why does it take so damned long to delete texts?

[joshminton]

i have have about 1400 texts on my phone. so i decided to delete them all....abut 40 minutes ago, and its still deleting them. i dont get it. this is ****ing ******ed.

anyone have a quick easy way to delete texts? i remember on my old palm treo id have upwards of near 3000 texts on my phone at a time and it would only take a few minutes to delete them.

 

[carmendiva]

I'm going to say it before some A**hole comes in here and says something snarky and sarcastic(not going to say any names but im sure many know who im referring too)

idk why it takes so long...like i had a dare and other dumb phones and as soon as memory filled up i would hit delete all and it takes seconds to delete like 250 texts

Apparently on my eris it takes it about 3 mins to do the same thing

I never let mine get past 100, 200 at the most

some people will say its your fault, user error, etc to let that many text store up and then complain about the time it takes to delete it blah blah blah

idk why it takes so long but i recommend that every 200 or so to delete them(even though it is lame to do so cuz if ur like me i send quite a few thousand a day)

i experience a great lag when i have like 200 in my inbox, i can only imagine what kind of lag u have lol

i'd die haha

 

[Lucidot]

Are you using the stock app? I am using Handcent but I only have roughly 300 texts stored ATM so I cannot test to see if it is any faster.

 

[bjf88]

This is a known flaw in the Eris' OS. Try the "search" box on the upper right hand side and you will find multiple threads about this topic with good suggestions on how to work around this.

In the mean time I would suggest you keep your phone well maintained and try not to let them build up. Your phone will run better as well.

 

[gruss]

I too would like a technical explanation, but yeah gotta clean em up occasionally. I use sms backup and restore or something like that, I think there are a couple others in the market.
Its slow on 1.5, 2.1 using stock, chomp, handcent, or backup and restore so they must be intertwined in a Database somewhere, probably the HTC stuff that makes it so nifty to be able to see all the stuff by contact? IDK?

 

[jhewit22]

I just deleted about 350 texts in about 7 seconds...yes I timed it. I'm using the stock message app on 1.5

 

[i VTAK]

I don't know about all phones but I had a Nokia flip phone and let over 1000 texts build up on it, just to see what would happen. When I deleted them, it took quite a while. What a are you expecting? I can have a couple hundred texts on my Hero and they delete within seconds, I won't let them build up past that.

To anyone wondering why it takes the phone so long to delete messages do this for me. Go get a paper shredder and a bunch of paper. Shred(delete) 1 of them and time it. Now shred 1000 of them and time it.

 

[alprazolam]

To anyone wondering why it takes the phone so long to delete messages do this for me. Go get a paper shredder and a bunch of paper. Shred(delete) 1 of them and time it. Now shred 1000 of them and time it.

Good try but I'm not sure such an analogy can apply well when you are talking technology and processing power. There is an OS flaw in those messages not getting deleted faster. My old vx8300 dumbphone could delete the maximum texts in about 30 seconds or less.

 

[i VTAK]

Good try but I'm not sure such an analogy can apply well when you are talking technology and processing power. There is an OS flaw in those messages not getting deleted faster. My old vx8300 dumbphone could delete the maximum texts in about 30 seconds or less.

What was the maximun # of texts though? My wife had a Nokia that would start deleting old texts and replacing them with new ones, I can't remember how many but it was only a couple hundred. Her's would delete the maximum number fairly quick too. The Nokia that I had would let me rack them up to over 1000 and like I said, it took 20 minutes or so to delete them when I did my experiment.

I think my analogy is fairly accurate. Data of any kind will take longer to get rid of from any device depending on size. Try deleting a pic from your PC. Then go and delete your entire 5000 song playlist. I doubt the playlist will delete as fast as the single picture. More data = more time to get rid of it.

 

[Scythe]

After the 1.5 release, this shouldn't be happening. In the older 1.0/1.1 release it took forever and a day. Now the task happens in the background and hides the text's as it's deleting them.

If you get 2.1, then they have it auto-delete text's after a certain threshold.

 

[fenwaynomar45]

I have sms quick delete and when the phone is charging while i go to sleep i have it delete the messages so by the time i wake up they are all gone. That way idc how it takes and since the phone is plugged in it wont go in sleep mode

 

[markdmac]

fenwaynomar45, I am trying to decipher if you are describing an action or a product. When you say "sms quick delete" is there an app called SMS Quick that deletes? Or is there some SMS quick deletion that I don't know how to access?

Does anyone know where SMS messages are stored on the phone? Is there a way to direct them to the SD Card?

 

[fenwaynomar45]

fenwaynomar45, I am trying to decipher if you are describing an action or a product. When you say "sms quick delete" is there an app called SMS Quick that deletes? Or is there some SMS quick deletion that I don't know how to access?

Does anyone know where SMS messages are stored on the phone? Is there a way to direct them to the SD Card?

sorry if I was confusing.. It is an app called sms quick delete.. you just download it, open it and it has all ur sms threads there and u can just delete them all... However the app doesnt delete very fast that ive noticed so have ur phone plugged in while ur deleting so it doesn't sleep on u becasue that will cancel the deletion progess

 

[i VTAK]

No, it's not accurate. You should stop talking now cause you sound like an idiot.

