iOS 4.3 bug - Deleted All Text Messages

Just happened to me too. Tried to send a picture from my photo library and the iPhone (3GS running latest iOS update) froze on a screen of the AppStore "update" page (telling me I needed to update 2 apps that I had already updated the day before). After awhile the lock screen came up, I unlocked the phone, and all my text messages were gone.

I updated the software on my phone yesterday to the 4.3.3 and when I tried to send a picture text message my screen went blank and then the black screen with the apple icon showed and then when I went back to my text messages, they had all been deleted. Then when I tried to restore my phone to the backup right before I updated the software it would not back up my phone to that previous backup, so now I have to backup my phone to a backup from March.

the same exact thing just happened to me.... i'm really upset about it and i already synced my phone so i guess i screwed myself over by doing that. this is the first time that i've ever been upset with my phone, or any apple product because it can't be fixed.

It didn't just erase my texts, it erased every bit of information I had on my ipod, and when I went to restore it with the backup I had, it was gone.

The exact thing just happened to me. Texting a friend, tried to send a pic, black screen, apple logo, phone is back and ALL my texts are gone! First logical thing to do? Sync it back and get things back to normal right? Wrong! So what am I supposed to do? On search I can still see messages, but when I click on them I go to the (now) empty Message app main screen. There must be a way to recover them...

Exactly the same as cassiofm. I would love knowing how to recover them as they can be seen on the "search function". It is quite... stunning, the first time the iphone deceives me. I hope someone got a solution to it, because if it had to happen on all the iphones, it might damage the image of the company... such as the confidence of the iphone users into it, as not even the recovery by itunes is possible. ****, I can believe it, need to recover them !

Exactly the same thing just happened to me. Sending a picture message, and whoop... the phone blanks out and poof went the messages!

I'm not going to be too broken up over this, but I lost a lot of personal/meaningful messages sent to me. Complete garbage. There's no way something like this should be happening.

I've actually had so many problems with my 3GS, and am starting to regret ever getting it.

Same exact thing here. Read through all these posts and take it there's no solution? I don't want to sync my phone until I know for sure that the texts are just GONE. Even if I can get the older ones back, there are some since the past backup that mean a lot to me : (

Do I go ahead or wait it out to see if someone comes up with something that's worked for them?

Miserable that I lost ALL my texts.

The same thing happened to me. I was sending a picture message on Saturday from the beach and my phone went black, saw the white apple icon and then when I went back to inbox, it was completely empty. I thought at first maybe my phone had over heated in the sun but after reading this forum know that it was a glitch. I had text message history from 2009 to now and only have one backup from 2010 from when I went from a 3gs to the iPhone4. Shame on me for not having a more recent backup. The worst part is that I (SO STUPIDLY) plugged my iPhone into my mac when I got home and iTunes started synching automatically. Unplugged my iPhone quickly but I think the damage had already been done (to my previous backup). I am sick to my stomach at the thought of losing so many important and meaningful conversations. The weirdest thing is that you can still see so many messages when you use the search function. This is giving me a false sense of hope that the messages still remain somewhere; cached, hidden or just not accessible. I have been researching solutions to this for the past day and have yet to find something promising. I have looked in the "back-up" files on my mac (application support-->mobile sync-->backup) but I can't determine if there is a viable backup with my messages in it. Please post if you have ANY information or suggestions! Apple, this is my first major let-down with my iPhone and unfortunately it is a BAD one.

Same story here as well..

Did the update yesterday and today I went to send a picture and i got a blank screen for a few seconds and then all my texts are gone. Restoring from backup in progress... hoping for good results.

Exact same thing just happened to me.

Sure, I could restore my phone to an earlier point, but I will still have lost all my information from between that time and now, which would be significant considering the importance of my recent stuff. I would really appreciate some alternative suggestions, or at least a way to extract/merge present data.

Please & thank you.