, and I just double checked and couldn't find any settings like that in there, but I know it's disabled on my stock app and I had conversations ranging from about 5000 to 2 or 3 texts, but thanks for the suggestion!
I did, however, find a thing saying that I had sent 1900 messages in total, or thereabouts, which is a lot more than I sent since the messages went missing, a lot less than I have sent since I got the phone. Perhaps it is from when I started using Go SMS, but is it indicative of the messages still being on the phone somewhere?
Yes it is since you got Go sms because the stock messanging app doesn't count how many was sent. And no that doesn't mean that they are on your phone. It is simply a built in counter allowing you to keep track of your messages in case you don't have an unlimited messaging plan. Try downloading a file explorer and searching for your texts, that should all be backlogged onto your phone somewhere. Chances are though that the messages where deleted. Linux will overwrite information in order to better utilize your memory space. I recommend to back up any messages, or lock the ones you want kept to avoid this in the future.
Thanks very much, I'll do that
As per my original message, does anyone know how to open a .ASEC file?
So is that possible? If yes, how?
Also contacts, they transfer with the sim card because I have saved all my contacts to my sim card?
I'm not sure its possible to do that, since there is not native way to back up and save your current WP7 text messages. I doubt there would be a way to transfer ones from anywhere.
However for contacts, since you have an Android phone you most likely have a Google account. Just sign in with your account on your WP7 device and it will all sync like magic.
Behold, the cloud.
WP7 doesn't have SMS backup? wow... Well, that sucks, I really don't want to lose all my messages, some of them are really important and bring back good memories...
xCTRL said:
WP7 doesn't have SMS backup? wow... Well, that sucks, I really don't want to lose all my messages, some of them are really important and bring back good memories...
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Yeah nothing native that I know of. Doing a search around the interwebz i found this. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103011
Thanks, but that isn't what I'm looking for... I dont even have a WP7 at the moment and if i Can't get my messages to the phone it's a major let down...
xCTRL said:
Thanks, but that isn't what I'm looking for... I dont even have a WP7 at the moment and if i Can't get my messages to the phone it's a major let down...
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You must be really attached to those texts. You know all the naughty pics you can just send back to yourself.
No nothing like that XD there's just some messages that I really want to keep... Even though I usually don't read my old messages I just want to keep them as memories
Yes,
it's been a while, but the subject's still up-to-date.
Same thing here. I'd just like to move from Windows Mobile 6.5.
From Exchange 2010 it's possible to sync text messages between the phone and the server. But it appears that goes only for messages which arrive AFTER the sync setup. I haven't found a way to make the phone upload older texts to the server.
Also I don't think a new phone would download all past text messages from the server after pairing.
There's poll to make Microsoft implement a way: http://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/110705-app-platform/suggestions/1901813-sms-backup?ref=title
That's the only thing preventing me to move to WP7. Most awesome would be if PIMbackup would provide a way. I've asked the programer via mail if he saw a way, but I haven't gotten any response.
If I had no other choice I would forward those SMS messages to my self some how either through email or someother method. Just an idea.
Basically a nice idea. Unfortunately sender numbers and timestamps would be lost :-(
With multiple hundred messages that's important data for me.
But thanks for the idea!
Hello everyone,
I'll start by saying that I haven't lost my whatsapp chats since I began using it in 2010.
Until last update I had all my chats from 2010 in my "Chats" tab in the app.
Today, I realized that my list is a hell lot shorter than it used to be and that all the chats that ended before July 2015 are gone (I would say probably 150 chats).
If I use the search option and search for an old chat contact's name I find him under "Other contacts" and not under "Chats", BUT if I enter the chat I CAN see all the history with him. This seems pretty weird.
I've looked at the database file and it has the same size as it used to have and considering that I can see the history of the chats if I search manually means they haven't been deleted, just cleared from the Chats tab.
Maybe Whatsapp are trying to speed up loading time for the main activity?
Am I the only one who has this issue?
Is it an issue of the current version only?
I'm a freak for nostalgic things and it scares me a lil' but to lose my chats.
I have an international Exynos galaxy s8 plus model.
Whatsapp version 2.17.323
Thanks in advance and have a great day!
No one?
Hello!
It seems like I've finally found someone with the same problem as me and I'm not an isolated case.
