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How can I save space on iCloud presently occupied by "Messages" (most likely photos and videos embedded in them) WITHOUT losing my entire history of messages?

I am running out of iCloud space because "Messages" occupies 4.7 GB. I would like to download all photos and videos embedded in messages (preferably in bulk!), so they don't need to be kept on iCloud. But I do NOT want to lose my entire history of messages! In the article, it says that if I turn off iCloud for messages, "your message history will be included in a separate iCloud backup" - but how does that save space? Do I not bump up against the 5 GB limit?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Mar 21, 2022 5:57 AM

Top-ranking reply

David McKinlay

Level 7

22,948 points

Posted on Mar 21, 2022 6:23 AM

5GB isn't the limit of iCloud, it's the capacity of your free plan. For a US$0.99 per month you can have 50GB of space on iCloud - ten times as much space as you have now. At some stage everyone comes to the realisation that despite the best efforts of economising on space and trimming your stored files in the free plan, it's time to move up to the next plan and enjoy the space it offers.

If you do manage to find some space savings you will again be in this position because the services you use are making small demands daily on your space and, cumulatively, will put you back to your current plan's ceiling.

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How can I save space on iCloud presently occupied by "Messages" (most likely photos and videos embedded in them) WITHOUT losing my entire history of messages?

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