This reader came with software that helps you read your SIM card, but it doesn’t advertise that you can extract deleted text messages. It is available at a lot of online retailers. On the second try, I got the Sakar Digital Concepts 51-in-1 card reader for $19.99. I went back to the store and specified that it must read SIM cards. The first one I brought home was great, but it didn’t read SIM cards. If you shop for a card reader, be sure that it reads SIM cards. For example, if your cell phone and your digital camera have different memory cards, these kinds of one-stop card readers will let you use one piece of hardware for both. There are several card readers on the market, and they are small boxes with a lot of slots on them to fit different kinds of memory cards.
I started out just getting a general card reader.
So my phone is full of deleted and undeleted messages. On top of that, I text other friends and family members. I would say that my husband and I send messages about 15 to 20 times a day. I fall somewhere in the middle of technological understanding.Īlso, it’s worth mentioning that I text message. Then again, in graduate school, I installed a modem into my computer. For example, it took me an entire weekend to figure out my iPod, but I figured it out. If the program is supposed to be intuitive, it probably won’t be for me. If there are directions, I can follow them. I am technologically literate, but I am no expert. I popped open the phone, slipped out the battery, then pried out the SIM card.Ī little background might be in order. It is usually much smaller, and the one in my phone is stored underneath the battery inside the phone. The products are made available to people who want to reorganize their telephone numbers or to retrieve lost data in their phones. A SIM card, or security information management card, is the card in most cell phones that stores memory and identifies users on a particular network. Many computer programs on the market require a SIM card reader. So, I tested several products that claim to make it easy to retrieve deleted text messages. I wanted to find out if the advertisements for products that were purported to easily extract saved and deleted text messages from cell phones actually worked. I should have listened.īut I’m stubborn that way, and I wanted to try to do it all myself. Most of these things don’t work,” he said. But John Simek, the vice president of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a computer forensics company, told me I would be sadly mistaken. I was optimistic that the products would work - I had visions of simply plugging something into my computer, and having all of my text messages come tumbling out onto my screen. There are several products that are advertised to easily take the text messages out of your phone and save them to your computer.
Secondly, if you are ever want to use those text messages as part of a court proceeding, like evidence during a divorce, snooping into a spouse’s cell phone can make that information inadmissible.īut there are legal uses for saved text messages, and there are messages on my own phone that I would love to keep for perpetuity, so I wanted to find out how to extract the messages and save them. First of all, depending on your state, it can be illegal. In my line of work, the most common question I get from readers is advice on how to get access to text messages.Trying to get them out of someone else’s phone without their knowledge is a risky idea. Stop! It May Be Illegal & May Hurt Your Case