Text Messages Disappeared

[SeraphinaMuse]

HELP! This morning I awoke to find that all of my old text messages on my Samsung 9+ - with the exception of the few that were starred - have disappeared. I have cleared the cache and restarted the phone several times, but no luck. Any thoughts or suggestions? 

Many, many thanks!!

[Oxford]

Have you looked in the trash and Device Care?

[SeraphinaMuse]

I have, but nothing is showing up.

[RichardBernardHolden]

Might have to get a new phone

[realaud]

Do you, by chance, have "Delete old Messages" enabled in the Samsung Message settings (I assume you are using Samsung Messages)? If you do, your oldest messages will be deleted after you reach 200 texts.  You can go to the settings and turn that off so it doesn't happen again.  Also, there is a setting to keep deleted messages for 30 days, if that is off then they will be directly deleted, not sent to trash.

[SeraphinaMuse]

I checked and I do not have "delete old messages" activated. I have had the phone for several years and this is the first time this has ever happened.

[realaud]

The only potentially useful advice I can offer would be to reset your phone and restore your GOOGLE backup (not the Samsung, which has probably already backed up minus the missing messages). The only time, unfortunately, you can restore a Google backup is upon first restart after a reset.  You can try switching to Google messages first and see if they somehow come back.  Whatever you decide, going forward, if your historical texts are important to you, download SMS backup and restore from the play store and set it to auto backup your messages periodically.

[SeraphinaMuse]

Thank you. But a reset would delete all my contacts, correct?

[realaud]

Unless you turned it off, your contacts automatically backup to Google. Google sync is the default when you get your phone. You can check by going to contacts.google.com.  If they are there, you don't have to worry, they will come back with the restore of the Google backup.  You can also check your photos are backed up in Google photos: photos.google.com. If you have your photos arranged in albums in your gallery, you might want to connect your phone to a PC (if you have one) or flash drive and transfer the files to a PC.  You can also use Smart Switch to make sure you save any important stuff to a PC or flash drive, as you can selectively transfer. So you can choose to backup your contacts and photos and any important documents or even make a complete backup of everything on your phone, provided you have a drive big enough (Smart Switch will tell you how much storage you need after you select what you want backed up). It's not a bad idea to have at least one complete system backup.