Right. I did the same. None of mine come up after deleted. That's why I have no idea what to tell him. I am usually the "go to" guy for things but I have no idea about this. I recommended disabling spotlight.
Also, he doesn't sync his phone so that might have something to do with it.
I have the same issue and I resolved it, but you won't like the answer. Or he wont
Anyway, I do sync my phone all the time.
****This is STEP ONE, to resolving this problem. SYNC SYNC to your iTunes. Make sure you have all your apps, songs, movies, everything in iTunes.
Also, put your contacts in the windows contacts. Back them up also. Have everything backed up. Sync it ALL. I mean ALL of it.
Take your pictures out of the camera roll and put them somewhere in your computer.
OK. That was my disclaimer.****
Now let me explain the behavior I experienced.
I received some SMS from my provider. They were called "TNN24News". It's an SMS service you are subscribed for. I already unsubscribed.
My SMS app is empty at the moment. I deleted all. However, if I go to spotlight and type TNN, the 6 deleted TNN24News sms will come up in the search. When you click them, it opens the SMS app ready for you to write something. It can't open it because it's not there of course.
I think the issue is NOT with spotlight.
I think the issue is with the
SMS app.
Let's say I type the letter Y
in the SMS Search (not spotlight). It says "No results found". I type TH - again "No results found". Anything I type has "No results found".
BUT, if I type TN or TNN, or 24, or any letters or words that have "TNN24News", it doesn't show "No results found", it just shows a blank screen. Like there is nothing there, or is showing me something but it's invisible.
I am guessing there is still an entry for it in the sms.db file.
Well, this morning I resolved the issue. I reset all my settings in the phone because the App Store was acting up and I wanted to reset everything. It so happens that it deleted my alarms but my alarm, even though it is not there, went off this morning at 4.40am.
I said, screw it, I am going to completely wipe the phone.
So, I went to reset and deleted all data. Basically an iPhone Wipe.
The iPhone restarted to when I bought it basically. Everything was gone from the phone. I just bought the iPhone 4 about 2 weeks ago, so it took about 1 minute to do this.
I tested the SMS issue, and sure enough, the TNN24News ghost SMS are all gone. THe phone is normal now.
All I did was hook it up to iTunes and let it sync. It asked me to set up the iPhone again just like the first time I bought it. Just click next and it's done.
ANyway, now all the Ghost SMS are gone.
Also, when I type it in the SMS app. If I type TNN, or 24, or whatever, sure enough, instead of coming up as a blank page it says "No Results". Which is what it is supposed to say.
I think this process deletes all the database files created, so when you open the SMS app, it creates a shiny new blank sms database.
This was OK for me because my phone was practically empty, but I think, without hacking jailbreaking and browsing the file system and all that jazz, this is the only way to resolve the problem.
I even went as far as to back up the phone and browsing the SMS backup file with sqlite. Guess what? The SMS file backup when opened in excel is EMPTY!!
Jesus. What an annoying problem.
Anyway, when the iPhone starts acting weird, wipe it.
