Possible to retrieve 2 months of deleted txt to/fro one number--for legal purposes?

This would be in aid of preventing a dispute so, if a court-order or something lawyerly is required, then it's a no-go. But, if not, I'm hoping like heck I can get hold of a copy/transcript/file (whatever) of the actual text messages that have passed between my phone and that of another person over the last couple of months. I don't mind if I have to pay Verizon, or a service or whatever. (We're talking probably hundreds of deleted messages dating back to early November as of yesterday--first on a Droid 2, then switching to a Droid Razr in mid-Dec..)

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Best,

Accepted answers

Ann154

Verizon Wireless only keeps a few days worth of text message content on their servers. A court order is required to retrieve them. The text message log (numbers and times) are available for 90 days worth on your MyVerizon account online. You can download that information to an Excel spreadsheet.

The Android devices do also have the option of a third party application from the Play Store to backup and even restore your text messages from one phone to the next. You can also email the backup file to your email address if desired. You do have to have the application installed and running in the background before the messages are deleted from the device. I personally use SMS Backup and Restore which saves the backup file to the SD/storage of the phone as an XML file. I can then email that file to myself and print it out with my computer.

All comments

commonsense101

nope.. most text are deleted after 24 hours..in rare cases like murder trials verizon can retrieve them, but even that is limited

Ann154

TheGuyUpNorth

Law enforcement can in fact obtain this information with a warrant. As a school principal, my school liaison officer has in fact obtained this information from Verizon when matters of safety and welfare are being investigated. Verizon will not turn this over to just anyone. Think about it, Verizon or any other carrier must retain this for a reasonable period of time, just as ISP retain their logs for such information.