The scenario is all too familiar. You deleted a text because of a finger slip or a gap in attention. Later, you realize your error, and now it’s time to fish that text out of whatever black hole it was sent to. If you have an iPhone, you canrecover your deleted messages with ease. If you have an Android phone, it’s possible to restore texts, but it all depends on which app you’re using to send and receive messages or your level of tech-savvy.
With that in mind, let’s check out the various methods that might help you retrieve a deleted text message. We’ll order this from the easiest to the most difficult. Let’s see if any of them work, shall we?
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Check to see if your texting app has a recycle bin
This is a hit-or-miss solution as many apps, including the popularGoogle Messages, do not have a recycle bin or a deleted messages folder. If you delete a text in an app without one, it’s gone forever and there isn’t much you can do about it.
Fortunately, the stock texting apps installed on phones from Samsung and OnePlus do have a place for deleted messages. So, unless you’ve intentionally changed your default messaging app (such as to the Google Messages app), you most likely can get your texts back. Here’s how to do it on Samsung devices:
Please note that this process may be subtly different for other SMS apps with a trash or deleted folder function. Also, be aware that messaging apps with a trash bin usually auto-delete texts at 30 days. If the texts are deleted from the trash after that time, they are gone.
Restore a backup
If you’ve spent any time researching how to get deleted messages back, then you already know that a Google One backup of your phone has your old messages, but you can’t restore said backups without a factory reset of your phone. That is a total bummer and something Google should consider changing to alleviate a lot of headaches for a lot of folks.
However, Samsung phone owners have Samsung’s cloud service available as well and, if that backup option exists, you can restore your texts directly from it without factory resetting your phone, assuming a backup hasn’t been created since you deleted the messages. Here’s how to do that:
Additionally, apps like Pulse SMS andSyncTech SMS Backup & Restorecan also back up your texts. If you have any of those backups, you can restore them at will.
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Factory reset your phone to restore a Google One backup
This seems rather extreme, doesn’t it? It is a viable method, though, especially if your backup exists from before you deleted your text message. While the most tedious of all the methods, it’s not difficult to do. We’ll briefly walk you through these steps as well.
The best way to take advantage of this method is with a secondary phone. Then, you may safely factory reset a phone you’re not actively using and restore the backup there instead. From there, you can use an app like SyncTech’sSMS Backup & Restore appto back up the texts on your secondary phone and port them to your current phone.
Use the Activity Launcher app to force a restore from Google One
This method does not work with every phone, but it does work with some of them. On Google Play, there is an app called Activity Launcher. The app lets you load activities that are stored on the device, which includes the app that controls the setup process. Thus, it is possible to force your phone to go through the setup process and restore a backup despite already being set up. Here’s how to do it.
I attempted this on myGalaxy S24 Ultrawith no success, so it doesn’t work with every phone, even modern ones. This is one of several shot-in-the-dark ideas that has worked for some folks.
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Use ADB to force restore a Google One backup
This is by far the most difficult option, but it has worked for people in the past. You’ll need a bit of tech-savvy, so have some patience with yourself if you haven’t used ADB before. For this method, you’ll need the following items:
Please do not proceed to the steps below until you can connect your Android phone to your PC, open a Command Prompt window, type “adb devices,” and get a response. Once you can do that, proceed with the steps below. This was adapted fromthis methodon Reddit by user Bob_Folowski.
That’s it. Two commands and you’re all done. Bob_Folowski notes that this method doesn’t overwrite your existing texts, so the only texts that’ll be added back to your conversations are ones that have been previously deleted. The command window will show that it restored a package and that it’s done. Once you see that it’s done, you can close out of the window and disconnect your phone.
