Everyone loves to text, and these days it is easier than ever with smart phones that are touch screen, have auto correct (which, frankly, can be annoying at times), and even some third party apps that allow you to text for free. As with anything, popularity and frequent use comes with a price - problems. How many times have you deleted a text message that is full of information that you need back? Do you think that text message is gone forever? In some cases, that may hold true, but there is a good chance that you can get some or all of the information back. Take an Apple iPhone, for example. Much like a computer, when information is deleted it is not truly erased. When you delete a text message from an iPhone, it is actually still there. However, it is now being held in the unallocated portion of the physical memory. The bad news is that anything that is in the unallocated portion of the memory is subject to being overwritten. Thus, consider the biggest factors that affect the retrieval of iPhone text messages are available free memory and usage. For example, if you have a 16GB iPhone and it has 15.8GB of music, photos, text messages, and apps on it, chances are unallocated memory is going to be overwritten quickly. Along the same lines, if the iPhone user is texting constantly (like my teenager who sends and receives in excess of five thousand text messages per month), the risk of the deleted text messages being overwritten increases. Another thing to keep in mind is that there is no rhyme or reason as to the way an iPhone writes data to the physical memory. It doesn't care if the data is old or new, it just writes it to whatever portion of the unallocated memory is easiest to write to at the time. Thus, when recovering deleted information, you may get back all of the message, but you may also get back only part of it. Some say that your cell provider can give you access to all of your incoming and outgoing text messages. Although it is true that some cell carriers maintain the content of all incoming and outgoing text messages, I have found it to be the case that they will not just give them to you. Most need a court order as the only reason they retain this information is for law enforcement authorities investigation purposes. Search the internet. There is a plethora of knowledge out there by doing a simple Google search. There are forums dedicated to the subject, and many "techies" roam these forums and post great information. Some call for your iPhone to be "jailbroken", which I don't recommend, but if your iPhone is jailbroken, you may just find the information you need. If you don't want to do or feel comfortable doing the forensic work on your iPhone yourself, there is recovery software on the market. One of the most important things you can do before purchasing any type of recovery software is to know your iOS version. Make sure that the software you get is compatible with your iOS version, and it is also best to make sure that the software comes with free updates. This is because Apple releases iOS versions fairly regularly, and if your recovery software doesn't come with updates, it will soon be outdated. You never know when you will need to use it again! Beware of SIM card recovery software when dealing with iPhone! AT&T iPhones uses the SIM card for GSM (cellular network) service only. They do not save text messages to the SIM card. Accidents can happen to anyone. If you have inadvertently deleted text messages that you need and are looking for information on how to retrieve iPhone deleted text messages, there are plenty of options that may help you get them back. Jeff Monson is a web enthusiast, proud husband and father of four, retired military member, and co-owner of JLM Merchandise Surveillance and Security Products. If you'd like to connect with Jeff, become a Facebook Fan or follow him on Twitter.
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iPhone, data recovery, retrieve deleted text messages, text recovery,
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