WOW, what did I do to deserve a personal attack? Just trying to add productivity to a thread. Are you telling me your PC will delete 5000 songs from it's hard drive as fast as it will 1? Makes sense to me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm an idiot. But since you've contributed so much and been so helpful, why don't you explain how it works.

 

[joetarin]

WOW, what did I do to deserve a personal attack? Just trying to add productivity to a thread. Are you telling me your PC will delete 5000 songs from it's hard drive as fast as it will 1? Makes sense to me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm an idiot. But since you've contributed so much and been so helpful, why don't you explain how it works.

You're just stating the obvious. Not helping even a little bit. If I need to trim 500 hedges it will take me longer to do that than to trim 1. If I need to sign 500 documents it will take me longer to do that then 1.

Your "analogy" doesnt address the OP's issue. It's takes an unusually long time to delete text messages on the Eris. This is documeneted over and over again and is a flaw in the OS. It doesnt take nearly as long to delete messages of same size and quantity on other phones as stated in the thread. I dont have to explain how a the file deletion process works since it's quite a simple process.

 

[robo123]

No, it's not accurate. You should stop talking now cause you sound like an idiot.

Calm down man. So you disagree with the guy, that's no excuse to act like a tool.

 

[i VTAK]

You're just stating the obvious. Not helping even a little bit. If I need to trim 500 hedges it will take me longer to do that than to trim 1. If I need to sign 500 documents it will take me longer to do that then 1.

Your "analogy" doesnt address the OP's issue. It's takes an unusually long time to delete text messages on the Eris. This is documeneted over and over again and is a flaw in the OS. It doesnt take nearly as long to delete messages of same size and quantity on other phones as stated in the thread. I dont have to explain how a the file deletion process works since it's quite a simple process.

Like you said, that's how things work. I don't see it as a flaw. In my past experience with other phones, it's the same. How can someone expect a phone to delete a mountain of text messages instantly? I was just trying to give some insight as to why it won't.

 

[Rubik76]

Now that the issue has at least been covered, and I won't feel like a total ass for posting without contributing anything of value...

Why did you sensor yourself with "******ed" but not "****ing", or is that a glitch in the forum?

 

[n1ghtwish]

It probably has something to do with the way the phone archives and indexes messages... it's my understanding that the SMS apps take advantage of the Android's built in SQLite database system and it simply takes longer to sift through all the databases to delete the messages.

Older phones obviously don't have this type of database system, so they probably store their messages in either text or some other kind of simple format which makes it much quicker and easier to delete.

I've solved the issue by using an app called "Message Cleanup" - it's not in the market but if you email the developer (android@jads.co.uk) and send him the fee for the app (it's like $3USD), he'll send you the APK.

This app has the ability to automatically shave off the oldest message if your inbox reaches 150. It's incredibly useful as it can also delete messages older than a certain period of time (defined by the user) and it can also trim conversations down to X number of messages.

 

[alprazolam]

What was the maximun # of texts though? My wife had a Nokia that would start deleting old texts and replacing them with new ones, I can't remember how many but it was only a couple hundred. Her's would delete the maximum number fairly quick too. The Nokia that I had would let me rack them up to over 1000 and like I said, it took 20 minutes or so to delete them when I did my experiment.

I think my analogy is fairly accurate. Data of any kind will take longer to get rid of from any device depending on size. Try deleting a pic from your PC. Then go and delete your entire 5000 song playlist. I doubt the playlist will delete as fast as the single picture. More data = more time to get rid of it.

Just for the record....I don't think that your analogy was idiotic. It does make sense. I know I'm not the one that said that but I just don't want you to think that I was attacking you. I generally don't do that on here.

Anyway...I think I'm off on the old vx8300 and my last smartphone, the Omnia could hold lots of texts like the Eris, and it was a bit slow though not nearly as slow as the Eris. I just think that the Eris should be able to delete much faster due to the processing power so maybe you didn't have a bad analogy. Maybe I just don't like that fact.

 

[DFA1]

I'm going to say it before some A**hole comes in here and says something snarky and sarcastic(not going to say any names but im sure many know who im referring too)

some people will say its your fault, user error, etc to let that many text store up and then complain about the time it takes to delete it blah blah blah

Totally right, she had my back when they tried to tell me to house keep my phone.

I did find a correlation with the text messages and contacts. All my threads that have 1000+ are from girls that talk way too much

 

[i VTAK]

Sorry about the weak analogy, it makes no sense. I guess your phone is just a POS, take it back and tell them you demand a phone that can delete 5000 texts as quickly as it deletes 1.



/sarcasm

 

[DFA1]

I guess your phone is just a POS, take it back and tell them you demand a phone that can delete 5000 texts as quickly as it deletes 1.

Why would I do that?

 

[Kutanks]

i noticed the same thing, ******ed on htc's part if you ask me. I had a voyager and then an env touch, deleted all those texts in like 30 seconds, seems to me that if the phone is gonna let you store so many texts it should be able to get rid of them, its not like they take up that much space though.

 

[carmendiva]

Totally right, she had my back when they tried to tell me to house keep my phone.

I did find a correlation with the text messages and contacts. All my threads that have 1000+ are from girls that talk way too much