Text messages often contain important information that you don’t want to lose. Whether you accidentally deleted a conversation or your phone died and took your messages with it, being able to recover deleted or lost text messages on Android can be a lifesaver.
The good news is that there are several methods you can use to try to retrieve deleted text messages on Android phones. The options available depend on how the messages were lost in the first place.
Recovering deleted text messages on Android
If you recently deleted messages that you now need to get back, the easiest way is to simply restore them from your Android device’s trash folder if the messages are still there.
Here’s how to restore deleted text messages on Android from the trash folder:
- Open the Messages app.
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Trash” from the menu.
- Find the text conversation you want to restore.
- Long press the conversation.
- Tap “Restore” to move the texts back to your main messages inbox.
This allows you to recover deleted messages on Android as long as they haven’t been permanently erased from the trash folder yet. Your phone will automatically delete conversations in the trash after 30 days or so.
Using data backup to restore deleted texts
If the text messages you need have already been permanently deleted and cleared from your Android’s trash folder, your next option is to restore them from a backup.
Your Android device automatically backs up your text messages to your Google account from time to time. So you may be able to restore recently deleted texts from Google Drive.
To recover deleted texts from Google Drive backup on Android:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap on “System”.
- Select “Backup”.
- Tap on “Back up to Google Drive”.
- Make sure “Back up my data” and “SMS” are checked.
- Tap “Restore from backup” at the bottom.
- Select a recent backup that contains the deleted texts you need.
- Tap “Restore” to retrieve the text messages.
This will work if the text conversations you need were included in a Google Drive backup from shortly before they were deleted.
Using a third-party app to recover deleted texts
If your lost Android text messages aren’t in the trash or available from a recent backup, your last resort is to use data recovery software.
There are a few apps available for Android that can scan your device’s storage and recover deleted text messages. Some options to try include:
- EaseUS MobiSaver for Android. Allows restoring SMS messages deleted up to 2 weeks ago.
- Dr.Fone – Recover (Android). Claims to restore permanently deleted texts from internal memory or SD card.
- SMS Restore & Backup. Can retrieve deleted SMS/MMS and call history.
These data recovery apps scan your phone’s storage for trace remnants of deleted text conversations. They can often recover at least some lost SMS messages and texts that are no longer accessible through Android’s native tools.
Just install the app, grant it the needed permissions, select “Recover Deleted Data”, and scan your device. With luck, you’ll be able to restore some or all of your lost text messages.
Recovering lost text messages on Android
If text messages went missing or got deleted from your Android phone inadvertently due to a system error, crash, reset or other issue, recovering them works a bit differently.
Using device or cloud backups
As with deleted texts, your best bet is to restore the lost messages from a backup. If you had text message backups enabled, you may find your messages are still available in either your device storage or your Google Drive backups.
To look for lost text messages in a local Android backup:
- Go to Settings > System > Backup.
- Tap “Back up my data” to enable backups.
- Tap “Restore from backup” at the bottom.
- Pick a backup to restore texts from.
And to retrieve lost SMS messages from Google Drive:
- Enable backup of texts to Google Drive.
- Go to drive.google.com on a computer.
- Open the backup folder.
- Find the most recent backup and download it.
- Transfer the backup file to your Android device.
- Use a file manager app to locate the backup file.
- Tap to restore it and recover missing text messages.
Via data recovery apps
Third-party Android data recovery software is the other option for resurrecting text messages you can no longer find on your phone or in backups. Apps like EaseUS MobiSaver, Dr.Fone, and SMS Restore & Backup can scan for lost or deleted texts.
The key is to avoid writing any new data to your device if possible after the messages vanished. This minimizes the chance of the lost texts being overwritten.
Then download and run a recovery app so it can scan your phone’s internal and external storage for traces of the missing SMS conversations. With some luck, at least some of the lost texts are likely to be retrieved.
How to back up text messages on Android
To avoid finding yourself needing to recover deleted or lost text messages in the future, make sure you are regularly backing up your text messages.
Enable automatic backup to Google Drive
As mentioned previously, Android devices can automatically back up SMS text messages to your Google Drive storage. Here is how to enable it:
- Open Settings.
- Tap System > Backup.
- Turn on “Back up to Google Drive”.
- Enable “SMS” under the “Backup account data” header.
With this on, your SMS conversations will periodically save to your Google Drive account. You can then restore the texts if needed.
Use a third-party backup tool
For more control over text message backups, consider using a dedicated app such as:
- SMS Backup & Restore. Backs up texts to the cloud or device storage.
- SyncMe Wireless. Syncs SMS to accounts like Google, Dropbox.
- Super Backup. Backup SMS to SD card or email.
These apps let you manually trigger a text message backup straight to cloud storage or a local file. Some also allow restoring SMS conversations to a new device.
Export text messages manually
You can also manually export text messages from your Android phone to create a backup. Here’s how:
- Open the Messages app.
- Tap the conversation with texts you want to export.
- Tap the three-dot menu in top right corner.
- Choose either “Export messages” or “Save to custom folder”.
- Select Save as XML or text file.
This saves copies of your SMS messages as downloadable files you can restore from later. You can back up individual text threads or your entire message history this way.
Conclusion
Retrieving lost and deleted text messages on your Android phone is often possible with a little work. Backing up your texts regularly is ideal for avoiding issues down the road. But should you need to recover past SMS conversations, you have options like:
- Restoring recently deleted texts from the trash folder.
- Using Google Drive or local data backups.
- Scanning your phone’s storage with data recovery apps.
With the right tools and techniques, you stand a good chance of being able to get back missing text messages on Android and salvage what looked like lost data. Just act quickly before deleted or lost SMS content gets overwritten by new data.