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Have you ever wondered if it is possible to retrieve deleted text messages on Android? It’s easy to delete important SMS messages accidentally. You are trying to delete SMS notifications from your phone, and boom, you delete an important text message conversation you hope to use in court as evidence in a divorce case. Your 3-year-old toddler, while playing with your phone, accidentally deletes a critical bank notification SMS, and you are furious. Your phone gets stolen at the convenience store, and all your essential messages get lost with it. The possibilities are near endless.
When any of these happen, it’s easy to freak out and wonder if you can recover accidentally deleted text messages. Well, the good news is that in this post, we will cover some methods to retrieve deleted text messages on Android devices.
Do you need advanced geeky skills to restore deleted messages? The answer is no. Do you need to get an expert Android developer to retrieve deleted text messages on your phone? Absolutely not! All you have to do is to follow some Android data recovery program hacks we share in this post, as doing so will help you get back some, if not all, messages you accidentally lost. Keep reading our post to learn all the methods to retrieve deleted text messages on Android.
Is It Possible to Recover Deleted Text Messages on Android?
The long and short answer to that question is a definitive yes. Although the thought of recovering lost text messages feels odd, understanding the principle behind it can be helpful.
When you delete data, such as SMS text, from an Android device, you might think that the data has been permanently and instantly erased from the device. The truth is that it hasn’t—at least not yet. SMS messages are usually stored in your phone’s Android memory space. When you delete text messages – accidentally or intentionally – that space is still there, only that Android will mark it as “unused”.
Now, this means that as long as that space still maintains the “unused” status, you can always get back your deleted text messages. So, how do you ensure that unused status is maintained long enough for you to recover deleted text messages? Simply by preventing any new data from getting into your phone. For example, you will want to prevent new text messages from getting into your phone. And the easiest and most practical way to do that is by putting your phone on airplane mode.
Should new text spill into your phone, and you keep using it for days or months, it will be harder to recover lost text messages, even if you use the most advanced SMS recovery app. So to recover deleted messages on your Android phone, you must act quickly.
Different Methods for Retrieving Deleted SMS on Android Phones
Lucky for you, there are several methods for recovering deleted text messages on Android. The best part is that there is nothing technical about these methods, as they are fairly easy to implement. Let’s have a look at some of them.
Android Data Recovery
If you could not back up text messages before they got deleted, the best way to restore them is via Android data recovery software. This enables you to recover just about any lost file on your Android device: text messages, call logs, media files, and many more. And they are compatible with virtually all Android devices, regardless of the spec. Keep in mind that your Android OS has to be as recent as possible for this software to work. But how does it work? Let’s find out!
Step 1: Pick Your Preferred Data Recovery Software
There are a lot of Android data recovery solutions on the market. They come with features that make it easy to recover deleted texts and are generally pocket-friendly. And they are also easy to use. Some of the popular data recovery solutions for Android include Dr. Fone, Disk Drill, Fonelab, Disk Digger, and many more.
Step 2: Install the Software on Your Computer
After picking your preferred data recovery software, the next thing you will want to do is to install it on your PC. This is probably the easiest process to recover all your accidentally deleted messages.
Step 3: Launch the Program and Connect Your Phone
Once you’ve installed the data recovery software on your computer, the next step is to launch it and connect your Android device to restore deleted text messages using a USB cable. Depending on the software you are using, you might have to root your Android phone for it to sync well with the software. Rooting simply means giving privilege access (or root access) to certain apps, allowing them to override key Android components. You might also need to enable USB debugging for things to work properly.
Step 4: Scan for Deleted Data
The data recovery software will open a data scanning interface upon connecting your Android phone to your computer. Click the “scan” button to begin scanning your phone for deleted text. Often, the data scanning process takes a couple of minutes—or less. After the scanning is completed, you will see a preview of deleted data on your phone. If things go well, you will see the deleted text message you are looking to recover.
Step 5: Recover Deleted Text Messages
Recovering your deleted messages is a one-click process with most data recovery software. Just click the “recover” button, and your lost messages will be instantly copied back to your phone.
Using SMS Backup and Restore Third-Party Apps for Android
As we earlier hinted, recovering SMS messages you lost several days or months ago is very hard, if not almost impossible. However, if you backed your messages using an SMS backup app or on Google Drive, recovering those messages, no matter how long they’ve been deleted, will become much easier. And you can do so with just a tap of the button.
Thankfully, there are several SMS backup and restore apps on the market. They are easy to use and won’t leave holes in your pockets. That being said, here are some of the best Android SMS backup and restore apps you can count on.
