Q: Saved messages problem in iOS 7

Yeah it's huge!! On my 32gb it's more than half my storage! And it said that I couldn't because it was corrupt and then it was telling me I couldn't because my phone wasn't plugged in when clearly it was because of it wasn't then it wouldn't be showing up on iTunes. Like I said the minute I have an upgrade I'm getting a samsung!

I tried backup bot it took 3 times finally worked and a major pain in the ***.  But the problem is that it keeps saving my text messages!  So the problem never really goes away.  Like I said in a previous post apple knows this is a bigger problem then they are telling people.  That came from an Apple tech at the Genius Bar who was totally honest with me.  He said that there is many people walking around with no idea that this exists.  I think it's unfair that you pay an X amount of dollars for a certain size gig phone only to have it rob half of it from you cause of a crappy glitch.

Have you tried this?

1. Select Settings > General > Spotlight Search

2. Un-Check Messages in the Spotlight Search

3. Delete all text messages that show in the Messages app

4. Open the multi-tasking bar by double tapping on the Home button

5. Close ALL running applications

6. Restart your phone

Remember to reset your phone by holding the on/off button and the home button until you see the apple logo then go back in settings / general/ usage and see if the storage has reduced. ( every time I repeated the above process I noticed that a chunk of memory was given back to me it took me three times and I had freed all 3 gig.

cheers Kurt

I have 5GB of messages and took the ibackupbot route to try to clear this space. (after trying all other suggestions to no avail)   Deleted everything in ibackupbot and all seemed hopeful but restored, and nothing happened.

My question is: am I restoring from the backup I perform to "my computer" or itunes?  Where is ibackupbot deleting the files from- in my computer or the "cloud" ?(which my phone hasn't backed up to in a year bc of space issues there too).  Wondering if I am only restoring my original backup and not restoring my phone without the deleted SMS attachments. 

OR should I or can I restore from ibackupbot directly after SMS is deleted?

Hope this makes sense.  Any help appreciated.

Dude have you read page 7 I've done a little step by step thing?

For this try turning I cloud off whilst doing the ibotback up.

You need to restore from iTunes dude basically ibot lets you look in your back up and mess about but be carful only delete what is explained on page 7 as you can corrupt your phone.

Cheers kurt.

Also try the other way at least three times if not more 

Yes, read page 7 and did every step exactly.  Did not work and that's why I am asking other questions. Have done other way 4-5x's.  Just trying to brainstorm.  Thanks.

I feel your pain.  Nothing worked for me. Can't delete a ghost message you can't see on your phone. I finally took my phone back to factory settings.  Then add everything back. Long process and loose stats and things earned over time.  Really sad I spent many hours trying to fix. I closely monitor my phone now to see if it creeps back. Regardless I am very disappointed and have really bad taste now. Maybe time for change. This will be hard to forget everyone I use my phone. Looking forward to my contract expiring.  Very sorry for you

Sorry to hear it's not working dude I can't understand why it won't! I have done it on three phones now 5 and 5s and that was the way without Ibackupbot but I also tried Ibot and it worked.

Have you deleted all your texts in messages at this stage?

How many times did you back up your phone to iTunes before you tried Ibot?

I deleted all my texts before I even noticed how much was being used up and it was at like midnight so I wasn't texting anyone. I backed up twice. Deleted the SMS attachments like it said tried to restore and it said restoring was corrupt then it told me my phone wasn't connected (obviously it was if I could sync it and see it on iTunes) I tried it probably 10 times and nothing. Then when I went back into  ibackupbot the SMS attachments no longer showed still. It's quite annoyingn I wouldn't mind just a few megabytes being used but when it's 19GB that's more than half my storage! It's ridiculous apple knows about the bug and doesn't fix it

All texts deleted.  Backed up to itunes probably 4x's. Each trying the ibot process again hoping it would stick.  I fact, I cleared out icloud too, thinking maybe I could back it up with "documents and data" off and then restore from icloud without it.  But now I can't back up anything...because the 5GB of saved messages is putting over quota to put anything into my 5GB icloud storage.  Nice

I've already wiped the phone out 2x's (to fix another problem, which inadvertantly started this whole thing when I noticed my usage).  I restored each time with what I was hoping was an ibackbot back-up (minus messages), but it still didn't take and brought everything back again.

My question now:  is there a way to manually restore the phone after deleted to factory settings, so that i may be able to pick and choose what comes back in my phone?

my head is spinning.  i'm about to reset to factory settings again (hey, why not? never a better time, deleted everything off the phone by now) and look at the usage from that point.  I'm curious to what is technically in storage then.  If its a bug, maybe there is no way to get rid of it?

It's really hard for me as I wished I had your phone in front of me to try and sort it as I know how crap it is  paying all that money and to have a massive fault like this.

This may help when you back up your phone more than once I noticed in Ibot there were several backups to choose from so when you have completed Ibot and then gone back into iTunes it might be trying to restore the wrong backup as ( might be wrong) but I tunes always restores from you last back up .

Is there any way of deleting all back ups making just one back up and the editing it and restoring it.

A factory reset where you wipe everything should definitely work just rubbish as you may never recover all your stuff I would go into my computer and save all photos and videos app and music can be reinstalled at no cost.

Either way it's a ***t deal.

Cheers kurt

So I ended up wiping out the phone and got all 12GB free!  I had already widdled everything down so much to do all the backups, etc, etc, it wasn't a far leap.

However, the original issue that brought this usage to light (my wifi was not working) was resolved with the reset and then...overnight it didn't work again.

So end result.  I have 12GB of free memory and no wifi.

Can't win for losing.

I have a similar issue except it happened after a sync.

Before the sync it showed 20.2gb free, after sync it shows 3.7bg free!!

In the sync screen where my free space used to be is an orange section designated "other"?!

This happened out of the blue, never had any issue like this before!!

just had to sign in to say thanks to Kurty999 for the helpful info!  it was a pita, but i'm pretty happy i didn't have to start from scratch with my phone.

i ended up doing pretty much every 'method' along the way, but i think using ibot is what ultimatley did the trick for me.  i backed up my phone in itunes (with all messages cleared but 2.8 GB of 'saved' still showing)...and this was the only backup that existed on my computer. then, i just opened ibot and deleted the files Kurty outlined (plus the parts files).  i also noticed the attachments folder was 2.8 GB before i deleted the contents.  after i did this, the size of my backup file in the user library also decreased by ~3 GB. i'm not sure if the fact that my phone was hooked up the whole time with itunes running mattered or not.  *also i'm using a MacBook Air

i then restored my phone in itunes with the only backup that existed, and sure enough once my phone booted back up, it was clear of the 2.8 GB of 'saved' message files. wonderful!  now back to life...guess i'm not getting those 2 hrs back.

appreciate the helpful folks!

Nice one dude glad it worked ( good point about keeping it hooked up to I tunes maybe key)

Cheers kurt