All of the providers retained records of the date and time of the text message and the parties to the message for time periods ranging from sixty days to seven years. However, the majority of cellular service providers do not save the content of text messages at all.
Federal law prevents companies from producing these documents without a court order or subpoena. Text message records must be obtained from a party's cell phone provider. An attorney can obtain a court order or subpoena to get the records directly from the service provider.
Your provider or "carrier" keeps records of your cellphone use, including calls and text messages, and even pictures sent from your phone. Almost all cellphone carriers give detailed information about a phone's use in billing statements sent to the owner.
Tap Settings, Messages, then scroll down and tap Keep Messages (under the Message History heading). Go ahead and decide how long you'd like to keep old text messages before they're deleted: for 30 days, a whole year, or forever and ever. In case you're wondering, no—there aren't any custom settings.
When you delete a piece of data from your device — a photo, video, text or document — it doesn't vanish. Instead, your device labels that space as available to be overwritten by new information.
When you delete a text message on your Samsung phone, the Messages app sends it to Recycle bin for 30 days.
They sit on the company's server for anywhere from three days to three months, depending on the company's policy. Verizon holds texts for up to five days and Virgin Mobile keeps them for 90 days. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint do not keep the contents of text messages.
So, can police recover deleted pictures, texts, and files from a phone? The answer is yes—by using special tools, they can find data that hasn't been overwritten yet. However, by using encryption methods, you can ensure your data is kept private, even after deletion.
Restore Texts from a Computer Backup
Check when the last backup was made on the computer. If the date of the backup is before you accidentally deleted the texts, you can restore that backup to your phone, and the text messages will be restored as well.
Long-press the message thread you'd like to remove. It will highlight with a checkmark. Tap on the trash can icon at the bottom and confirm.
A federal regulation requires landline providers to store call detail records 18 months, but wireless companies store the records for shorter – or significantly longer – periods of time.
Here's How Long Your Wireless Carrier Holds on to Your Location Data. AT&T keeps cell-site location information for up to five years; Verizon drops it after one.
Generally, texts and emails are private. Thus, you don't have a right to look at them without your spouse's consent. Doing so is viewed as an invasion of privacy. It doesn't matter whether you are married, separated or divorced.
All of the providers retained records of the date and time of the text message and the parties to the message for time periods ranging from sixty days to seven years. However, the majority of cellular service providers do not save the content of text messages at all.
The good news is that any Telstra iPhone customer that backs up their iPhone via iTunes has the ability to transfer their text messages to computer (as well as recover whatever deleted SMS messages and iMessages are available) with Decipher TextMessage.
Yes they can, so if you've been having an affair or doing something dodgy at work, beware! Messages are laid out on the SIM card as data files. When you move messages around or delete them, the data actually stays put. All you're doing is telling the phone to point at the files in different ways.
If you simply delete a text, they are still available. And there are common forensics tools used by both law enforcement and civil investigators to recover them.
The Android operating system stores text messages in the phone's memory, so if they're deleted, there's no way to retrieve them. You can, however, install a text message backup application from the Android market that allows you to restore any deleted text messages.
Access the same messages on all your devices
When you set up iCloud for Messages, your messages are stored in the cloud instead of locally on your device. You can see them on any device that's set up for iCloud and Messages, including your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.
According to Google Support, you can restore texts, calls, device settings, contacts, calendars, photos and videos by opening the Google Drive app, tapping “Menu” then “Backups” and then restoring the backup version you're looking for.
Most android phones have a messaging app that does not offer automatic backup for text messages. Yes, Google provides a backup option for text/SMS/MMS messages, but that doesn't offer advanced options like viewing or deleting them. You'll need to use a third-party app to save your texts for later use.
For copying or printing messages from an Android phone, we'll need Droid Transfer. Droid Transfer can access your Android device's data and copy it to your PC or print it out. The software can find any SMS or MMS message conversations on your device, and print them in the order they were sent.
Text messaging leaves an electronic record of dialogue that can be entered as evidence in court. Like other forms of written evidence, text messages must be authenticated in order to be admitted (see this article on admissibility by Steve Good).
If the law enforcement officers go to your cell service provider or Google, they can access information on your text messages and emails if they have a court order. If the police have a subpoena, they can access emails that date back as far as 180 days, whether they are opened or unopened.
You can keep personal data indefinitely if you are holding it only for: archiving purposes in the public interest; scientific or historical research purposes; or. statistical purposes.