The Best Android SMS Backup and Restore Applications and How to Use Them
SMS Backup+
Currently, active on over 5 million Android devices, SMS Backup+ is undoubtedly one of Android’s most popular SMS recovery apps. This app allows you to automatically back up your SMS messages right off the gate. And not just SMS messages but also important stuff like call logs, MMS, and media files.
In addition, it also makes it very easy to restore your backed-up file with just a click of a button. It will interest you to know that SMS Backup+ gives you the option of backing up your SMS text messages straight to your Google account.
SMS Backup & Restore
SMS Backup & Restore is another great app you can count on to back up your messages and retrieve them, should they ever get deleted. The best part is that you can use it to restore text messages you backed up somewhere else other than the app. Another interesting feature of this app you will really like is that it allows you to back up MMS messages, schedule automatic backups, backup text messages to your Google account, export messages as XML, etc.
Additionally, this app makes it easy to view your backed-up files on a computer, move them to another phone via Wi-Fi, and many more. The coolest part is that you can start for free.
So if you accidentally delete your messages after backing them up with this app, you won’t have any trouble getting them back.
SMS Backup Print & Restore
The name says it all; the SMS Backup Print & Restore app enables you to back up SMS texts and restore and print them with a few clicks of a button. What we really like about this app is how easy it makes exporting SMS messages as PDF, HTML, XML, JPG, etc., very easy. On top of that, it allows you to back up and save text messaging records to your email account, computer, or in the cloud. Not just SMS text messages but also MMS messages too.
What’s more, the app gives you the chance to print out backed-up messages with ease. This feature will come in handy when you are looking to use an SMS conversation as evidence in court or when you want to show proof of payment for a disputed transaction. The app supports contact sharing, advanced messaging, emojis, and many more.
SMS Backup
Next on our list of SMS backup apps for Android is, well, SMS Backup. Like most other SMS backup apps, this app allows you to back up your text messages by exporting them to another phone or a cloud account with a few clicks of the button. It allows you to save your SMS messages as HTML and download them back to your phone if you ever lose them.
Keep in mind that you can’t retrieve deleted text messages with this app. You can only back them up and restore previous backup text messages with a few clicks of the button.
Add-On – SMS Backup & Restore
With over 1 million active installations, Add-On – SMS Backup & Restore is one great app you can depend on for backing up and restoring deleted files from your Android phone with ease. It makes it easy to automatically back up your SMS to Google, Dropbox, or your preferred cloud solution. Plus, it allows you to send automatic email notifications after a backup.
One cool feature you will like about this app is that it makes it easy to push your SMS messages to your Gmail account and retrieve them whenever you want.
Retrieve Messages From Cloud Backups
Thanks to advanced cloud technologies available on the Android OS, you can now easily and automatically back up your SMS messages to the cloud. A good example is Google One.
Google One is a cloud service by Google that allows you to back up files, such as SMS, pictures, MMS, etc., to the cloud and retrieve them with a tap of the button, should they ever get deleted or lost. For as little as $1.99/month, you can save files of 100 GB to your Google One account and get them back whenever you need them without hassles.
Other cloud SMS backup solutions for Android you can try to include Dropbox, Sync.com, MEGA, Microsoft One Drive, and many more. One good thing about these cloud backup solutions is that they don’t cost so much and are very easy to use. And you can always get help and support whenever you need it.
Other Additional Methods
There are some unconventional methods you can use to recover messages on your phone without using a data recovery or backup app. They might look hilarious at first, but they work for many users. Here are the two common methods to try.
Ask the Sender to Resend the Message
Funny, right? Well, asking the sender to resend a message is the easiest way to get back a deleted text. No app is required—just ask, and you will get your lost message. Of course, this approach will only work if the sender hasn’t deleted the text message and is reachable. Otherwise, you are better off using an app.
Sync Your Phone With Your Computer
Android apps like Xender allow you to sync your phone and laptop in real-time. This ensures that as soon as an SMS drops on your phone, it is automatically moved to your computer, making it easy to restore messages that eventually get deleted.
Preventive Methods
If your young toddler keeps deleting your text messages, or for some reasons beyond your control, you keep losing them, it’s about time you took a preventive approach. Here are a few things you can do to prevent your text messages from getting accidentally deleted.
- Password your SMS message folder. There are a lot of Android apps that allow you to do so.
- Lock the message thread. Some Android phones allow you to lock your messages. This feature comes in handy if you keep accidentally deleting your messages.