topic Re: How long does text message stays in the system? in Get Support

How long does text message stays in the system?

RichardKCLing — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 09:28:19 GMT

I was away for 10 days and realized that messages sent to me never appeared in my phone upon my return.

I had Bell before and all messages was retrieved upon my return.

How long do text stay in the system?

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

NDesai — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 04:35:22 GMT

Good question!

All i know is that we do receive text messages whenever we have no network connection or phone is turned off. I am not sure the expiry on them. But if the line is inactive, text messages are not received.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

RichardKCLing — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 04:37:04 GMT

I do get messages after turning on the phone again. But there is no record of the messages after I was away for 10 days

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

Someone_here — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 07:24:47 GMT

Good question, i would like to know the answer, if anyone has it!

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

Korth — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:15:31 GMT

I don't know how long text messages are stored on the network.

But one of the reasons I left Virgin (Bell) years ago was that text message delivery was very sporadic. Texts would "vanish", reported as delivered to the sender yet never arrive to the recipient. Sometimes forever, sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for hours, I've even had my phone suddenly flooded with a couple dozen messages all sent to me the previous day. Some days it was so bad that I (and my gf, buddies, boss, coworkers) would preface all text msgs with a number or simply prefer voice calls.

So, it's anecdotal - but on the Bell network text msgs appear to be retained for up to one day.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

kav2001c — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:40:24 GMT

Voicemail is stored for about a week so I would suspect TXT would have a similar maximum

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

Acekiller — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 15:58:56 GMT

VM does take more resource to store than sms, so SMS could have a longer shelf life.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

Korth — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 16:19:17 GMT

Volume of SMS msgs is probably much higher than volume of VM msgs, even if they are smaller (max 160 characters each). It all multiplies out and adds up, costs money to store (on enterprise-grade HDDs) somewhere. Large corporations always have some kind of big server farm somewhere for storage and archival purposes, but I doubt that massive storage capacities are installed at every cellular node, tower, base station, or transceiver station - these "network" hardwares are too distributed, too costly to maintain and secure simply to store long-term user data, they'll be kept lean and streamlined by costs alone.

I suspect that "active" messages are kept on the network until they're delivered, but are probably flagged as "inactive" after a day or a few days or a week at most. They are then apparently archived off-network for much longer periods, many months or even years. It's worth noting there's apparently no mandated limits in wireless or consumer or privacy laws ... each operator basically does whatever it decides to do ... but there have been cases (in the USA anyways, if not in Canada) where courts have obtained transcripts of text messages from several years past.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2471232/endpoint-security/how-long-does-your-mobile-phone-provider-store-data-for-law-enforcement-access-.html

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

RichardKCLing — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 16:32:50 GMT

I don't think it's a day. I recall receiving them much long perhaps even up to a couple of weeks as I seldom travel more than 10 days. I had occasionally received messages, or emails, many days after. Thanks.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

RichardKCLing — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 16:58:09 GMT

I was away for 10 days and they were all gone by then.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

RichardKCLing — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 16:58:35 GMT

Thank you.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

kav2001c — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 20:27:02 GMT

@Acekiller oh its totally possible to store for longer, I was just saying I highly doubt they would do so

The enhanced voicemail option is really only here because it was a carry over before Telus takeover

Koodo charges extra for it

Same issue with call forwarding

@Acekillerwrote:
VM does take more resource to store than sms, so SMS could have a longer shelf life.

Re: How long does text message stays in the system?

kav2001c — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 20:27:35 GMT

Sounds about right

I would suspect 8th day they vanish

@RichardKCLingwrote:
I was away for 10 days and they were all gone by then.