The View messages on SIM card option is greyed out. What does that mean?

A greyed-out option usually means the inserted SIM has no stored messages at all, or the carrier profile does not support SMS storage on that card. Try the same SIM in an older phone to confirm whether it ever held texts.

Can I copy messages from the SIM card to my phone storage?

Some Samsung Messages versions offer a copy or move action when you long-press a message inside the SIM viewer. If that option is missing, forward the text to yourself instead to save it into the regular inbox.

Does removing the SIM card delete the messages stored on it?

No. Messages saved on the SIM stay on the physical card and reappear if you insert it into another phone. Only a manual delete inside View messages on SIM card removes them permanently.

Samsung

Samsung: View SMS Messages Stored on the SIM Card

Older Samsung phones let you save SMS directly on the SIM card, but current devices no longer write new texts there under normal use. If a SIM card still holds old messages, the Messages app hides that folder inside a separate settings menu instead of showing it in the main inbox.

Updated: 07.08.20265 min6 steps

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Samsung

View Messages Stored on the SIM Card auf Samsung

On current Samsung phones, the SIM card is no longer used to store new SMS messages by default. If you switched a SIM from an older phone, or a carrier stored texts on it earlier, those messages still exist on the card but sit outside the normal inbox view.

The Samsung Messages app keeps a separate viewer for this. You will not find these texts by scrolling through your regular conversations, since the app treats SIM storage and device storage as two different message pools.

To open it, go to Tap on Messages ➔ Open the Menu ➔ Tap on Settings ➔ Tap on More settings ➔ Tap on Text messages ➔ Tap on View messages on SIM card.

This screen only displays messages already stored on the SIM. It will not let you save new incoming texts there, since that function was removed from modern Android messaging on both One UI and stock Android builds.

If the SIM card option looks empty, the card likely never held any messages, or a previous factory reset cleared them. In that case, check your regular Messages inbox or a backup app instead, since the SIM viewer only reflects what is physically written on the chip.

Frequently asked questions

Current Android versions, including Samsung's One UI, store SMS in the phone's internal database instead of on the SIM chip. The SIM storage option only remains as a read-only viewer for texts written there by older devices.

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Android 11 · One UI 3

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Samsung: View SMS Messages Stored on the SIM Card

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