Text Spam

cheezencrackers wrote:

How can I delete TEXTs across all devices?

Not iMessages, TEXTs from outside the Apple/iMessage community. I have had an unbelievable amount of TEXT spam coming in lately — not sure why — and not from phone numbers but mostly from weird hotmail email addresses. I can use a spam filter app to protect my phone, but not my MacBook Pros. I have to manually block each TEXT, then delete the conversation (about five or six clicks per text). That's tedious enough, but I have two MacBook Pros: one personal and another for work (signed into the same Apple acct. on each). The real pain is that when I manually and tediously delete these spam TEXTs (not iMessages) on one MacBook, they are not deleted on the other MacBook. HELP!

NOTE: currently running Big Sur 11.5.1 on each laptop.

Also, Messages in iCloud is turned on on all devices, as is iCloud Keychain.

The current stable release of Big Sur is macOS 11.6.6 May 16, 2022 —I would start there.

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Update your iDevice

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

if you have sync issues—sign out of iCloud and back in to sort anomalies.

Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac

Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac - Apple Support

Sign into iCloud

Sign in and use iCloud.com - Apple Support

Sign in and use iCloud.com - Apple Support

Then I'm confused. If you have Messages turned on in iCloud on your Mac, when you delete any message on any device (except Apple Watch, which for its own reason doesn't sync across devices), it doesn't matter if the message is iMessage or SMS/MMS.

Make sure you have configured Messages as detailed in this link --> Set up Messages on Mac - Apple Support

cheezencrackers wrote:

Thanks for offering advice. All that has been done and, after two weeks of daily usage and testing, the problem still exists. Unfortunately, Apple Messages isn't even an app that's backed up in iCloud, so it seems that signing in/out doesn't help. I'm still seeing TEXTs show up in the Messages app on MacBooks that were blocked and/or deleted on other devices in the iCloud system, specifically, an iPhone and another MacBook. I suppose another piece of advice would be to upgrade to Monterey. It's just frustrating because this wasn't a problem before; it just started happening about two months ago.

I think you just answered your question. If you are NOT syncing messages with iCloud on your Mac, they won't sync across all devices.

At this point, I'd reach out to Apple directly for help. On my MacBook Pro, when I delete a SMS/MMS message on my iPhone or iPad, they also delete from my MacBook Pro. I don't know why they aren't on yours.

Hopefully, Apple will help you sort this. And hopefully, it's a simple setting being overlooked.

Good luck.

I'm glad you've got things more sorted and you're welcome!