Limit to stored text messages?

[XD]

Samsung Fascinate Galaxy SCH-1500

How many text messages should this phone reasonably be able to hold?  Initially I was up to over 10,000 stored text messages.  stock text messaging was acting up, freezing for long periods of time, and eventually all texts just vanished in between receiving two texts.  Received one text, all texts intact, received next text and it was the only text in the phone. all texts from all contacts deleted instantly without warning. 

After that I was only able to store a little over 1000 texts in the phone before the same thing happened - in between two texts, all text messages vanished.  This has happened probably six times now.  Today when it happened I contacted VZ support and had them help me do a massive reset on the phone. 

I'm curious how many text messages I should reasonably be able to store on the phone?  VZ support didn't have a clear answer.  From my experience 10,000 is probably too many.  I think my phone was acting up after 5000 or so, the first time, but subsequently I have not been able to break 1500 without the texts vanishing all at once. 

Also, is there an easy way to store these messages elsewhere so I can view them somewhere else and can keep them all without storing them on my phone?  I like my texts.  I don't want to lose them, and email is just not as convenient.

Thank you! 

[Ann154]

There are sms backup Apps available in the Market. Some save the texts to the sd card and some can send them to an email address. You will need to pick the best for you. Read the description and comments of application to get an idea how it works. If you need to save mms messages you probably have to go with a paid application. There are a few, but I don't need one so I can't recommend one. My personal choice for a sms backup application saves to sd card and it has worked well for close to six months now.

[M91-30]

the number of stored texts is only limited by the available storage on your phone.