Uploading LG500G texts to computer?
by Kay P
(San Jose)
2G Phone
It is a 2G phone on AT&T. AT&T is discontinuing 2G on 12/31/16. For legal reasons, I need to have a record of some text messages sent from that phone with time and date info, so I saved those texts to the SIM card.
Tracfone's Advice
Tracfone told me over the phone that I could keep the phone active without calling service after 12/31/16 as long as I paid for the minutes in advance. This way the phone would still turn on and I could view the text messages. But today I received an email from Tracfone that the phone will be totally shut down after 12/31/16.
How can I upload my text messages with time and date to my computer before then? I've downloaded the UBS driver and will get a data cable tomorrow. Will try to get 4G SD card but may only find 8G. Please help!
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Hi Kay,
Even if you service is inactive, you can still view your text messages. The 500g I used for testing has been inactive for a few years now, and I can still turn it on (after charging it) and view the texts messages stored on the phone.
Limited Transfer Options
In terms of transferring the texts to a computer, your options are somewhat limited. You cannot, as far as I know, transfer the texts to a memory card. I put a 4GB card into my device and tried that. This means that using a data cable won't be of much help either. When you connect the phone to a computer via a USB cable, all you get access to is the stuff stored on the external microsd memory card. You don't get access to the stuff store on the phone's internal memory.
You cannot transfer them via Bluetooth either.
Using a SIM card Reader
You said you have transferred your messages to your SIM card. In that case, you may be able to use a SIM card reader to transfer them to your computer. I've never tried that with a dedicated SIM card reader, but I did try this sort of thing once with a multi-card reader that was supposed to be able to read SIM cards. However, that particular (cheap) device did not work.
Other Options
I don't know what qualifies as a legal record, but you could do a couple of things:
1. Display the individual messages on your phone and take a photo of each of them. You can scroll down all the way to display the date and sender for each message.
2. Forward them to another phone.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
sb