[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] f4nthomas:
Hello everyone! :)

Does anybody know please, if it's somehow possible to dump/extract messages from the Facebook messenger application which have been already deleted by the user (read correctly as a 'cheating girlfriend') and which maybe left stored somewhere on device within the internal messenger's CACHE memory?

I am pretty sure that they still must have be stored somewhere secretly in the phone, because within the Apps -> Messenger -> Storage -> It still shows that some space is used as following: Application - 100MB, Data -325 MB, Cache - 60.14 MB Total - 486 MB. ->

That's a clear evidence that application is using some internal cache storage somewhere...

I've already read many articles found on internet about how to 'very simply' recover deleted messages from the phone saying that you just need to check for subfolder "fb_temp" within the "com.facebook.orca" and WOALA - That's it!

But in fact, it's not so easy at all, because that folder always displays as empty, no matter whether I check it with windows explorer (when the phone is plugged to PC via USB) or using ADB shell.....the subfolder "fb_temp" always appears as an empty folder. Maybe it's because the phone is not yet rooted? I don't know.

hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/[COLOR="Blue"]com.facebook.katana/fb_temp[/COLOR] $ ls -la
total 8
[COLOR="DarkOrange"]drwxrwx--x 2 root sdcard_rw 4096 2019-02-02 22:51 .
drwxrwx--x 3 root sdcard_rw 4096 2018-08-08 20:03 ..[/COLOR]
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw 0 2018-08-08 20:03 .nomedia
hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/com.facebook.katana/fb_temp $
hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/com.facebook.katana/fb_temp $
hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/com.facebook.katana/fb_temp $ cd ../../com.facebook.orca/fb_temp/
hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/[COLOR="Blue"]com.facebook.orca/fb_temp[/COLOR] $ ls -la
total 8
[COLOR="DarkOrange"]drwxrwx--x 2 root sdcard_rw 4096 2019-07-18 23:14 .
drwxrwx--x 3 root sdcard_rw 4096 2017-11-27 00:29 ..[/COLOR]
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw 0 2017-11-27 00:29 .nomedia
hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/com.facebook.orca/fb_temp $
hero2lte:/storage/self/primary/com.facebook.orca/fb_temp $

Does anybody have any experience with similar problem ? Maybe it's more for Interpol to ask instead of here ...but ... you never know :laugh:

I've also read several articles about how to correctly root the phone in different fashions, what are the pros and cons... but, if possible, I'd prefer rather to avoid of rooting the phone at all, because it always carries a a high risk of loosing the data / because during the rooting process (for example with combination of latest TWRP and Magisk) it is necessary to wipe all the data - Obviously really I cannot afford go ahead with that option. But anyway, the rooting method does not guarantee me the results which I need to achieve (extract the deleted messages).....OR? Please feel free to correct me if I was wrong.

Any ideas how to figure this issue out? :(

Some technical facts:

Is phone already rooted?: No.

Phone model: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (SM-935F)

Android version: 8.0.0

KNOX version: 3.1 , api level 25 , TIMA 3.3.0

FB messenger version: 224.1.0.18.117

has no SD card, only phone's internal memory is used

Your any feedbacks / hints or advices will be highly appreciated! :cool::good:

PS: any advices like: "find a new girlfriend" are not accepted! :laugh: ...