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Copying old messages from iCloud to iPhone

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

Posted on Sep 1, 2020 5:58 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 2, 2020 3:58 PM

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!

7 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Sep 2, 2020 3:58 PM in response to Gazman49

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!

Sep 2, 2020 2:57 PM in response to Gazman49

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!



Sep 2, 2020 2:45 PM in response to zinacef

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?

Sep 2, 2020 3:31 PM in response to barberlives123

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.

Copying old messages from iCloud to iPhone

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