Messages: iCloud Storage vs. iPhone Storage

Question

Level 1

99 points

Messages: iCloud Storage vs. iPhone Storage

Hello,

I am seeing a very large difference between the space taken up by "Messages" when I look under iCloud Storage vs. iPhone Storage.

When looking under local iPhone Storage on my 12 Pro it is reporting 4.33 GB (with 3.07 GB as "Other". When I click on that category nothing shows up...what can be done about this?)

When looking under iCloud Storage messages is showing 16.4 GB used!

Yesterday I took some steps to clean up a lot of old photos/videos in attempt to reduce my iCloud Storage space. What I have done thus far to eliminate any additional variables is disable "Messages in iCloud" on my other devices (Macbook Pro & iPad). My idea is to get my iPhone working correctly and trimmed down, then once that is done to enable Messages in iCloud on my other devices to then sync.

My phone was plugged into power and connected to WiFi over night so I was hoping it would figure itself out, but it has not.

I have already tried the following:

Under iCloud - Manage Storage I selected "disable & delete" messages data
Logged out of Messages in iCloud on all devices
Logged out of iMessage & Facetime on all devices
On iPhone only - restarted device. Waited 5 min then logged back into iMessage & Facetime

Posted on Dec 8, 2021 8:27 AM

Reply

Answer 1

skeelo221 Author

Level 1

99 points

Jan 3, 2022 11:40 AM in response to skeelo221

I think the root cause of the discrepancy between iPhone storage and iCloud storage is that not all media and attachments are stored on the device since I have Messages in iCloud enabled.

Is there a way on either iPhone or Mac to force download of ALL content from iCloud? On my Mac I disabled Messages in iCloud with the thought that doing so would force download of all content but that did not happen. When I scroll up on a message thread to reveal old messages, the pictures are not showing up just a placeholder icon for the picture (which is stored in iCloud).

What I am trying to do is cull all my old media and attachments but keep all the text transcripts in place. What is the best way or app available to do this?

I wish the "keep messages forever" setting had some more granularity so there was an option to remove media & attachments older than X years, but keep the text.

Reply

Messages: iCloud Storage vs. iPhone Storage

Similar questions