How do I recover a Text Message

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alisam

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#302106 29-Oct-2022 07:53

Running Android 12 on a Samsung A52 5G.

I am not into Text Messaging apart from reading those I receive infrequently.

I received an expected text message from Spark yesterday, which I can no longer find (and I had received possibly two other messages from Spark in the last several days, one of which I replied to). Yesterday, there was some sort of settings message in the Messages app, which I didn't understand, and I believe just accepted whatever it said, as I was out of the house.

Looking in Settings, I have 2 'Messages' apps:

In the blue app, there are no messages, and I cannot find anything in the app which relates to recovering messages.

In the green app, there are messages but the most recent is 09/09/2022. The 'Recycle bin' says there are no messages. This is the default App, but I cannot now be sure that I didn't change the default yesterday.

Can anyone help?

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#2989428 29-Oct-2022 08:09

Have you checked the archive or the recycle bin on the blue one?

alisam

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#2989430 29-Oct-2022 08:24

Linux:

Have you checked the archive or the recycle bin on the blue one?

I did say this: 'and I cannot find anything in the app which relates to recovering messages.'

I have checked again and cannot find any mention of archive or recycle bin in the App.

The Help mentions 'Archive' and 'Delete' (if deleted, messages cannot be recovered). Perhaps that is what I inadvertently did.

Batman

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#2989433 29-Oct-2022 08:57

you have to try very hard to delete messages on a samsung

what text message were they for?

rscole86

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#2989434 29-Oct-2022 08:58

Have you checked the spam folder?

Do you have any other instant messaging apps? Eg, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal etc? Could your message be in one of those apps instead? (I've only ever used dedicated SMS apps, so I don't know if they duplicate across those other IM apps)

jamesrt

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#2989437 29-Oct-2022 09:05

Android has a 'messages db' which holds the actual SMS messages independently of the SMS applications, I believe. On my phone, when I go into system settings, applications, and select the option 'show system apps', I see a 'Phone Call/SMS Storage" entry which I believe is this database.

You could try downloading a 3rd SMS application from the PlayStore [I've used ”Chomp" in the past] & run it - my theory is it will display the messages from the central storage, and that may include your 'missing' one.

In the past, I've seen bugs with the Google Message app when it's gotten confused and doesn't display messages, but won't re-scan the OS central DB as it thinks it's already done it. You can work around that by clearing the messages application data from settings [which thanks to that central storage shouldn't delete the actual messages]; but that's more risky.

I personally think loading a 3rd app to be less risk - if it didn't help, just delete it again....

Bung

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#2989439 29-Oct-2022 09:09

alisam:
I received an expected text message from Spark yesterday, which I can no longer find (and I had received possibly two other messages from Spark in the last several days, one of which I replied to).
In the green app, there are messages but the most recent is 09/09/2022. The 'Recycle bin' says there are no messages. This is the default App, but I cannot now be sure that I didn't change the default yesterday.

Can anyone help?

What did you do with the other recent messages? Have you tried searching in the green app for Spark?

Batman

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#2989440 29-Oct-2022 09:15

i'm guessing maybe s/he mistook some other notification with SMS

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alisam

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#2989445 29-Oct-2022 09:30

rscole86: Have you checked the spam folder?

Do you have any other instant messaging apps? Eg, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal etc? Could your message be in one of those apps instead? (I've only ever used dedicated SMS apps, so I don't know if they duplicate across those other IM apps)

In the blue app, I have found the 'Archived' and 'Spam and blocked' folders.

There is nothing in 'Spam and blocked'.

in the 'Archived' folder, I can see the same text messages that are in the green app. But the text messages from last few days are not there.

I have WhatsApp on my phone but cannot see anything to do with texts.

I'll contact Spark and see if they can help me out (because the one I wanted included a link to a web page).

robjg63

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#2989449 29-Oct-2022 09:38

I am not a Spark customer, but do you have a "Spark" app on your phone?

Could the message have come via that?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

alisam

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#2989458 29-Oct-2022 10:28

robjg63:

I am not a Spark customer, but do you have a "Spark" app on your phone?

Could the message have come via that?

Yes I have the App. Just checked and nothing to suggest that I could get a message from Spark.

Technofreak

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#2989473 29-Oct-2022 11:53

I'm a bit perplexed with your comment about 2 message apps in Settings. I use WhatsApp as well as the native SMS (text massage) app. I only see the native app in settings as a Message app. Perhaps you have some form of Google message app enabled as well?

If the message came from Spark it will be on the native app which on my Samsung devices is the Blue icon.

Have a look for SMS messages coming from a number like 184 or 186. That's where the messages I get from Spark come from.

It's unlikely you've inadvertently deleted the message.

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robjg63

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#2989483 29-Oct-2022 12:15

jamesrt: Android has a 'messages db' which holds the actual SMS messages independently of the SMS applications, I believe. On my phone, when I go into system settings, applications, and select the option 'show system apps', I see a 'Phone Call/SMS Storage" entry which I believe is this database.

I believe this is true. My Samsung phone has the Samsung messages app (which is an orange icon). This is the default for my 2017 phone.

I wanted to try the Google messages app a while back so just downloaded it and made it the default app for messages.

You could see all the messages (SMS txts) that I have ever received on my phone - Well certainly all available history.

So this does indicate there is a messages (txt) database that the apps can access.

I ended up removing the Google messages app after a while - and went back to the Samsung app with no loss of messages.

You do have to go to some effort to permanently delete text messages (I would think few people would normally bother doing this).

I am on skinny (Sparks lower cost offshoot) and their app pushes out notifications from time to time. That's where you go to re-look at them.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Bung

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#2989491 29-Oct-2022 12:28

Blue is the Google app, green is the Samsung apparently higher end Samsung default to the Google app and lesser Samsung default to the Samsung.

ANglEAUT

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#2989520 29-Oct-2022 14:47

alisam: ... Looking in Settings, I have 2 'Messages' apps: ...

Do you have Facebook Messenger or Signal installed? They can also act as the default SMS app. check there.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

alisam

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#2989561 29-Oct-2022 17:45

Technofreak:

I'm a bit perplexed with your comment about 2 message apps in Settings. I use WhatsApp as well as the native SMS (text massage) app. I only see the native app in settings as a Message app. Perhaps you have some form of Google message app enabled as well?

If the message came from Spark it will be on the native app which on my Samsung devices is the Blue icon.

Have a look for SMS messages coming from a number like 184 or 186. That's where the messages I get from Spark come from.

It's unlikely you've inadvertently deleted the message.

Sorry. I gave a screenshot of my Apps. Re-looked at WhatsApp and have never used it to send SMS Messages (In fact, I only used it, because it was asked that we use it to get alerts if there was a major issue at work).

There are no 1* messages.

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