According to the Help function for iMessage it shall be possible to close an iMessage conversation without loosing the history, if this option has been selected in Preferences for Messages. Next time I write a new message to the same recipient, the history should appear again. This does not seem to work for me. Could anyone explain to me if I have misunderstood how this is to function?
iPhone XS
Try this --> Settings > Messages > Keep Messages [Chose your option]
Watch the GIF below
You can also use Search function search for a contact. All the conversation will be filtered and displayed if you have Keep Message forever under settings.
Hello, thanks for your answer to my problem. The solution you suggest is exactly what I had tried before I opened this question in the community, but it does not seem to work for me. I am very confused. To me it seems as if there is a bug somewhere. I have the latest versions of both OS on my iMAC and IOS on my iPhone XS. So I am afraid I do not dare close a conversation in iMessage, since I want to keep the history still for some time. But it is very frustrating to see a long list of older conversations on the left side of the iMessage screen every time I want to write a message. In my inbox in MAIL on my iMAC I always move received mails to various maps to make my inbox more clean and nicer to look at. And I hoped that it should be possible to use an equivalent approach in iMessage by selecting the option 'keep history, when closing conversation' and the option 'keep forever' .
Conversation history of an iMessage
