I just lost all of my text messages [Moto Droid], what happened, how do I fix this?

Q

QMAX

New member
I got a text message, replied, put my phone back in my pocket. Less than a minute later, I pull my phone out because I got another text, and ALL of my messages are gone. I had about 3,000 messages on the phone, some of them incredibly important. I don't have auto-delete turned on. I have no idea how this happened.

Are they stored on the SD card? What can I do to get them back?

Please help!
 
You shouldn't have lost these messages, but Android has had a number of known issues with ridiculously huge numbers of SMS messages, ranging from lag opening the messaging app to message not opening. It does not surprise me that such a large number has come up against problems. Why on earth would you want to keep 3000 messages?? There must have been some hot pictures in there

My advice, for the future, would be to use one of the number of apps on the Market that can backup SMS messages - My Backup Pro is one example, but there are SMS specific ones too, some free. That way you have a backup if this happens again. You might also consider storing important information in a more suited place, such as an email to yourself, a note on a contact (both of which would be stored on Google's servers too, giving you an automatic backup), or maybe limit the number of messages on your phone to something a bit less scary.
 
Why would you want to keep every email you've ever received? Yet isn't that the principle behind Gmail?

It's far from unreasonable to want to keep all your messages. Sure, you'll never need most of them, but you never know when you might want to pull an obscure text that somebody else remembers different, or has an address on it you didn't think you'd need again. When I switched to Android from Windows Mobile, I invested a lot of time in transferring all my messages from my old phone, and now have 1569 texts. I don't think Android shouldn't be able to handle that number, but I do regular back-ups, because I have heard of this problem. It's something Google should rectify.

OP, for backup, I recommend "SMS Backup and Restore". It's free, works perfectly, and stores the messages in an easy-to-read XML file, so you can transfer it to your computer and edit it manually if you like. It might be worth downloading it and running a backup, see if the messages are maybe still on the phone, just not showing up for some reason. Run the backup, then look for the file sms.xml in /sdcard/SMSBackupRestore/. If your messages aren't in that, then they're probably gone for good
 
I use GMail and delete the vast majority of my emails. While it is the principle behind GMail, it is only encouraged by Google to drive their content based advertising - it's only done to make Google more money, and isn't something you have to do.

Actually, I agree with the "somebody remembers different" bit - that kind of thing has settled disagreements with me countless times in the past, and I'd often wished something was around that records voice 24/7 so I could prove people said certain things. Important stuff, like addresses, I would move elsewhere though.

Isn't it difficult to search through 3000 messages though to find what you're looking for? Or are messages searchable from the search bar? If you know the rough date/time that's easy, but what if it's some address you know you were sent at some point in 2007? How would you find it?

Android should be able to handle as many text messages as can fit in the memory.
 
I never delete email, just archive it, will often need to go back and find registration details for some website I used once, or just check what was said in a conversation.

Actually, didn't realise it, but the stock messaging app doesn't have any search facility, which is a bit bizarre and surprising, given Google's focus on searching. However, I use Handcent which has a search function, just type in a word and it will return every message containing it from the entire database in under a second. And of course, in the standard view, every message is in a threaded conversation, so it's wasy to find something if you know when it was sent
 
Why are all you droid users shocked? You mean this is not supposed to happen? I have had my droid for a little over a month and I constantly get "Messaging application bla bla - force close" then all my messages are gone. It is so darn frustrating.

Not to mention the fact that all my friends with their free phones are able to share animations, videos, text forwards etc and my f-ing droid won't play any of that.

Not to mention the fact that I cannot BUY any apps because I have a custom google domain (Not @gmail.com) but I use gmail to host my email.

I have almost had it with this phone. Android OS is so awesome and has so much potential but is NOT ready to released.

Not to mention all the times my phone will ring but won't show me the red or green balls giving me an option to ANSWER the call...

This phone is so frustrating...
 
A quick FYI for you - this problem has been going on since the Droid was released in December 2009, hundreds of people have lost thousands of text messages, over and over and over. Google can't fix it, you'll just have to live with this "feature".

See http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=5669

for more information.
 
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