# FYI easily find deleted texts on iphone 4



## rodphoto (Jan 8, 2013)

After researching the web for countless hours about software to find deleted messages on my wife's iphone I figured out this super easy method.

From the home screen swipe left to right until the spotlight page appears. Its a screen with the key board at bottom and a box at the top that says "search iphone" type your typical search words, anything sexual etc... All past messeges containing the search word will appear on a list, deleted or not. You'll only get the first line but that is usually enough. Just busted my wife again doing this a few days ago!

Hope you don't find yourself in my situation!


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## weightlifter (Dec 14, 2012)

Tagging. Op do you mind if i quote this and put this in my infamous evidence document? Credit to you of course.


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## LongWalk (Apr 4, 2013)

What did you find exactly? References to sex acts or dates with OM?


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## kristin2349 (Sep 12, 2013)

weightlifter said:


> Tagging. Op do you mind if i quote this and put this in my infamous evidence document? Credit to you of course.


Please say yes! Weightlifter, have I patted you on the head this week?


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## kristin2349 (Sep 12, 2013)

rodphoto said:


> After researching the web for countless hours about software to find deleted messages on my wife's iphone I figured out this super easy method.
> 
> From the home screen swipe left to right until the spotlight page appears. Its a screen with the key board at bottom and a box at the top that says "search iphone" type your typical search words, anything sexual etc... All past messeges containing the search word will appear on a list, deleted or not. You'll only get the first line but that is usually enough. Just busted my wife again doing this a few days ago!
> 
> Hope you don't find yourself in my situation!



Sorry OP, that really sucks. Thanks for sharing the info.


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## weightlifter (Dec 14, 2012)

kristin2349 said:


> Please say yes! Weightlifter, have I patted you on the head this week?


LOL 

Woof

Btw when you putting up your story on private? Still wondering how exactly i helped you since you poached another posters advice.


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## PhillyGuy13 (Nov 29, 2013)

Nice tip. Kind of works with iPhone 5 as well. I deleted a friends text (iMessage) just now and it did find it in the search. One line summary as stated above. I did do a search for an older convo with a friend and it didn't find that though, so not sure how long it lasts...
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## rodphoto (Jan 8, 2013)

Weightlifter... go ahead and quote it. I put it there to help other people in the same situation I was. I was going crazy, my gut was telling me she was cheating again but I couldn't prove it. I was second guessing myself, enough to drive you bat**** crazy. Finally finding out with certainty saved my sanity.


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## soccermom2three (Jan 4, 2013)

PhillyGuy13 said:


> Nice tip. Kind of works with iPhone 5 as well. I deleted a friends text (iMessage) just now and it did find it in the search. One line summary as stated above. I did do a search for an older convo with a friend and it didn't find that though, so not sure how long it lasts...
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


I think the space where the deleted text was located eventually gets overwritten with new data. I'm not an expert though.


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## kristin2349 (Sep 12, 2013)

weightlifter said:


> LOL
> 
> Woof
> 
> Btw when you putting up your story on private? Still wondering how exactly i helped you since you poached another posters advice.



Gosh you are a nag! I did post the whole boring thing (like I've said before it is very mild) but posted within AnonPink's thread in private. I'll break it out into its own thread. 

I'm in Holiday and Reconciliation burn out. But any good and easy 007 tips for someone in need your "master plan" is the go to. I might have poached the advice but I always give credit in the footnotes

End thread jack. Again OP awesome info for those in need.


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## rodphoto (Jan 8, 2013)

anyone try it, let viewers know if it worked for you..


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## verpin zal (Feb 23, 2013)

tried it on my iphone 4.

"contact name" brings up all the messages, deleted months ago.

some "select words" show up with nothing. yet the "contact name" search includes those very select words. weird.

also as a software engineer i'll mark this feature as a "bug" on Apple's behalf. Quite a useful one at that, no less.


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## verpin zal (Feb 23, 2013)

Rugs: swipe left on your first page of the main menu.

"spotlight search" under settings -> general -> spotlight search has to show "messages" as ticked.


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## verpin zal (Feb 23, 2013)

Right here, right now: Taking screenshots on iOS devices -> hold down home button and press sleep button. The screenshot will be placed under your photo album.

