Moto G2 - Where Are Text Messages "saved To"

[countrykid]

Virgin are switching me to a new tarrif/plan and has sent me a new sim (same phone number). I have a fair few text messages that I want to keep but am not sure if they are stored on the sim or the phone. I'm guessing the phone, as sim capacity I suspect is limited. I use an 32Gb SD card for additional storage as the phone only has 8Gb and much of that is taken up by android.

I've established that my contact details are not on the phone or the sim, but stored somewhere in a cloud!!! Google Contacts, in fact my Moto G2 appears not to even give you an option to store contacts on the phone or sim????. Is anything else stored on the sim that somehow I need to save to somewhere and copy back to the new sim. I gather that as soon as I put the new sim in and activate it, anything on the old sim is lost, hence I'd like to know before I do this. Thanks

[hc4361]

Open the File Manager app on your phone, click SIM and you will see everything that is on there.

[hc4361]

You may find this useful:

https://www.howtogeek.com/271866/how-to-back-up-your-text-messages-to-dropbox-or-google-drive-on-android/

[countrykid]

Thanks HC, I'll check out that link. Regarding your suggestion to open the File Manager App and select Sim, excuse my lack of knowledge but where do I locate File Manager App? I've looked in Apps and also settings but cannot see anything. Thanks

[TheChair]

Your contacts and texts are stored on the phone. The contacts may well be duplicated in the cloud, but they must be on the phone, or you wouldn't be able to access them without an Internet connection.

[hc4361]

My File Manager app is in my app drawer, with all my other apps.

If you don't have one, you can try this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lenovo.FileBrowser2

[hc4361]

My contacts are stored on my SIM card - if I put the SIM card in another phone, or another SIM card in my phone, the contacts are not affected.

Open Contacts app on your phone. Click the 'settings icon' top right of the screen, then click 'Settings'. Click 'Import / Export Contacts' then click 'Export from SIM card'. The contacts will now be stored on your phone's memory

[countrykid]

Thanks HC, I've just added the Moto File Manager to my phone and will look into further tomorrow, likewise the previous link which looks promising having had a quick look.
Thanks The Chair, makes sense what you say in that the contacts must be on the phone. A friend's Samsung phone clearly brings up the option of savings contacts to the phone or SIM, or moving them from one to the other. When in "Contacts" on my phone it gives no such options. It just offers four things: Contacts to Display, Import/Export, Accounts, Settings. If I select Import/Export it offers Import from .vcf file, Import from Sim, Export to .vcf file, Share visible contacts. If I select import from Sim it tells me there are no contacts on the sim.

[hc4361]

As it shows no contacts on the Simon your contacts are stored on the phone. I am positive about that

[hc4361]

Flipping predictive text. I do not call my SIM card Simon

[Mamyalynne]

Fibber.

[hc4361]

:D

[countrykid]

Thanks HC regards the contacts must be on my phone etc as well as in a cloud. As mentioned, other phones seem to give a clear option of copying from Sim to phone or vice versa. If my phone was to break I guess I could rely on copying contacts to a new phone via Google Contacts, but should there be a way that I can copy contacts to the sim. Someone has told me that a sim card cannot store all the various data that contacts now has eg not just a phone number, but addresses, email addresses etc. I'm not very techie, I just want to make sure I have my contacts in the best place, in case anything goes wrong with the phone etc.

[hc4361]

You should be able to export your contacts from the phone to the SIM card or save them as a file either on Google Drive or your phone.
Of course, once they are in Google Drive you can move them to wherever you like.

[countrykid]

Sorry for late acknowledgement HC of you last answer. With my Moto G2 I can find no way in settings etc to move contacts from phone to sim. Have checked online manual and tried every option within contacts etc, but no joy. I'm sure it has to be possible but............. any ideas

[countrykid]

Hi HC, I downloaded the suggested File Manager app but when opened on my Moto G2 it still does not show "sim" anywhere, so I cannot click on Sim to display what is stored on it. When I open File Manager it has three headings: Category, Recent and Local. Selecting Category displays the following options (Quantity in brackets): Pictures (1193), Audios (37), Videos (29), Zip Files (2), Apps (0) and Documents (5). Beneath these is a phone icon and Internal Storage - Used: 4.85Gb Free 24.39Gb. My SD card is used as internal storage hence the extra capacity to the standard 8Gb. Selecting Recent or LOcal displays nothing relating to Sim. Any help appreciated. I need to insert my new sim within next three days to beat the deadline for it to be validated.