- Google Messages users notice chats disappearing on Samsung Galaxy phones
- It appears to be a reindexing issue following the discontinuation of Samsung Messages in favor of Google Messages.
- The problem persists, but a Google expert has offered tips to fix it.
Google Messages users have spotted a bug that randomly deletes old and new chats, and their complaints about the issue are spreading like wildfire online.
Users on the r/GoogleMessages forum share their experiences with disappearing threads, but it’s difficult to determine whether there’s a pattern among disappearing messages. One user noticed “huge chunks of messages” disappearing from chats, while others reported seeing entire conversations disappear.
Even if users try to take matters into their own hands, the problem persists: one user also remembers a time when a message “disappeared before.” [their] eyes’. Samsung Galaxy phones appear to be the most affected – the Samsung A52 and Samsung Galaxy S21 were mentioned on Reddit – but some Google Pixel users are also experiencing similar issues.
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But where does it come from? There is only one thing that users have linked it to, and that is the shutdown of Samsung Messages which is now entering its phase-out phase, forcing users to turn to Google’s chat service.
Since the issues started spreading, users have been looking for ways to prevent this from happening, including checking their trash, clearing the cache, and checking the chat history backup, but the messages still disappear for no reason. This led frustrated users to flood Google’s support page to ask for further guidance, and the company has clarified things slightly.
In response to a user query, a Google product expert explained that the transition between Samsung Messages and Google Messages was actually causing this issue: “While frustrating, messages ‘disappearing’ during this transition is often a delay in syncing and reindexing rather than a permanent deletion, especially if they are missing from both apps. They also point out that RCS incompatibility and sync bugs when crossing Samsung Messages to Google Messages also contribute to the ongoing problem.
That said, Google’s expert offered a few workarounds. First, they recommend waiting more than 48 hours if you only left Samsung Messages or just noticed the problem. They also suggest leaving your phone on a charger with Wi-Fi so the indexing process can complete.
You can also use what the expert calls the “Sync Force” trick, where you will need to set Samsung Messages as your default SMS app again, restart your device to open Samsung Messages, and then wait 2-3 minutes for it to load the local database. Once done, you can go back to Google Messages and set it as default again.
“How can I rely on this app in the future?”
Looking at the collective responses, it’s clear that the transition to Google Messages from Samsung Messages hasn’t been the smoothest process, and the bug came at a very inconvenient time for those who are just getting used to navigating the reins of Google Messages.
While this is a slight delay in reindexing, those who have become familiar with using Samsung’s service are still very unhappy with the forced migration. A friend of our editor, Isaiah Williams, is a long-time user of Samsung Messages, and the change has hit them hard, who shared the following words with us:
“I was already bothered by Samsung’s forced switch to Google Messages and the loss of organizational features I loved as a small business owner, such as text categories, but I didn’t expect to see my messages completely disappear. They were there one minute, gone the next, and even after my attempts at troubleshooting, rebooting, checking archive and trash folders, spending hours navigating cluttered app design and unnecessary AI features, I haven’t completely resolved the issue yet I’m just wondering how I’ll be able to rely on this app moving forward when the basic functionality seems to be so lacking.
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