Verizon Message+ deleted my conversation!

[Barry_LL]

I did not do this.  All but my locked messages for one particular conversation are deleted.  I am very unhappy about this!  There is no way I did it, it would require responding to a confirmation prompt.  And there is nobody else with access to my phone. 

I am pretty sure Verizon will be useless about acknowledging that they were deleted due to some glitch.  Nor do I expect they'll offer any hope of recovering them. But if anybody knows differently please let me know!

What's worse is that while (since they decided it was no longer free) I've been paying the $5/month for 500GB of Cloud data, for messages Verizon apparently decided that saving only 90 days worth is sufficient.  What!!!  I pay for 500GB of data and I'm only using 1.5GB!!!  What's the point of paying for backup storage and then not backing stuff up!!!

Yeah, I should have been backing up my important conversations offline myself, unfortunately I haven't done so in a couple of years.  My only hope seems to be that the Verizon Message+ PC program has all the messages (well except the ones it misses, the sync is really flakey) back to almost my last backup.  I'd still have lost about 4 months worth.  However I cannot find any way to do a "Save Messages" or "Save Conversations" from that app. It says it's Version 2.0.2.0, I installed it from the Microsoft Store.  Anybody know of any way to create the .vzm file and .parts directories from what is apparently save someplace on my computer?

[vzw_customer_support]

Seeing how much pertinent information is stored in our text message conversations, I can see why you would have been shocked to wake up to this news. I am eager to investigate deeper. What changes have you made to your phone recently? Are any other messaging applications impacted? What model phone do you have?

In order to get the best insight into what was being backed up, please take look in your Verizon Cloud app and take a screenshot of your current settings: Cloud app> click on the 3 bars in the top left corner> scroll down to Settings. In addition, I understand that you are using the Verizon Messaging application on your PC. Instead, please login through your My Verizon and see what is located there. You can follow the steps similar to printing messages here: http://spr.ly/6600EtwLK Instead of "print conversation", please click on the export conversation option. If the texts were not backed up, then it will give you the option to export the last 90 days.

AkaneM_VZW

[Barry_LL]

[Wow, now I'm even more upset.  Just typed a long reply and clicked Post, it had timed out my session and so it lost everything.  Really pathetic.]

I know the answers to all this without looking.  I have the latest version of the Version Messages (Messages+) and the Verizon Cloud app.  The Cloud app has everything checked to backup.  Restoring from either only can get 3 months (90 days) worth of backups.  Which of course I've already done. 

When I look at the messages using the web-based messaging on My Verizon I also see 90 days previous.  But on my PC app (the app from the Microsoft Store) I can see about 1 year 8 months back.

Forgetting that this should never have happened, I'm paying $60/year for backups, and the one time I really needed it, the data I want isn't there.  There's tons of space for it to be there but someone made a stupid decision to not back that up and not give the paying customer a choice about it.

I have a Samsung S7 Edge with the most current Oreo with updates.  I have not rooted nor do I run anything but grade-A apps. I did upgrade a bunch of apps about a week ago which included Verizon Messages but I don't think it happened then.  I think this happened yesterday because I noticed immediately when texting this contact.

I really don't want to spend any more time and effort detailing the thing that should not have happened.  Unless you have some way to recover my messages which are older than 90 days, or to "Save Conversation/Messages" on my PC in a format that I can then Restore onto my phone, then you have no way to help me.

I can tell you that Verizon should refund me for all the months I've been paying for Verizon Cloud (since they decided to no longer make it free), since it was not there for me when I needed it.  And Verizon should fix this stupid limitation, and let me choose which conversations I want to have backed up in their entirety.  (I have no hope that anybody will even be able to tell me why the messages were deleted.) 

[vzw_customer_support]

Barry_LL, the last thing we wish is for you to lose this important information. Allow us to work with you to get to the bottom of this. You indicated that you have checked My Verizon online, are you accessing the message history by hovering over Account and then selecting Text Online or by visit the Cloud at https://cloud.verizonwireless.com/vzCloud/home/cloudOverview.action#settings/storage? You mentioned that you noticed this when messaging a specific friend, what details can you tell us about that time? Do you recall anything odd happening that day or adding anything new that day?

  LorenB_VZW

If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[Barry_LL]

I appreciate your desire to help.  But the questions you are asking are not going to help.  Please, do you have any way to recover messages older than 90 days or not?  Alternatively do you have any way for me to "save" the messages from the PC app so that I can then restore them to my phone?

[vzw_customer_support]

Barry_LL, 

Thanks for the additional information and we always want to help. To make sure that your messages are synced across your devices, we store the messages you keep on your devices for up to 90 days. My apologies, Verizon Messages allows you to restore messages that have been synced with Verizon Messages in the last 90 days only http://spr.ly/6608EQPn0. We are unable to restore additional messages to the device. Does this help? 

Thanks,

PamelaF_VZW

[tikibar1]

An alternative is to use a text backup-and-restore app from the Play Store that provides for storing more than 90 days' worth of texts (and isn't carrier-specific).

[Barry_LL]

That might be worth doing if it is something that happens automatically.  If it's manual, the existing backup capability is sufficient (though lacks a lot of capabilities).  Can you recommend one?  The other alternative is of course that I can just use a different text messaging app entirely.  You'd think Verizon would put a little more effort into this.

[Barry_LL]

Repeating what I've said already does not help!   How can you even ask that?!  At this point the only thing that would help is some assistance in getting the messages that are stuck inside my PC, onto my phone (some sort of backup/conversion program).  You want to help?:

• Verizon should reimburse me for paying for an almost useless Cloud backup service.
• Verizon should fix this ridiculous limitation with the Cloud backup of text messages.
• Verizon should look into why my messages were deleted, I'm almost certain it was some glitch in the app which means it will happen again and to other people.
• Verizon should change the Messages app so that deleting an entire conversation requires a double-confirmation, and it should always default to NO (I noticed on one of the dialogs the default was set to DELETE and you had to choose CANCEL).  I am still pretty sure I did not delete them, but in testing if that was even possible (could I have possibly mistakenly gone through that dialog) I noticed how terribly it was set up.

[tikibar1]

SMS Backup and Restore

The free version can be used with various texting apps, can be set to automatic backups, can download backup files to your Drive account, allows for printing texts, isn't carrier specific ... among other pros.