How to recover deleted text messages on your Android phone

Tools to recover deleted text messages

There are a couple of different PC and Mac-based tools to help you through this part of the process which we've detailed below.

The particular tool you choose will depend on your personal preference, but they basically do the same thing: scan your Android's memory, then identify and recover your ''deleted'' messages. They'll all walk you through the process, which is usually only four steps long: connect, scan, preview, recover. The process works for other data besides text messages as well. Some programs worth trying out include:

Coolmuster Android SMS+Contacts Recovery (for Mac or PC)
Wondershare Dr. Fone for Android (for Mac or PC)

androidpit wondershare — Wondershare has a free trial that lets you recover deleted text messages. / © ANDROIDPIT

How to recover lost text messages on Android

Depending on which program you choose, the steps may be different, but the process is very similar (I'll use Wondershare for illustration purposes):

Download and install one of the programs above. Launch the program on your computer.
Enable USB Debugging on your Android phone. To do this, you need to have access to the Developer Options in your main Settings menu. If it's not there, just go to About Phone, scroll down to Build Number and tap it repeatedly until it tells you that you have developer access.
You'll now get access to Developer Options in the main Settings menu (just above About Phone). Go into Developer Options, scroll down to USB Debugging (or Android Debugging, depending on your ROM) and check the box.

androidpit debugging — First you need to enable USB Debugging on your Android smartphone. / © ANDROIDPIT

Download and install the free Wondershare trial, then connect your Android phone to your computer.

androidpit wondershare 2 — Connect your phone to your PC with USB Debugging enabled. / © Wondershare

Follow the prompts in the recovery program to scan or analyze your Android's memory.

Once the process is complete you can browse and preview the deleted and undeleted data on your Android device. As long as the particular part of memory on which it was originally stored has not been saved over, you can still retrieve the data. This is why it's important to act quickly if you've lost data.

androidpit wondershare 3 — You can filter the data you want to recover: in this case, text messages. / © ANDROIDPIT

Next, open the 'Messages' folder in the left-hand pane, select the messages you wish to recover, then click 'Recover' at the bottom right to put them back on your device or save them to your computer for safe keeping.

Wondershare2 — Click 'SMS' or 'Messages' in the left-hand pane to view both deleted and non-deleted messages on your device. / © ANDROIDPIT

Note: if you want to complete this process without a PC, chances are you will need root access on your device and more than likely a paid recovery app. In any case, it's easier and free to use a computer.

How to never lose a text message again

Maybe you've learned your lesson, maybe you haven't. If you're not into paying for any of the programs above or simply don't like the free options, your best bet is to ensure you don't have to use them again. This means backing up your messages from now on. The good news is, it only takes five minutes.

I use a free app called SMS Backup & Restore. It's straightforward, looks nice and works perfectly: basically all you need for this type of operation. Check out the screenshots below for the walkthrough.

Once you've downloaded and installed SMS Backup & Restore, open the app then tap 'Backup'
Next, choose what exactly you want to create a backup of, then - crucially - tap 'Local Backup and Upload' if you want to send your backup to Google Drive, Dropbox or an email address. When you're ready, tap OK.

androidpit sms backup restore 2 — SMS Backup & Restore is clean and simple to use. / © ANDROIDPIT

androidpit sms backup restore 3 — Hit Backup, select what you want to save and where, then tap OK - simple. Restoring your backup is explained clearly too. / © ANDROIDPIT

To restore your backed-up SMS messages, tap Restore on the app's home screen, then on the Restore Backup page you can just tap the backup name in the list to restore it if it's stored locally.
If your backup's stored in the cloud, tap the menu icon (three dots) at the top right, then 'Load from' and select whichever cloud service it's stored on.

androidpit sms backup restore 4 — You can back your messages up to cloud storage, then restore them easily. / © ANDROIDPIT

There are plenty of extra options in SMS Backup & Restore, such as scheduled backups and password protection. You can find these by tapping the menu icon at the top right of the app's home screen, then 'Preferences'.

