An accidental scrolling, a system crash, a child playing with their phone – they all have one thing in common. They can easily make you a victim of data loss. When this happens, you can immediately scroll to find the recycle bin.
Unfortunately, most Android phones don’t have a recycle bin in the Google Messages app. Once you delete a message, you don’t get that 30 or 60 day grace period like the Google Photos app. But your data is not lost forever.
If you have lost important text messages from a loved one or business associate on your Samsung smartphone, we can offer you solutions to help you get them back.
Understand how your smartphone stores and deletes data
The data remains on your device even after you have tapped the delete button. Don’t you believe us? Ask NPR. National Public Radio explains that when you delete content on your phone, it’s not really gone forever. Instead, your phone “labels that space as available to be overwritten by new information.”
Your deleted data still exists on the phone disk and there is still a chance to recover it. But there is a catch; you have to stop using your phone to send new messages, take more photos, and perform other actions. Any new content will replace the deleted files. At this point, you will not be able to retrieve your messages.
The device used for this tutorial is a Samsung A23 running on Android 12 OS and One UI 4.1 launcher. Procedures may look different on older and newer versions of Android.
How to recover deleted text messages on your Samsung phone
Digging up your deleted messages should be a walk in the park once you have a backup version with Samsung Cloud or Google Drive. But not everyone is so careful with their data. Without a backup version to restore, you will need to download recovery software to your PC. The software will scan your smartphone for deleted messages once you connect both devices with a USB cable.
But we can’t overstate the dangers of using third-party solutions. Most require you to root your device, leaving it vulnerable to malware attacks, among other risks. Instead, we’ll show you how to recover your messages using backup solutions like Samsung Switch, Samsung Cloud, and Google Drive.
Restore text messages via Samsung Cloud
Samsung Cloud is a storage feature in its settings menu. It allows you to save files in the cloud so that you can download them again later. If you backed up your messages before losing them using Samsung Cloud, you can recover them with the following steps.
- Scroll down on the home screen to open the notification panel.
- tap on the Settings icon and go to Accounts and support.
- Select restore dataand you should see your latest backup history.
- Tap backup history, then tap Messages. You can restore multiple files if you want.
- Play Restore and wait for the messages to finish restoring.
Contact your mobile carrier for logs of missed SMS text messages
Depending on your mobile operator, you may be able to retrieve your text messages through your service provider. For example, if you use T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T, those carriers keep records of the date, time, and people you’ve texted with for a limited period; that does not guarantee that you can get the current content of the text message. Since the period is limited, unfortunately you will not be able to restore all the messages you have sent. And while some carriers may save your full texts, carriers like Sprint and T-mobile don’t save the content of messages.
Remember that you will need a court order and a form of identification before your trucking company will release the information to you. Although you are the owner of the device, the mobile operator also follows privacy policies to protect user data. They have an obligation to protect the privacy of the other party to the text.
Use Samsung Smart Switch
If you really want to get those text messages back, you can try using Samsung Smart Switch. Data Transfer Solution is an official Samsung app that allows you to backup data on your old Samsung phone and move it to a new one. If you already have a backup of existing data on Samsung Switch, you can use it to recover your messages.
You will need to download and install the Samsung Smart Switch software on your new phone and PC before connecting them with a USB cable.
- Get your USB Cable and plug it into a free port on your computer.
- Connect the cable to your Samsung smartphone and run the Smart Switch software on your PC.
- Click on Restoreand the software will automatically find a backup of your messages on the computer. If not, click Select file manually to import the backup file from your computer.
- Click on Restore and wait for Smart Switch to finish recovering your data.
Protect your messages from permanent deletion
Considering the distance you have to travel to retrieve them, you should look for protection measures for your messages. Archiving and backing them up are great steps to start with.
Try to archive messages
Archiving is the best way to hide those annoying chats you’re trying to avoid without deleting them forever. Your messages remain in the Google Messages app, but you won’t see them anymore because they’re in a different folder.
- Open the Google Messages app from your home screen.
- Find the message you want to hide, and then long press on it. You can archive multiple messages at once.
- tap on the File, Archive and your messages will be immediately moved to the archive folder.
- Restore archived messages by touching the menu icon in your Google Messages app.
- Play archived, and you will see your hidden messages.
- Touch and hold or select the messages you want to restore. Then touch the Unarchive icon. This should show them back in the Messages folder.
Make a backup of your messages
Data backups are one of the easiest device tasks to perform. Ironically, we can hardly find the time for it, especially when dealing with large amounts of data. Fortunately, there are pre-installed cloud solutions like Samsung Cloud and Google Drive to make your life easier. You can access them from your settings menu.
Backup with Samsung and Google Cloud requires an Internet connection, which incurs data charges. Use a good Wi-Fi connection to speed up the process. If you haven’t already, you can get a Wi-Fi 6 router for your home.
How to backup your messages on Samsung with Samsung Cloud
- To go Settings > Accounts and backup.
- Under samsung cloudplay backup data.
- touch toggle switches for the data you want to back up. Then touch Copy now.
How to Backup Your Messages on Samsung with Google Drive
- To go Settings > Accounts and backup.
- Under Google Drive, tap backup data.
- Secure backup by Google one toggle switch is on, then touch Copy now.
How to Backup Your Messages on Samsung with Smart Switch
- Run Smart Switch on your computer and click Back.
- Select Messages and choose a format for the data.
- Click on Back and wait for the software to finish uploading the data to your PC.
We get your messages back.
There was a time when deleting messages meant losing them forever. With more data recovery tools on the market, the risk of permanent data loss is almost non-existent. That said, even the best Samsung phones are not immune to data loss. Although the need to rely on one-click solution software may tempt you, it’s still important to back up your SMS text messages. You won’t have to get anything back if you don’t lose it first.