Also there is an app to "stitch" messages like a panoramic photo, but only for iPad. go to app store and search "stitch". Damn it's 4 am. i need to go to bed.


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## Clay2013 (Oct 30, 2013)

weightlifter said:


> LOL
> 
> 
> Btw when you putting up your story on private?


I second that. 

Clay


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## The Cro-Magnon (Sep 30, 2012)

rodphoto said:


> After researching the web for countless hours about software to find deleted messages on my wife's iphone I figured out this super easy method.
> 
> From the home screen swipe left to right until the spotlight page appears. Its a screen with the key board at bottom and a box at the top that says "search iphone" type your typical search words, anything sexual etc... All past messeges containing the search word will appear on a list, deleted or not. You'll only get the first line but that is usually enough. Just busted my wife again doing this a few days ago!
> 
> Hope you don't find yourself in my situation!


This is how my housemate caught his long term girlfriend cheating. I had never heard of the trick. He stumbled upon it completely by accident on his own. If I had known this trick, I'm pretty sure I would have caught my stbxw out, as she would serially delete her texts to cover herself.


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## john1068 (Nov 12, 2013)

rodphoto said:


> After researching the web for countless hours about software to find deleted messages on my wife's iphone I figured out this super easy method.
> 
> From the home screen swipe left to right until the spotlight page appears.


Note that this applies only to Spotlight Search in IOS 6 and lower. For IOS 7 running on Iphone 4 and 5, put your finger in the middle of any of the home screens and swipe downward. 

Type in the search string you want (telephone number, contact name, keyword, etc) and it will search every instance in the iPhone where that appears. 

You may FIRST want to go into the Settings>General>Spotlight Search and then check or uncheck the areas that you want to search - make certain that "messages" and "mail" are CHECKED or else your search will not look into these areas.


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## kristin2349 (Sep 12, 2013)

Works on my 4s and his 5 very helpful and easy trick!


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## sammy3 (Jun 5, 2011)

Question was already answered. 


~sammy


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## sammy3 (Jun 5, 2011)

The same info is on the spot light on the ipad too ! If the settings isnt checked off, you can find all the same history! 

~sammy


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## whataboutthis? (Apr 5, 2013)

Any way to do this on an android?


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## john1068 (Nov 12, 2013)

whataboutthis? said:


> Any way to do this on an android?


There does not appear to be a function within the Android OS that allows the recall of deleted info as is found on IOS. However, even on Android, When a text is deleted, the OS simply "loses" the address to where it is on the memory chip, but it's still there. 

Go to your computer and navigate to Dr. Fone for Android @ Dr.Fone for Android - Android Phone & Tablet Data Recovery SoftwareAndroid Phone Data Recovery.

You can download a trial version if you're operating system is XP/Vista/Win 7/Win 8 all on either 32 or 64 bit.

Download the program to your computer, open it, connect the Android phone to the computer via the micro USB cable and follow the instructions on the Dr. Fone program. You can recover deleted SMS, MMS, photos (yes, this includes SnapChats), vids, and documents.

Not everything is recoverable because the operating system continues to overwrite the data so if you don't recover this data on a regular basis, you may miss some pieces...

But there are also many Android apps that store deleted files and texts, even some that allow you to download and HID the app (ex. ).


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## whataboutthis? (Apr 5, 2013)

john1068 said:


> There does not appear to be a function within the Android OS that allows the recall of deleted info as is found on IOS. However, even on Android, When a text is deleted, the OS simply "loses" the address to where it is on the memory chip, but it's still there.
> 
> Go to your computer and navigate to Dr. Fone for Android @ Dr.Fone for Android - Android Phone & Tablet Data Recovery SoftwareAndroid Phone Data Recovery.
> 
> ...


Thank you for this.


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## Squeakr (May 1, 2013)

Just did this on iPhone5 with IOS7 and the message was only available with the "keyword" search and then only for about 10 minutes max. Within that time the 'Contact Name" returned nothing and then after mail had been pushed to my device trying any searches again yielded no results. I know that the data eventually gets overwritten and reused, but didn't know how fast that worked and obviously on my phone pretty quickly.


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