Wow look... View Text Message Backup in Outlook!?

[brandon_powell]

I thought the Outlook team has been sending emails for months about removing this feature and warning you if you wanted to keep your message history to download it. I have gotten at least 4 of them. It had something to do with the Skype integration.

 

[soniatew]

I think he's asking what to do if the "Messaging History" folder is gone completely. Recently MS made some changes to outlook.com on one of my accounts (they haven't made the change on the other two), which removed this folder, changed around the menus, etc. I can't seem to find a way to view my text history now, as there's no "Messaging History" folder to click before I delete the "b".

Has anyone else had these changes made to their account, and if so, had any luck getting to their text history? Alternately, I've been trying to contact MS to find out if they can switch this account back, but no matter what method I use to contact them I get no reply. Does anyone know a better way to get to someone at MS that can actually help me?

Thanks,

Corey

I have the same problem as you too!

Earlier this month I was able to see the "message history" folder on the left, but I think MS has removed that folder, and now I cant access it... Can't seem to find a way to back up new TEXTs and etc messages (esp. SMS). How the heck can I ensure a proper back up of these SMSes now? They do not have the feature for us to backup our texts and sync to desktop, and now they remove the Message History folder.... That was the best "alternative" eventhough it was so troublesome, but better than nothing.....

What should we do now? Anyone knows how to go about this? :sweaty:

Can MS just build the app or simple a desktop manager for us to backup texts on to our PC already???!? ((((

 

[Jaskys]

R.I.P SMS backup

 

[soniatew]

I thought the Outlook team has been sending emails for months about removing this feature and warning you if you wanted to keep your message history to download it. I have gotten at least 4 of them. It had something to do with the Skype integration.

Nope, I have not gotten any emails from them of this sort...
Anyhow, I managed to save my SMS once with this manipulation, but now that the folder is missing, I am MORE frustrated and mad at how MS cant simply build a desktop manager to backup texts and stuff.. So far I only found that we can backup/sync photos, vids, music, to the desktop..... Contacts & Texts cant be synced to desktop!

 

[SgtCornel]

I have the same problem as you too!

Earlier this month I was able to see the "message history" folder on the left, but I think MS has removed that folder, and now I cant access it... Can't seem to find a way to back up new TEXTs and etc messages (esp. SMS). How the heck can I ensure a proper back up of these SMSes now? They do not have the feature for us to backup our texts and sync to desktop, and now they remove the Message History folder.... That was the best "alternative" eventhough it was so troublesome, but better than nothing.....

What should we do now? Anyone knows how to go about this? :sweaty:

Can MS just build the app or simple a desktop manager for us to backup texts on to our PC already???!? ((((

Hi Guys,

So if your "Message History" folder is gone, you are going to have to use "Categories" on the bottom left (or Quick Views).

1. Click on the "Settings" gear on the top right (near your name).
2. Select "Manage Categories" from the drop down menu.
3. You will have a lot to choose from, but put check boxes in "Contacts" and "Photos".
4. Now click on the Outlook.com on the top left, this should bring you back to your inbox.
5. Now you should notice the Categories in the bottom left hand side. Click on either Contacts or Photos
6. If you dont see anything, in the top right, click on "Arrange By" and make sure it is set to "Conversation".

I hope this helps.

 

[SgtCornel]

Nope, I have not gotten any emails from them of this sort...
Anyhow, I managed to save my SMS once with this manipulation, but now that the folder is missing, I am MORE frustrated and mad at how MS cant simply build a desktop manager to backup texts and stuff.. So far I only found that we can backup/sync photos, vids, music, to the desktop..... Contacts & Texts cant be synced to desktop!

Hi Guys,

So if your "Message History" folder is gone, you are going to have to use "Categories" on the bottom left (or Quick Views).
1.Click on the "Settings" gear on the top right (near your name).
2.Select "Manage Categories" from the drop down menu.
3.You will have a lot to choose from, but put check boxes in "Contacts" and "Photos".
4.Now click on the Outlook.com on the top left, this should bring you back to your inbox.
5.Now you should notice the Categories in the bottom left hand side. Click on either Contacts or Photos
6.If you dont see anything, in the top right, click on "Arrange By" and make sure it is set to "Conversation".


I hope this helps.

 

[SgtCornel]

Just FYI, I did a little write up for Reddit, here.

