I have checked my iCloud storage and can see 4+GB of stored/old text messages.
I now need to restore all of them to my iPhone but I can't see how this is possible?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Gary
iPhone 7, iOS 13
Hi Gazman49,
We understand you'd like to restore Messages in iCloud to an iPhone.
You can do so by going to: Settings > [Name] > iCloud > Messages, enable. Doing so will bring all messages stored in iCloud down to the device.
We would also recommend reviewing this article: Keep all your messages in iCloud.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers!
Hi Gazman49,
We understand you'd like to restore Messages in iCloud to an iPhone.
You can do so by going to: Settings > [Name] > iCloud > Messages, enable. Doing so will bring all messages stored in iCloud down to the device.
We would also recommend reviewing this article: Keep all your messages in iCloud.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers!
To get your messages synced across all of your devices, did you enable Messages in your settings -- Keep all your messages in iCloud - Apple Support?
Hello Gazman49,
You are correct in understanding that setting 'Keep Messages' to '1 Year' will remove messages after 1 year. Once removed, these messages are not stored on the device or in iCloud.
If you wish to keep messages longer than 1 year, you will need to set 'Keep Messages' to 'Forever'.
Thanks again!
Thanks for your reply. I don’t think I explained my issue very clearly.
I set my phone to keep messages for one year. So, I assume that messages older than one year have been backed up to iCloud. I would now like to get those old messages back on my iPhone or at least be able to access and read them on iCloud as I need to check some old messages. If I can’t restore them to my iPhone maybe there is an app that allows me to access them from iCloud?
My iCloud setting has always been set to Messages. That’s why I have 4.6GB of messages stored on iCloud.
I think my problem is that I set my iPhone to keep messages for one year in the belief that messages older than one year would be saved permanently to iCloud. It appears that I might have misunderstood how this works? Maybe messages older than one year are deleted and never retrievable? If this is the case then I have made an error as my intention was to keep messages forever as I do with emails.
Those messages are not stored somewhere in iCloud, they should still be available on your Messages app.
Thanks very much. It's not what I wanted to hear but at least I now understand. I've set keep messages to forever. This is my first use of this support service! Very helpful. Thanks again. Gary
Copying old messages from iCloud to iPhone
