Recover & Read Deleted SMS Text Messages from Nokia S60 Inbox
Posted by Divyang on September 8, 2008
This is a handy tip that allows you to recover and read the content of any important SMS text message(s) that you many have inadvertently deleted from the Inbox of your Nokia S60 3rd Edition mobile device.
1) Download and install FExplorer or any other explorer
2) Navigate to C:\ or any other drive depending on where you have chosen to save the SMS messages and browse to the System\Mail folder
3) Here you will find different folders such as 0010001_s, 00100001_s, etc which in turn will contain certain files such as 00100000, 00001000, etc. These are the actual deleted messages.
4) To view the contents of a message, open the file with the built-in Hex/Text Viewer of FExplorer by going to Options—>File—>Hex/Text Viewer.
5) Now you can save this file for future reference to a secure location on your mobile phone or alternatively, transfer it to your desktop computer via PC Suite.
Note: You will have to manually go through the contents of each file in order to find what you are looking for.
The Symbian Core 
jut mirza said
hi
martin said
Hi i have managed to get sighned copy of fexplorer on to my n95 8g. problem is that it willopen but tell me all files are empty. also when i open c. ther is no system mail folder to open. any ideas ?
ERIC LIM CHIA WAH said
Hi, i’m some problem with my N95. Abt e recover sms from my phone, i’m discover that, my n95 cant find C:\system\mail folder. Isnt any location can find it?
Thomas said
hi, I had the same problems, but found out that the SYSTEM folder is not available, unless you use the “Caps Off” app to unlock the system folders and files. This enables you to view folders needed 🙂 A few steps to do, so please go here for more info: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/archive/index.php/t-559671.html
Only thing is that is have not been able to locate ANY deleted messages (SMS or Mail). My 00001001_S folder contains my SMS inbox and my 00100ed1_S contains my Exchange inbox… but NO trace of ANY deleted items… HEEEELP NEEDED!!!!
???????—>> Anyone have an idea to retrieve the deleted stuff <<—???????
Btw. My "mail" folder path on phone: C:\Private\1000484b\Mail2\ – Just to let you know that you might have to browse a few folders before you locate your mail folder. 😉
Instead of using the built in hex to text converter it is much faster to copy the entire MAIL folder to your desktop and the use any hex editor to convert to text.
Happy hunting 🙂
Janine said
Thanks for the tip, seems like the only site that helps you recover messages from the actual phone and not just the sim card.
Now, can you please tell me how I would do this with a Sony Ericcson K850i?
Thanks
Gaurav said
I cant find system folder
simon said
Do Note that this trick does not work on Symbian 3rd Edition cellphones
Hans Muller said
These directories keep just undeleted messages, which we may access on inbox…