Text messages don't actually get deleted

DCGOO wrote:
All that means is the constraint of a spotlight search has been limited to undeleted messages.

Thanks for the heads up.

It angers me that 2 years later, this is still an issue.

Windows deletes things so "you" can't search them out unless you're super techy.

Come on Apple - I can accept a false sense of security, just find a way to delete TEXTS from the phones "spotlight search" . It should be a flood light search or a interrogation room search.

i will send apple my thoughts. Yet another missed opportunity to fix stuff we beg them to fix for years.

I have just had my Iphone searched by GF using device/software bought online, it revealed EVERY call and text EVER made by me on phone, including date, time sender and FULL content of all messages, it feels like i have had my mind read. HOW do i delete all from memory to stop this. Spotlight search finds nothing, but 3rd party devices can find EVERYTHING *** Apple ;-(

Iphone 5. Latest Firmware..

I have Exactly the same problem as the Original Poster. I dont even have to type in a full word! Just single letters of the alphabet (certain ones) will pull out previews of texts I deleted months ago! And an Itunes synch does Not get rid of them, as some people have suggested on other forums!

This is my first ever iPhone. Apart from this issue I love it. Would of expected Apple to have sorted this out by now! Not good.

If you back up to iCloud or iTunes, and have not backed up since you deleted the messages, you can restore the backup and they will come back.

Caveat: You will lose all changes made to the phone since the last backup. Whether this is acceptable is entirely up to you.

Simply "erase all content and settings" and restore from the backup.

I am trying to retrieve text messages that were deleted. I had not backed up before they were deleted from the phone but have since restore the phone to factory settings. I have tried multiple ways to restore the messages as I lost a phone number for someone that had been texting me. If anyone knows how to restore or access the phone number I would greatly appreciate it. Note the phone number was used for sms only. thanks

Celeste

The fact is for some unknow reason Apple is keeping a record of these records whether you delete them or not, and it is not just a small record, for call history it can be many many months of deleted records it keeps , it has nothing to do with unused space or anything like that.

For sms they are stored in a file called SMS.db and for call history its called Call_History.db these files are hidden and you can only access them from the phone itself if the phone is jailbroken.

However what is more worrring is that these files are also in the backup stored in semi plain text ans you need only a plain text editor to read them not specialist software like something..

try for yourselfs..

Create a backup of you phone to your pc

Search for the backup location, (in mac you can go prefrences>devices>right click the backupo and click open in finder)

Open the following files in text editor

3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28   this is the sms databse

2b2b0084a1bc3a5ac8c27afdf14afb42c61a19ca   this is the call hsitory database

This is basic way to do it and there is alot of unreadable characters but you can still read alot of the sms and call istory if you look through

The big point is whyt it keeps these records even after syncing

Does anyone know if someting has changed with the sms database in IOS7?

Trying to recover a deleted sms, and I'm looking at the SqLite db directly, and can see that there is missing rows in the SMS db. As you can see the sequence below are missing ROWID 32378 and 32380.

Does the deleted rows end up in another database?

doyleleighty wrote:

Ashnewton

Oct 3, 2014 7:39 PM

Re: Text messages don't actually get deleted

in response to Kelly Wilkerson

Kelly,

I have been searching and trying all day long to recover deleted text message on iPhone. I sent the recipient another message in hopes that I could get that "load earlier" messages but that didn't happen. I use a software, probably not the best idea, and the current message does show but the rest of the conversation that I need is not showing up. Is there any help/advice you can give me? I really need the details of that conversation.

Thank you so much!

Maybe you use the software wrongly. Have you used it by following its directions? What kind of software are you using? Can you recommend it to me? I am using iPhone Data Recovery. It really works. But I also want to compare it with yours. You can also try to use this. Hope this help you.

If you have an iTunes backup, you can restore iPhone lost data from iTunes free. To restore from iTunes backup, you need to launch iTunes on the computer and go to iTunes>Preferences>Devic es. You will see a window with all of your backups listed on it.

SMS/MMS are not synced with an application on your computer or included with the iTunes sync process in any way except for being included with your iPhone's backup which is updated by iTunes as the first step during the iTunes sync process. The data included with the iPhone's backup is not stored in your iTunes library. This link provides the data on your iPhone that is included with your iPhone's backup.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

There are a number of 3rd party utilities that provide for extracting select data from your iPhone's backup on your computer for access to the data on your computer for archiving or printing, etc.

<Link Edited By Host>

Hey there trabazo,

It sounds like you have accidentally deleted some messages from the Messages app and wish to restore them. If you have a back up of your device in iCloud, you can try restoring from a previous backup with the following article:

iCloud: Restore your iOS device from iCloud

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521

Keep in mind that any new content on your device from after the date of the backup will be lost, so you may want to back up to either iCloud or iTunes first.

Choosing an iOS backup method (Should I use iTunes or iCloud to back up my iOS device?)

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5262

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Regards,

Sterling

2. Remove Messages from Spotlight Search - Your deleted SMS messages can't appear in a Spotlight search if Spotlight isn't looking for them in the first place. You can control what apps Spotlight searches in and which it ignores, so you can stop it from searching Messages. To do this:

1. From your home screen, tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Scroll about halfway down the screen and tap Spotlight Search
4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Messages to uncheck it

Right then: being unhappy with the advice given I have investigated further. Yes, it is possible to fix this problem.

This is how I did it:

1. Firstly buy the MyContactBackupPro app for you iPhone. Other apps are available and some are free. It doesn't matter which you use but make sure that the app is capable of sending your contacts list by e-mail.
2. Then backup your contact as per instructions in MCBUPro app.
3. e-mail the backup file to yourself as per instructions.
4. Now connect your phone to a PC/Mac and backup your iPhone using iTunes.
5. Now re-set you iPhone (settings/general/reset/erase all contents and settings) following on-screen instructions.
6. Your iPhone will now reboot itself as though it was a new phone. Follow on-screen instructions.
7. When phone has finished re-setting, re-enter your e-mail details.
8. Your emails will now download. This will include the e-mail that you sent to yourself with the contact backup app. Note:- if you use POP mail then it is likely that your server will download all the mails it is holding. This can be quite a lot. In my case 2500! These have to be deleted by hand .......
9. Now copy your apps across from iTunes. DO NOT USE BACKUP OR RESTORE AS THIS WILL RE-INTRODUCE THE PROBLEM YOU ARE TRYING TO ELIMINATE.
10. Restore your contacts from the e-mail you sent your self and which is now again on your phone.
11. Copy across your ring tones, music, apps, photos, TV programs, films etc. Do this by drag n drop NOT Restore!!!

Your iPhone will now be back to normal without the old numbers in the Message autofill. All that remains for you to do is to redo the app layout and all is OK.