Help Too many text messages to delete

Drewfuss · Oct 24, 2015

Oooooook, I'll keep this concise.

So, I've got this friend, and since December 25, 2014, we've exchanged 10,000+ text messages—none of which I have deleted. Lately, his text thread has been quite slow to load, send, and receive texts, as is understandable. Upon to trying to delete them all at once, my phone crashed and restarted. Is there any other way to delete them without doing them a few at a time? It's been quite difficult to correspond with him, and is becoming increasingly taxing upon my patience.

Jhayzone · Oct 24, 2015

On my phone's default messaging app I can delete a whole conversation from one person by hold pressing the conversation thread and there will be a delete icon that will show up that I can press to delete it. You can try that.

Hadron · Oct 24, 2015

Many message apps also let you specify a maximum number of messages per thread, and automatically delete older ones.

Drewfuss · Oct 24, 2015

Jhayzone said:
On my phone's default messaging app I can delete a whole conversation from one person by hold pressing the conversation thread and there will be a delete icon that will show up that I can press to delete it. You can try that.

That is how mine works as well, but there are so many texts, that when I attempt this, my phone crashes.

Hadron said:
Many message apps also let you specify a maximum number of messages per thread, and automatically delete older ones.

Yes, I've had a few of those, but my issue is getting them deleted. It would take me an eternity to go through and delete them five or six at a time. (Even that takes it a minute or so to accomplish.)

AZgl1500 · Oct 24, 2015

Drewfuss said:
That is how mine works as well, but there are so many texts, that when I attempt this, my phone crashes.

Yes, I've had a few of those, but my issue is getting them deleted. It would take me an eternity to go through and delete them five or six at a time. (Even that takes it a minute or so to accomplish.)

Textra is a very nice message app, and the one I finally went back to after trying a bunch of other ones.

On the main message thread line, just do the Long Press and it will put a highlight button on it. that should display a Trash Can at the top of the page. touch that and the thread will disappear. makes a phone much faster when you do that. I also have Textra set to throw out messages at about '10' IIRC..... ten messages is as far back as I need to keep them.

Jhayzone · Oct 24, 2015

That is how mine works as well, but there are so many texts, that when I attempt this, my phone crashes.

That's.. uhm.. too much text if it can cause that. lol.

Try this one, go to settings -> apps -> all -> your messaging up -> then clear the cache. If it works then it will most likely delete everything on your messaging up.

Drewfuss · Oct 24, 2015

AZgl1500 said:
Textra is a very nice message app, and the one I finally went back to after trying a bunch of other ones.

Thanks! I downloaded this and quite like it. It's much faster then the default application ever was!

Jhayzone said:
That's.. uhm.. too much text if it can cause that. lol.

Try this one, go to settings -> apps -> all -> your messaging up -> then clear the cache. If it works then it will most likely delete everything on your messaging up.

Well, yes. Ten thousand text messages is quite a few. I considered this already, but was unsure as to whether it would do my phone any harm.

Jhayzone · Oct 24, 2015

Well, yes. Ten thousand text messages is quite a few. I considered this already, but was unsure as to whether it would do my phone any harm.

It shouldn't do your phone any harm.

chanchan05 · Oct 24, 2015

I think you misunderstood Hadrons post. You dont need to go through the thread to delete a few messages at a time. Just set the message limit and let the phone do the rest on it's own good time. Also, you could try using a different message app. What some apps do (which I am surprised yours don't) is that they only load the latest 20 messages, with the other messages only loaded on demand (by pressing 'load older messages'). So openinf the thread won't be slow on an app that does that. If I remember correctly, Chomp does that, as well as putting a message limit and automatically deleting older messages. So just use ChompSMS, set it up, and you're good to go.

Drewfuss · Oct 24, 2015

AZgl1500 said:
Textra is a very nice message app, and the one I finally went back to after trying a bunch of other ones.

Thanks! I quite like this! It's faster than the default messaging applicatiom ever was!

Jhayzone said:
That's.. uhm.. too much text if it can cause that. lol.

Try this one, go to settings -> apps -> all -> your messaging up -> then clear the cache. If it works then it will most likely delete everything on your messaging up.

I did this. Now my messaging app won't even open. It crashes immediately.

Jhayzone · Oct 24, 2015

I did this. Now my messaging app won't even open. It crashes immediately.

Tested it just now but my messaging app didn't crash. Is that a default messaging app or an app from playstore?

Drewfuss · Oct 24, 2015

Jhayzone said:
Tested it just now but my messaging app didn't crash. Is that a default messaging app or an app from playstore?

Th default one. I'm no longer receiving texts either. I texted a friend with it to see if it worked, and he replied, but I never received it.

Jhayzone · Oct 24, 2015

I'm sorry to hear that but I just did it a second time just to make sure but it still didn't give any problems on my messaging app. Last resort is to download a messaging app on playstore. Again, I'm sorry that it cost problems on your end.

kwest12 · Nov 13, 2015

chanchan05 said:
I think you misunderstood Hadrons post. You dont need to go through the thread to delete a few messages at a time. Just set the message limit and let the phone do the rest on it's own good time. Also, you could try using a different message app. What some apps do (which I am surprised yours don't) is that they only load the latest 20 messages, with the other messages only loaded on demand (by pressing 'load older messages'). So openinf the thread won't be slow on an app that does that. If I remember correctly, Chomp does that, as well as putting a message limit and automatically deleting older messages. So just use ChompSMS, set it up, and you're good to go.

Can anyone confirm that ChompSMS still has this feature? I was under the impression it was removed for some [absolutely moronic] reason. I have been searching for an SMS app that still has this feature for a while, and I have not found one. I don't know if Kitkat or Lollipop made some sort of change that necessitated the removal of this feature, but I literally can't find and app that can clean out old messages while keeping a specified amount...

chanchan05 · Nov 13, 2015

I just checked and yeah. Seems to have disappeared from chomp. Not sure if textra has it. Evolvesms has it though, just checked it now.

Hadron · Nov 14, 2015

Oh, that's weird - of course I didn't use it so didn't realise it had gone. No, Textra doesn't have it. My stock message app has, but unless you have a HTC that won't help you.

chanchan05 · Nov 14, 2015

Hadron said:
Oh, that's weird - of course I didn't use it so didn't realise it had gone. No, Textra doesn't have it. My stock message app has, but unless you have a HTC that won't help you.

I'm guessing the OP has neither HTC nor Samsung, since it's a feature of both brands' stock sms app.

kwest12 · Dec 7, 2015

chanchan05 said:
I'm guessing the OP has neither HTC nor Samsung, since it's a feature of both brands' stock sms app.

Don't know about OP, but I'm on a non-stock ROM from Samsung. It's an Google Play Edition ROM, so I don't believe it has the framework required to play nicely with a stock SMS app.

EDIT: Also, does EvolveSMS actually have a "delete messages older than" function or a "only keep XXX number of messages per conversation?" I'm not looking to entirely wipe out conversations, I just want to have the conv sizes reduced to improve performance.

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