Q: How do I delete saved text messages that are taking up storage on my iphone?

I can't believe method 1 actually worked.  It took me a while because then I didn't have enough storage to restore my phone but once I made storage available it worked like a charm. Thank you!!

Yes, it is a mac computer. You have to open up the iMessage app on your computer. Then, on the side it should have a list of people you have messaged. You have to manually delete all of them. Finally, hook up your phone and sync it. Hope this helps.

READ THIS! THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO DO -

1. Delete whatever messages you don't want from the messages app

2. Close all backgrounded apps

3. *MOST IMPORTANT STEP* Set your iPhone down for 5 minutes or so and LEAVE IT ALONE while it does it's thing and deletes all of the thousands of messages that you suddenly told it to delete.

4. Check your usage (settings - general - usage) and it should be lower or 0 depending on how many conversations you chose to delete.

That's it. Don't do any of this crazy backing up and downloading programs. The reason people are having issues is because they delete thousands of messages (multiple conversations) at once and expect their iPhones to instantaneously delete all of the files and continue functioning like normal immediately. It's not gonna happen, it takes time for the phone to delete all of the messages. Give it time. Simply delete....and wait.

Good luck, hope this helps someone.

When iTunes says there's not enough room to backup it's referring to your computer not your iPhone.

Free up space on your computer hard drive to allow for the backup.

Do this if you're on Windows:

1. Open my computer

2. In the box at the top type %appdata%

3. Open the "Apple Computer" folder

4. Open the "Mobile Sync" folder

5. Open the "Backup" folder

6. Delete any old backups you don't need.

That should free up space because old backups take up a lot of space on the computer. I would only keep the most recent backup at any given time.

Good luck

All the messages that you think you deleted still stay in your phone, just hidden after you press delete, also for contact, and photo. Only 1 way : Restore/ or Delete all content and seting, then you the phone like new, dont use back up from itune or icloud.

I also attack the photo what you can see from the backup file in iTunes: That's everything you delete ... still there  with Trash Icon

* This is the backup from the iphone 5 , April of 2014..... Some of messages that i delete few months ago still there, Setup time wrong so it show 2005.

IThank you Nickc25

It worked the first time for me !

Way simpler then the first time I did this.

I think you just saved lives !

Thank you thank you thank you! This helped tremendously I now have 2.5 gigs back

Thank you! I did this one time (didn't have to repeat) and went from a couple hundred MB in storage to 10 MB in storage for Messages. Thank you!

Nick, I know this response is extremely late compared to your response, but I used the first method with iBackUpBot and it worked.  On my phone it shows that I freed up nearly 4 GB of space.  Although when I connect to iTunes, it shows that the 4GB that I deleted was not deleted.  Which is correct, my phone or my MacBook's iTunes?

This works. Thank you!  These phones are ridiculously complicated. The only difference I did was to force a back up to the iCloud after deleting the messages then reboot. This allowed me to do the delete process only once. 

To Erase iPhone Contacts, SMS and Photo Permanently,you must to use a iPhone data eraser software.This use guide about how to deleted iPhone contacts,it can help you erase all contacts from iPhone permanently.

How to Delete iPhone SMS messages Permanently

http://www.z0download.com/useg...

If we do the first method, only the messages will be deleted, right? Nothing else? Like would I have to restore my phone after doing this process and if I do, will it delete everything I have?

Was anything else deleted from your phone when you restored it? Like did it wipe off the data from other apps?

how to delete these messages permanently ?

Basically, these devices are unmanageable unless you:

A.  Own an Apple computer, and

B.  You are proficient with it and iTunes  (I hate iTunes)

I'm pretty sure that 90% of all iPhone users don't have Macs.  There has to be a better way to do this, and it needs to be documented.  Do the Apple techs peruse these posts at all?