Firstly, I'm sorry if you do not understand something I say, English is not my native language.
So, I noticed this a couple of days ago, I had over a hundred conversations and I have the habit of archive them through the "Archive all chats" option. The last time I used this option, I noticed that it listed only 64 conversations. I'm pretty sure I did not delete any conversation, and as you said, the size of my database also remains the same as before.
Curiously, I can only find the old conversations if I search for the contact's name or part of the conversation, but in the archived list these do not appear.
I also noticed that if I enter through the WhatsApp Web, these conversations do not appear as in the phone, they appear empty.
I was thinking about contacting WhatsApp support, because I'm afraid that if I reinstall I'll lose the conversations.
Hello, glad to know I'm not alone. Someone in another forum had the same issue and just installed an old apk from august.
I'm not sure if they did that intentionally or by mistake, so I tried to contact whatsapp support team. they keep giving me generic answers on how to add contacts to whatsapp and how to backup data to drive lol.. They don't even read it.
Waiting for an app update. If this doesn't solve this I'll go back to an old version myself.
Same thing happens with the Whatsapp Web like you by the way.
Hi everyone,
I'm new here...first post. I am a developer, but not a mobile developer. I have a situation...legal issue...I'm going after someone for breach of contract.
Anyway, I had no idea that in my state, agreements made via SMS or email are legally binding. And so I had deleted some texts that would have made my case. This "dog rescue" had agreed to let us adopt a really awesome dog - but then later changed their minds. Yes, a DOG! (My kids got attached). And they had not given me a copy of the signed agreement even though I had asked multiple times. I finally got a lawyer and they had to provide a copy of the agreement (but this only proves I didn't do anything to breach the contract...it doesn't prove they also agreed to let us adopt him). My lawyer said I have to get those text messages.
So here's the thing. Our messages were exchanged via facebook messenger. But my verizon Message+ app and FB messenger both seemed to be synced up (I kept trying to switch back and forth which was very frustrating). I am pretty sure our conversation took place on the FB app. But I don't remember if I deleted them from FB messenger or Message+. But it's gone in both.
I already looked through the cache for FB messenger - empty. I called verizon and they told me they only keep records going back 7-10 days at most. This was Jan 14th.
I KNOW Verizon can get to the data. Somehow. Someway. Then I thought, what if I upgrade to a new phone? You know how they do the copy of all of your data? Ugh...I do not know if they also copy over your texts. But if they do, I assume it would be the entire database. So I was thinking of upgrading to a new phone (one that can easily be rooted) and then recover the messages from the new phone. Could this work? Does anyone know if Verizon copies EVERYTHING over as root?
And if anyone has any other creative ideas, I'm all ears.
Thanks!
amf70 said:
Hi everyone,
I'm new here...first post. I am a developer, but not a mobile developer. I have a situation...legal issue...I'm going after someone for breach of contract.
Anyway, I had no idea that in my state, agreements made via SMS or email are legally binding. And so I had deleted some texts that would have made my case. This "dog rescue" had agreed to let us adopt a really awesome dog - but then later changed their minds. Yes, a DOG! (My kids got attached). And they had not given me a copy of the signed agreement even though I had asked multiple times. I finally got a lawyer and they had to provide a copy of the agreement (but this only proves I didn't do anything to breach the contract...it doesn't prove they also agreed to let us adopt him). My lawyer said I have to get those text messages.
So here's the thing. Our messages were exchanged via facebook messenger. But my verizon Message+ app and FB messenger both seemed to be synced up (I kept trying to switch back and forth which was very frustrating). I am pretty sure our conversation took place on the FB app. But I don't remember if I deleted them from FB messenger or Message+. But it's gone in both.
I already looked through the cache for FB messenger - empty. I called verizon and they told me they only keep records going back 7-10 days at most. This was Jan 14th.
I KNOW Verizon can get to the data. Somehow. Someway. Then I thought, what if I upgrade to a new phone? You know how they do the copy of all of your data? Ugh...I do not know if they also copy over your texts. But if they do, I assume it would be the entire database. So I was thinking of upgrading to a new phone (one that can easily be rooted) and then recover the messages from the new phone. Could this work? Does anyone know if Verizon copies EVERYTHING over as root?
And if anyone has any other creative ideas, I'm all ears.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A court order and verizon will disclose them all