What I need: either (1) a backup file. iPhone owners: if you ever backed up to a computer, I only need one small file from it, not the whole backup. Android owners: your SMS Backup & Restore file works. A copy is fine, keep your original, and I'll send you a private link to upload it. Or (2) a working phone plus a laptop you've plugged it into before. If the laptop never saw the phone, you need to be able to tap "trust" on the phone screen.
What you get: every text as a readable transcript. PDF, spreadsheet, or searchable web page, your choice. Photos and files come back too if they're still in the backup.
Android owners: I can also put the texts back on your phone, right into the messaging app. iPhone owners: Apple doesn't allow that. Yours is read, search, and print only.
How it works: your texts live in a database inside the backup. I run decrypting software on the file to read the text data out of it. Every recovery runs on an encrypted computer, inside a sandbox. A sandbox is a sealed-off workspace on the machine. Your files go in, your transcripts come out, and nothing else touches them. When the job is done, your files are deleted. I keep nothing.
Proof before payment: if I recover your texts, I'll send you a screen grab of the recovered file, right from the sandbox, so you can see it worked before any money changes hands. If I can't recover anything, there's no charge.
What I can't do: dead phones (that's board-level clean-room work, a repair shop or forensic lab is your move). I only work on your own phone and your own backup, with your permission. I don't pull anyone else's messages. Recovered texts go back as far as your last backup, no further.
If that sounds like your situation, email me at [email protected] with what happened and what kind of phone you have. I'll tell you straight whether I can help.