An Android question about SMS (text) messages, between an old and new phone?
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Time for another support question, sorry to bother, thank you so much if you have helpful suggestions ^^
To keep it short, I have a cellphone SIM card, that was inside an old nokia, non-smartphone (and now dead), that was migrated inside a recent android 7 smartphone.
Something was “lost” in the process: the SMS text messages that were exchanged during the lifetime of the old Nokia cellphone, they didn’t appear in the android smartphone’s text apps (neither Android Messages by Google, nor Messenger by Facebook, QKSMS or Signal). And yet, exchanging SMS messages worked, and the new messages were stored and shown. It’s only the pre-android SMS messages that disappeared.
My conclusion was: “RIP LOL the texts must have been stored inside the phone and not inside the SIM card”.
However, as I was using another program (Apowersoft Smartphone Manager) to synchronize data between the smartphone and a PC (and quickly update the smartphone’s list of Contacts, much faster with a real keyboard and a mouse), I saw there was also the option to explore the SMS messages…
And, in there, I saw the old SMS messages! The texts still exist! – Even if they’re not visible otherwise! 
Which leads me to asking: would you have an idea on how to “restore” them into prim and proper state, so that they can be seen normally like the post-smartphone-SIM-insertion of the SIM card?
Operating system most likely. However, on the playstore there is plenty of apps that can download old text messages from sim cards.
Just google “How to recover sms from sim card” and voila.
Perhaps the old messages are stored in the simcard and in the android phone the default storage is the android storage, then only show one of them(as).
You have to search an app or setting to copy the old messates to the phone, perhaps titanium backup.
Actually all you need is a sms send and restore app if you don’t have the Telcom device that connects both phones. Well that’s how it works here in the USA for the tech savvy bunch it turns the sms into a excel spreadsheet that the new phone takes and adds to its banks
You need to do one of three things to recover those messages:
1. Repair the old phone so that it boots up and can then plug it into your computer to manually transfer your messages to a PC or Mac using the Nokia suite or Kies. It will cost money to have it repaired.
2. Use GT Recovery available in the appstore and insert the old SIM into the new phone (might require you to risk physically trimming it down so it fits if your new phone uses a mini or micro SIM). The program is not free.
3. Take it to your phone’s operator and ask them to physically read the SIM’s contents and send them back to your new phone’s number. Text message sending costs might re-apply as well as the possible fee the operator might charge for that backup procedure.
Other than that it is a lost cause.
As others said, you probably will find an app for that on the play store, but depending on what the manufacturer put in is customization of Android, you will find different options in the SMS app menu (3 dots on top right side).
On mine, I can explore the Sim memory, but since it’s empty, I can’t do anything with it.
If you are on stock Android 7 you would probably be using Android Messages by now as Google dropped support for Hangouts using it as a SMS app. So in Messages, press the 3 dots on top right settings->Advanced-> SIM Card Messages.
They should be there. It is for me as i still have my old SMS stored on the SIM.
Can always download it if you’re not on stock Android like Samsung or HTC etc. Just search for Android Messages by Google inc.
from what i remember with nokia phones since i have been using a 6070 model for 12 or so years is that certain text messages can be stored on the sim card but its limited to few characters most of w/c was less than 100 (but i think it also depends on the memory cap of the SIMs since old models have fewer mine was like a 17 year old), then the phone has also storage for text messages (this is the ones that cant be recovered) tho some can be recovered but expect it may or may not recover all
first, you need to make sure those sms messages were saved either in your old phone or in your sim card. If the messages were saved in sim card, probably your new smartphone by default only showing messages that are saved in phones but not displaying sms saved in sim card, depending on the smartphone itself you can change its setting