Comments

What is your preferred smartphone screen size

Screen envy. We all have it. Or do we? See, that’s the thing, I’m just not so sure. One thing I am sure about is that our phone screens have gotten progressively bigger and bigger over the last few years. The funny thing is, we as a society have taken that ball and run with it, like we just don’t care. But I always thought we did care? Some time ago, when phones were in the sub-5” range, we used to have a term called “phablet” which described an almost absurdly big phone. The definition varied from person to person. I always considered a phone with a screen 5.5” or bigger to be a phablet. The Galaxy Note fell into that category. The Lumia 1520 certainly did. There are others as well. I was safely ensconced in the 4.5” area at the time with my Lumia 920. What did I know? Leon’s getting laaaaaaaarrrger But slowly, phones started topping the 5” mark. I’m not talking about phablets here, I’m talking about normal flagship phones – the Galaxy S4 (barely) and the HTC One (M7) are ...

Facebook Now Supports PGP To Send You Encrypted Emails

You can now instruct Facebook to encrypt every email it sends to you so nobody — not even the NSA — is likely to be able to read your messages anytime soon. All you have to do is import your public PGP key into your Facebook settings and you’re good to go. The problem here, of course, is that most people have no idea how public/private key email encryption works and how to even get started with it. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks, a number of organizations, including Google, promised to completely hide the complexities of end-to-end email encryption from regular users. Very few of these products have materialized so far, however — not for lack of trying, but because this is actually a very complex problem, both from a technical and user experience perspective. Facebook uses the well-established PGP scheme (the GNU Privacy Guard implementation of OpenPGP, to be precise) to encrypt messages and tools lik...

How to prevent Recent and Phone Favorite contacts from showing in your iOS task switcher

When you double-click your iPhone's home button, you will be greeted with the task switching screen, which presents you with card deck-style snapshots of your active apps to freely browse and switch to. With iOS 8, however, where most iPhones are at the moment, Apple introduced a Favorites row there, with circular pictures of your most recently used contacts. Most people aren't bothered by their recent contacts appearing there, but for some this means easy snooping on who they've called or texted last, or simply unnecessary clutter. If you don't want to wait until iOS 9 hits and gets rid of these circular shenanigans in your task switcher, here's what you need to do to get rid of them: 1. Go to the Settings app, and scroll down to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section; 2. From Mail, Contacts, Calendars, look for the Contacts section, which will be hosting the Show in App Switcher options; 3. Tap on Show in App Switche...

Intel announces the first 14 nanometre processor

At the Computex conference in Taipei, chipmaker Intel has revealed a fanless mobile PC reference design using the first of its next-generation 14nm "Broadwell" processors. The 2 in 1 pictured here is a 12.5" screen that is just 7.2 mm thick with keyboard detached and weighs 670 grams. The Surface Pro 3 – for comparison – is 9.1 mm thick and weighs 800 grams. It includes a media dock that provides additional cooling for a burst of performance. The next-generation chip is purpose-built for 2 in 1s and will hit the market later in 2014 . Called the Intel Core M, it will be the most energy-efficient Intel Core processor in the company's history with power usage cut by up to 45 percent, resulting in 60 percent less heat. The majority of designs based on this new chip are expected to be fanless, with up to 32 hours of battery life, offering both a lightning-fast tablet and razor-thin laptop. Intel is also delivering innovation and performance for the ...

How to Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption Method and Cipher Strength in Windows 10?

BitLocker is an encryption method that enables users to lock the different drives in Windows . The drives which are protected by BitLocker are accessed by passwords. Windows has provided opportunity for users to choose and configure the cipher strength and algorithm used by BitLocker Drive Encryption. This can be achieved via the Local Group Policy editor. The Local Policy Editor will let you configure and select the cipher method for BitLocker encryption. By default it is not configured but you can choose your choiceable encryption method by enabling the Policy Setting. If the drive is already encrypted or if encryption is in progress, the encyption method will have no effect. If you leave the policy unconfigured, then BitLocker will use the default encryption method of AES 128-bit with Diffuser or the encryption method specified by the setup script. Steps to Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption Method and Cipher Strength in Windows 10 1. ...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog