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Cellular Phones/Recovering deleted SMS and MMS messages

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Expert: - 8/4/2010


Question
I have a Samsung Solstice A-887, on the AT&T network. I accidentally deleted several SMS and MMS messages which are very important to me. I have learned how to retrieve the 30 or so which were stored on the SIM card. Is it possible to retrieve the remainder of my messages - those which were stored on the phone's internal memory? The phone is powered down to prevent new messages from overwriting the deleted ones, IF they are still there. I know of a COMPLETELY dead zone, where there is NO service, where I can power up the phone for retrieval, if it is possible. Is it possible to save future messages to the SD memory card?

Answer
How were you able to retrieve the deleted messages from your SIM card? Was it with a SIM card reader? I'm not aware of any way to retrieve deleted messages that had been saved onto the phone's internal memory as there is no memory reader for a cell phone. Once text messages are deleted, they are gone from your phone. For people who really want to save text messages, I always recommend that they forward them via MMS to their home email address so that they can be saved onto the computer. You can't save text messages to an SD card. They can only be saved to the phone's memory or the SIM card. The text format is not compatible with anything else.

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DebiN

Expertise

I can answer questions on cellular phones, the physical device, the network, contracts, billing, ordering, porting and what to look for when purchasing cell phones. I am located in the United States. I am an expert on BlackBerrys, Treos, HTC devices and iPhones as well as cellphones and aircards. I have over 15 years of experience in both the wireless and wireline world with the carriers. I have a lot of knowledge regarding the wireless providers - their services, prices and policies, both GSM AT&T and T-Mobile) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint/Nextel). I am very familiar with the individual devices and their specifications. I can also answer questions regarding BlackBerrys, iPhones and other PDAs, both Palm-based and Windows-based. I can troubleshoot most any problem someone is having with their cellular device or with the provider.

Experience

Over 20 years in the Telecom industry working for the carriers with individuals, small business, medium business and large corporations(Fortune 500). Also worked as a professor in Maryland for 10 years teaching telecommunications.

Organizations
I belong to several organizations

Education/Credentials
Master's in Telecommunications

Awards and Honors
Received several awards for papers that I have published over the years

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