 

[illidanx]

To get the text messages to notepad in an easy to read format I do the following:
1. Click on any quick views tab
2. Change the qvid to 3 to show to sms.
3. Use a mouse + keyboard recorder program to repeat the following things overnight:

a. Select all messages (35 in total)
b. Click on the 3 dots on the top, choose print, a print-friendly view and a print dialog will be opened.
c. Cancel the print dialog, ctrl + A to select all the text in the print-friendly view
d. ctrl + V to paste the text to a pre-opened notepad windows.
e. close the print-friendly view
f. Scroll to the bottom of the outlook page and hit the Next page button
g. Go back to step a.
​

4. Write a small program to parse the messy Notepad file and copy only the important information, including contact's name, sms content and date, ignoring everything else. Write this to another text file.

 

[Jb2810]

Hi guys,

So "Message History" folder is gone, we have to use "Categories" with "Contacts" and "Photos", i'm fine with that.
But, the problem is that in the categorie "Contacts" (organized by Conversation), we no longer have sent SMS.. And even worse, there is just a few messages received (randomly saved ?)..

Someone has an idea how to fix this ? Maybe something in the link ?

Thank you for your help !

 

[SgtCornel]

Still trying to figure this one out. So far, it looks like we are in the same boat as you. Let us know something if you find anything out.

 

[illidanx]

April 8th: "Messaging History" is gone and I cannot view text messages even with the categories method :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

[gp127]

I am using outlook on web not able to see "messaging history" in left panel.

 

[Messhugoth]

Hello,

Excuse my English... So, I was able to see the complete text messages conversation (sent and received) with the cheat Message history + url delete the B. Now there is no more message history. I asked to Microsoft community how to fix it now, here is their answer in French, but I translate with reverso after the French message ;Merci pour votre contribution au forum.
Ce n'est en effet pas possible de lire vos messages sur Outlook.com.
Toute solution vous permettant de le faire est une solution non officielle et par ailleurs aucunes informations ne vous sera transmises ? ce sujet.
Cordialement

Thank you for your contribution to the forum.
It is not indeed possible to read your messages on Outlook.com.
Any solution allowing you to make it is an unofficial solution and besides no information will not be transmitted to you on this matter.
Cordially

So, how to do it now ? If it was possible before, I suppose it's still possible now ? I heard that it will be possible with Skype ???

Thanks

 

[genuine555]

Hello,

Excuse my English... So, I was able to see the complete text messages conversation (sent and received) with the cheat Message history + url delete the B. Now there is no more message history. I asked to Microsoft community how to fix it now, here is their answer in French, but I translate with reverso after the French message ;Merci pour votre contribution au forum.
Ce n'est en effet pas possible de lire vos messages sur Outlook.com.
Toute solution vous permettant de le faire est une solution non officielle et par ailleurs aucunes informations ne vous sera transmises ? ce sujet.
Cordialement

Thank you for your contribution to the forum.
It is not indeed possible to read your messages on Outlook.com.
Any solution allowing you to make it is an unofficial solution and besides no information will not be transmitted to you on this matter.
Cordially

So, how to do it now ? If it was possible before, I suppose it's still possible now ? I heard that it will be possible with Skype ???

Thanks

That's correct. It had been announced a while back that it would be removed...

But according to this link, the messaging history can now be found in "the messaging pane" :

Outlook.com messaging history folder to be removed this fall - LiveSide.net

Once the changes had taken effect this fall, instead of storing the instant messaging history in a folder on Outlook.com, they will be accessible in the Messaging pane instead.

Haven't tried yet myself, but is there a messaging "pane" now in outlook.com ?

 

[Gillian Westcott]

I'm very desperate to get this figured out. My mother died a month ago, and I am terrified of losing/breaking my phone, or accidentally deleting my text messages from her. I want to save the entire conversation onto my onedrive for safe keeping. Using the arrange by conversation method, I have been able to access some messages, but none from my mother. Please help!

 

[Marc Calabrese]

Sorry to hear about your mother. This isn't a very efficient method, but my girlfriend lost most of her original messages from me, so I took screenshots of everything up to a certain date. It may be better than nothing, especially given your circumstance, until Microsoft gets their sh!t together and gives us some kind of viewable backup method. Another thought...was your mother's phone an Android or iPhone? I know there's an app in Android (and likely iPhone) that converts text messages into a file that can be saved on her phone and downloaded onto a computer. Good luck!!

 

[Messhugoth]

Seems that it is hard to find the solution since the end of the message history... Don't see any solutions on the web...:crying:

 

[Marc Calabrese]

Just one more reason that my windows phone will be the first and last I ever buy.

 

[Messhugoth]

I wonder why microsoft made this common thing unavailable on outlook.com / windowsphone... What is their interest in this case ?

 

[illidanx]

I wonder why microsoft made this common thing unavailable on outlook.com / windowsphone... What is their interest in this case ?

It's just they are incompetent. Probably none of their employees needs this function so they think no one in the world needs it.