Messages takes up multiple GB of storage, but "Top Conversations" are only 217.5 MB

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Messages takes up multiple GB of storage, but "Top Conversations" are only 217.5 MB

My iCloud is largely filled up by Messages, which takes up 4.2 GB of my account. I definitely don't have that much Messages data, even including attachments, and if I tap on Messages in the Manage Storage page it does in fact show my top conversations only take up 217.5 MB.

Where are the other 4 GB coming from?

Other tangentially related gripe: the "iPhone failed to backup" and "iCloud out of storage" notifications are wayyyy too aggressive. I get them multiple times a day, the show up as badges on my Settings app, in my notification drawer, as toast messages while I'm using my phone...they're very intrusive and I don't want to just turn off notifications from all Settings.

iPhone X, iOS 13

Posted on Jan 4, 2020 8:48 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Jan 7, 2020 2:10 PM in response to garyfromwilliamstown

Hey Gary,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you’re trying to figure out why Messages is taking up so much of your iCloud storage when your top conversations are only using a fraction of that space. With iCloud storage being a limited supply, I can understand why you’re concerned about this.

The easiest explanation is that you may be using Messages in iCloud to store messages. If you go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, do you have Messages toggled on? Is it possible you have it turned on for any of your other Apple devices?

Your top conversations are your most frequently used message threads. If you have photos, videos, GIFs, memes, or other media saved from other conversations that are being stored in iCloud, this could be why Messages is using most of your iCloud data.

This article explains:

Keep all your messages in iCloud

Best Regards.

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Messages takes up multiple GB of storage, but "Top Conversations" are only 217.5 MB

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