text retrieval from a sim

Roadkillv1 · 30 Dec 2012 at 23:34

about a week ago i deleted an important text from my galaxy that had a code in it i need. i've looked around at ways to retrieve it (it hasn't been overwritten yet) and everywhere says get a sim-usb, which i have, and use software but i can't find any good software (and by that i mean good free software) that can help. anyone know of a good one? data doctor sounded good but the demo won't show me anything.

d_brennen · 30 Dec 2012 at 23:38

Texts are mostly stored in on the phone these days are they not?

Roadkillv1 · 31 Dec 2012 at 00:15

apparently android stores them on the sim not the handset. that is mostly what i have read so far.

Kreeeee · 31 Dec 2012 at 01:57

All my note II and S2 texts were stored on the phone. I could access them without the sim here: data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Can't help you with free software, I work in Computer Forensics so all the tools I use for this stuff costs a bomb.

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2012 at 02:03

I'd be surprised if it was storing them on the SIM - most have a very limited capacity. Last phone I had that used the SIM for SMS storage was limited to 10 messages.

Kreeeee · 31 Dec 2012 at 02:05

You need root to access that path by the way, and SQLite to view the database. I've not looked for deleted messages there myself but as it's a database I believe you're out of luck.

Roadkillv1 · 31 Dec 2012 at 17:57

it made more sense to me that the things were stored on the handset than the sim, but like i said i was only going by what i was told.

soooo...if they have been deleted, they are gone

FUDGE

Rusty! · 1 Jan 2013 at 09:46

SMSs haven't stored on the SIM for years, they just don't have the capacity.

Confused Stu · 1 Jan 2013 at 12:15

Kreeeee said:
You need root to access that path by the way, and SQLite to view the database. I've not looked for deleted messages there myself but as it's a database I believe you're out of luck.

Sadly, Android doesn't store deleted SMS in the database, unlike the iPhone. The only was is by dumping the correct portion of the NAND and searching it for fragments of previous mmssms.db's or the transactional files used when the SMS was deleted. As you said, rather expensive kit required unless you already have access to a forensic unit and lots of time required.

Kreeeee · 1 Jan 2013 at 12:26

I assumed as much. Thanks for the confirmation.