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We’ve all done it at some point before. Going through a series of messages, we’ve accidentally deleted one. Come on, you can admit it. Sometimes we’re just a bit too quick to click the trackball, and it can turn into disaster. So what do you do in that case? Resign yourself to having lost the message permanently? While that might work for some, others want to recover it. Let’s take a look at how we can achieve this.
For a while, the stock answer has been “you can’t do that.” Once you delete something, it’s gone, and too bad for you. Thankfully, with a number of people having this question and asking it on forums, we’re able to figure out ways around the problem and recover our lost messages.
First we’ll look to timrcanada, poster at BlackBerry Forums, to see if his solution works. He claims:
Actually there is a workaround to this but you will have to spend time working on each message one by one…
Select the Search icon on your BB and do a search of your deleted messages if you can remember anything in the title or content of the message and if found, copy the message and forward it to another address ie your own hotmail addy etc.
You cannot forward deleted messages directly from the search…
You have to open the message, copy the content, then switch to create a new email message, paste the content, enter your forwarding email address in the to: field, type a subject and then you can send… phew!
I tried this on my Curve with both an SMS and an email. Both times, the search function did not find the deleted message. It appears this does not work. Perhaps it does with an earlier OS (I’m on 4.5)? If anyone wants to test this, let me know the results. For now, we’ll call it debunked. This was, by the way, timrcanada’s only post on BB Forums.
Thankfully, the next comment down gives us a better solution. It’s from a company called Dexrex, which aims to improve instant messaging. They offer BlackBerry software which can record your SMS conversations. This way, if you lose one you won’t lose it for good. This seems like the best way, currently, to secure the text messages on your BlackBerry. It only works for SMS right now, though the company claims it is working on extending the capability to BlackBerry PIN messages.
If you want to test out Dexrex, you can point your BlackBerry Browser to http://www.dexrex.com/mobile/blackberry. You’ll go through the OTA download process. If you do, let me know how it works. If I get around to testing it myself, I’ll post a quick review on the site.
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27 Comments ↓
I just got a BB Curve and I was looking quick how to’s and bam…your site was #1 on the list.
Thanks for the tips bro.
hi
I tried dexrex but now I’m using txtForward – this just forwards txt messages to an email-adress – without the whole online-login-thing..
cheers
Hey Joe,
Thanks for the plug! We hope you do get a chance to try out our application. Just to clarify – Dexrex has to be running to archive your SMS messages. The app currently does not upload older SMSs, nor does it find deleted messages. But, if you have Dexrex running and you delete an SMS off your phone, you will have a copy in your online account on dexrex.com for as long (or as short) as you want it there.
Thanks again Joe! And yes, we are planning to work for pin messages as well:)
Cheers,
would you know if you can recover the address book after erasing it on a black berry curve?
So you can’t recover the message without a program?
Unless the first process works for you — otherwise yes you will need the program to recover your deleted texts
I tried out dexrex and holy f**K it is awsome. I had my doubts if this even worked but it does. I highly advise anybody suspicious of there spouce to give this a try!!!!!!!!!!
Re: #10405 – well lets not say….
Does it show on the phone that it’s backing up, or does it just do it?
I have been trying to get dexrex to work on my blk berry but so far I can only get to step 3 it neve takes me to the 4th and final setup step pls help!
Looking for a program that recoverys old text messages and black berry instant messeges. Have a feeling I need to be watching someone. What program and how far back can I search deleted info.
Any help greatly appreciated.
forgot to add looking for recovery on a BB world edition.
i have an alltel blackberry curve and i recently deleted an important text message, i tried the solution suggested by timrcanada and searching for the deleted message worked, but since there’s no way to restore it from the original sender will this deleted text show up in the search forever or will it get deleted from the search or no longer show up eventually?
i have a blackberry storm and have recently deleted a text message i need to recover. is this possible with a program? or will i need to take legal action to retrieve it?
i tired the search on my blackberry and it worked for the deleted nessages from the past few days, it did bring up the deleted calls too.
My office manager has imbezzled over 130 g’s in 9 months cleanining me out. I have retrieved 12 texts to another employees phone talking about her money, which leads me to believe if I could retrieve her messages on the blackberry phone I gave her I could have more evidence. She cleaned it out before having her attorney mail it to me.
If it was a blackberry hooked up on a BES you could most likely retrieve those messages and many more crucial bits of data. If the phone was just hooked up on a standard data plan then you will not be able to retrieve that data.
I’m having so much terrible with this. i didn’t retrieve a thing.
I am about to go to jail for 5 years and I can not afford phone forensics. Exgirlfriend lied and the evidence that will free my name and prevent 5 yrs jailtime is all in many many mnay lost text messages. U have no idea how BROKEN my SOUL is.
hi
how do i get the 2nd page of a text message on my blackberry storm?? I know there is more to it,but cannot seem to get the second half….
yes I am VERY technically inferior…LOL
TY!!:)
@tasha
When you receive the long text message it will be split into multiple parts. Each of these will be a separate message in your inbox. Usually identified as 1/2 then 2/2 etc.
Hi
Does anyone out there know how to retrieve messages that have “fallen off”, time expired on a blackberry storm?
Please let me know in simple to understand ways to re-instate.
Thanks
I have a blackberry curve 8330 and was unable to recover lost SMS text with the initial posters instructions…..
i would like to know how i can recover phone numbers that has been deleted from my address…thanks prisiclla
@priscilla Unless you have your contacts backed up previous to the deletion of that number there is no way to get it back.
I have a BB Tour that I bought January 23, 2010.
Up until today, all of my SMS messages were saved in the SMS Message folder. Everything was perfect, and then I was looking through them today, and suddenly all my SMS messages before 1:51am February 13th, are all deleted. This shouldn’t have happened because Blackberry’s are supposed to hold more than 2 days worth of SMS messages, right? Also I received SMS messages before 1:51am, but they’re gone as well. Any one know what may have happened?
@Confused – your messages should not be deleting so quickly. Check the following:
go to messages
menu key to options
general options
scroll down and check to see how long you have it set to keep your messages – set to 30 days
Dear Confused – your BB is prob out of memory. Once it’s out of memory it starts deleting on its own. Just clean out apps you don’t use and photographs ie back up. Also use cortez sms text forwarding to forward texts to inbox.
PS I’ve read thru this thing and I still haven’t found a solution to retrieve a deleted message on a BB curve…
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