You'll often find me talking about new features that Google Messages is about to get. But this story isn't about any upcoming capability; it's about a bug that's randomly deleting conversations in Google Messages. Here's everything you need to know about it, including the affected devices and what you should do to keep your important messages safe.
Google Messages deleting text history automatically
There are a good number of online reports on both the Google support forum and Reddit suggesting that Google Messages is randomly deleting text messages. For some users, only a few messages have disappeared, while others report that their entire conversations have vanished.
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A Reddit user posted that most of their messages across several different chats had disappeared. In some chats, months of chat logs had been automatically deleted. Another user mentioned that the conversations had disappeared permanently, as they weren't even available in the archive or trash folder.
It's mainly impacting Samsung devices
Almost all users who have encountered this problem report experiencing it on their Samsung Galaxy devices. The Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy A52, and Galaxy S23 are among the many models where this issue has been reported.
When you switch to the Google Messages app from any other option, the app re-indexes the database of all your conversations. This process can take up to a couple of days, depending on the size of the database. So, if you can't find a particular message or set of messages, there's a possibility that they might not have been indexed yet.
According to the expert, all messages in Samsung Messages that were hosted by your carrier, instead of Google's Jibe server, will also not appear in the Google Messages app. In addition to these two scenarios, the expert notes a known bug that prevents smartphones from fully processing message blocks. As a result, certain messages or entire conversations may not appear, even though they are stored in the device's memory.
If you had to ditch Google Messages today, which messaging app would you choose?
Things to try
Google's Help & Feedback option. | Image by PhoneArena
There are a few things that you can try in this situation, with the first solution being to wait. As mentioned above, the syncing process of the database from Samsung Messages to Google Messages can take a couple of days, especially if you have a large conversation history. In this case, the best thing you can do is to wait for a couple of days after you have made the switch.
The entire syncing process might stop midway for some reason, which may eventually result in you never recovering your missing conversation. To restart the process, you can try the force sync trick. To do this, you need to first set Samsung Messages as the default messaging app and then restart your smartphone.
After that, you need to open the app and give it a couple of minutes to load all the conversations. Then, you need to set Google Messages as the default messaging app again, and this will automatically start the syncing process.
It might also be the case that the Google messaging app might have incorrectly categorized the message you are looking for as "Unknown." So, you can also consider checking the Unknown folder in the app to see if you can find your messages there.
A Reddit user shared a solution that worked for them. They first backed up all their messages using the SMS Backup and Restore app. After that, they switched to Google Messages and found that all messages were already present there.
You can also consider installing another SMS app like Textra and see if the missing messages appear on it. If yes, it confirms that those SMS messages are still stored on your device. You can then try reinstalling the Google Messages app or clearing its cache data to see if it helps.
If none of the solutions turn out to be helpful (which appears to be the case according to the comments), you can send your feedback to the Google support team. To do this, you need to open the Google Messages app, tap your profile icon, and choose Help & feedback. Choose the Send feedback option at the bottom of the page, and then in the following window, describe your problem and hit the Send button.
This isn't the first time the problem has occurred
The surprising part is that this isn't the first time we've heard about messages disappearing from Google Messages. According to a post on the Google support forum, a similar incident happened in 2019 as well. The post has over 1,000 upvotes, suggesting it was definitely a widespread issue at that time.
Nevertheless, the current situation seems limited to Samsung devices and is probably related to the syncing process between Google Messages and Samsung Messages. In fact, when I heard that the tech giant was discontinuing its messaging app, the main question that came to my mind was how the whole migration process would take place.
We're still waiting for any official solution from Google. As of now, the only thing that seems to work is to back up all your messages before making the switch and restore them after you have set Google Messages as the default messaging app on your Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
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Aman Kumar is a tech news writer with a long-standing passion for smartphones. Aman specializes in everything smartphones, from AI features like Pixel’s Camera Coach to understanding ideal hardware combinations. He loves breaking down complex features in a simple, clear way and hopes manufacturers bring back bold designs like the Nokia N-Gage. When he’s not writing, he’s either gaming on PUBG or talking fitness as a dedicated gym enthusiast.
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