Text Message Storage

vne147 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 11:05 AM

Hello everyone. I'm hoping you can help me solve a problem I'm experiencing. I have a Verizon HTC Touch Pro II with Windows Mobile 6 installed. A few days ago the date on my phone was accidently changed to over a year in the future when I put the phone into my pocket without first turing off the screen. Before I realized the date was screwed up I recieved several text message which consequently got stored with incorrect time stamps. Now the threaded view of my text messages is screwed up becasue the phone thinks that text messages I recieve now, arrived before the text message I got a few days ago that were stored with incorrect timestamps. I hope I clearly explained that. So my questions are:

1. Does anyone know where on the phone the SMS archive is stored?
2. Can I edit the archive file to fix the timestamps?
3. Is there a way to fix this short of clearing my SMS history?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

tkjames · #2 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 11:12 AM

What's the date? If it's 2016 there is a fix for that.

**fishingmedic** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tkjames

What's the date? If it's 2016 there is a fix for that.

But I don't think it fixes the dates of already received messages. I believe the only way to correct it is to delete the texts with the incorrect dates IIRC.

vne147 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 12:46 PM

Thanks for the responses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tkjames

What's the date? If it's 2016 there is a fix for that.

It was 3/4/2011.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishingmedic

But I don't think it fixes the dates of already received messages. I believe the only way to correct it is to delete the texts with the incorrect dates IIRC.

How do I delete individual text messages? All I see is an option to delete an entire conversation which in my case is like 50 texts long.

**fishingmedic** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vne147

How do I delete individual text messages? All I see is an option to delete an entire conversation which in my case is like 50 texts long.

If you scroll over to the text tab, you can delete individually received ones. That's what I do if there are specific ones I want to keep rather than an entire conversation. I don't know what you can do for sent ones though.

vne147 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishingmedic

If you scroll over to the text tab, you can delete individually received ones. That's what I do if there are specific ones I want to keep rather than an entire conversation. I don't know what you can do for sent ones though.

Dir!!! I should have been able to figure that out. I'm a fairly experienced programmer and I sometimes think it's funny how I can write my own software from scratch but I can't operate existing software worth a damn. Anyways, thanks for the pointer. That fixed part of my problem but as you stated, the messages I sent with the incorrect time stamps are still there.

I'm trying another idea right now. I used PM Backup to back up all the text messages into a text file. I'm going to try to modify the text file to correct the dates and then restore my texts from the modified file. Any thoughts on this idea?

vne147 · #7 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 02:33 PM

I tried my idea and it didn't work. I modified the text file PIM backup created using notepad on a PC. I made sure I maintaine dthe same formatting. At least I thought I did. I'm not sure if notepad did anything to the file (i.e. added whitespace charatcters, etc) but what I tried to restore my texts in PIM backup using the modified back up file, I got an error message saying that it wans't a valid PIM backup file. Any ideas anyone? Thanks.

**fishingmedic** · #8 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vne147

I tried my idea and it didn't work. I modified the text file PIM backup created using notepad on a PC. I made sure I maintaine dthe same formatting. At least I thought I did. I'm not sure if notepad did anything to the file (i.e. added whitespace charatcters, etc) but what I tried to restore my texts in PIM backup using the modified back up file, I got an error message saying that it wans't a valid PIM backup file. Any ideas anyone? Thanks.

try msmyphone, sync the texts and try deleting the bad ones individually. idk if u can, i cant check as im mobile right now but it might work.

JR2 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 03:10 PM

If you want to take the time to remove individual messages, change your text messaging layout from threaded to classic and make the deletes. When done, you can change it back. On my Verizon TP2 6.5, it's Start/Settings/System/Text Messaging. You probably will have to soft reset with each layout change.

JR

vne147 · #10 (**permalink**) 02-22-2010, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JR2

If you want to take the time to remove individual messages, change your text messaging layout from threaded to classic and make the deletes. When done, you can change it back. On my Verizon TP2 6.5, it's Start/Settings/System/Text Messaging. You probably will have to soft reset with each layout change.

JR

This worked! I had to delete the messages I sent with the incorrect time stamps from the sent items folder and also from the deleted items folder before they didn't show up in the threaded view.

Thanks for the help everyone.