Messages are in the Cloud but where?

Hey there!

You do have Messages in your iCloud account, however, as said, you won’t see them on the website, as they are encrypted on both ends, you can however check your devices settings:

On your iPhone or iPad, go to:

Settings > Your Name > iCloud, see if Messages is enabled.

On your Mac:

Open Messages (On the top menu) > Preferences > iCloud (or iMessage), see if Messages are enabled.

If you don’t want, or need your Messages syncing via iCloud, then turn off the service in those locations.

Once it’s off on all devices, you can go to manage your iCloud Storage on either device, and remove your messages data from iCloud permanently, (And as said, as a safeguard, the storage may not free up for up to 30 days).

Manage your iCloud storage - Apple Support

If your Desktop items are missing as well, most likely they were deleted, or iCloud Desktop and Documents were disabled on your Mac.

Check System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Options. If Desktop and Documents are disabled, you can enable them again to return as it was.

Likewise, your files may have been moved to your Home folder, as again, another safe guard provided by Apple, so check:

Finder > Go > Home, and look for an iCloud Drive (Archive) folder, if there, your missing data should be there as well.

You can also check iCloud.com > iCloud Drive > Recently Deleted, and even recover deleted files if available at iCloud.com > Account Settings > Recover Files. However I would first check the trash bin of your devices.

Use Messages in iCloud - Apple Support

Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

Hope these resources can help as well.

There is no reason to be frustrated.

If you have messages in iCloud enabled, your devices use iCloud to sync the state of messages across your devices. Messages cannot be accessed in iCloud.com as they are end-to-end encrypted; you can access messages only on devices that you are logged into using your Apple ID. You can clear the space by managing your messages on device (although, freeing space is not immediate in iCloud, it can take up to 30 days for all the space to free).

Christopher Davis2 wrote:

Still confused. By the way, I just accidentally deleted my entire Desktop thanks to iCloud doing it's thing. I must have checked or unchecked something that made no sense. No joke. iCloud just erased my entire Desktop. Even if you want to modify what goes to iCloud or not, why would it ERASE YOUR LOCAL DESKTOP? I can't imagine any situation when anyone would want to do that. Thanks, iCloud!

It didn't. you likely toggled on/off desktop and documents in iCloud. When you turn it on it will sync those locations into iCloud. When you turn it off, the documents you synced into iCloud are moved to Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive.

Do you mean enabled on my devices?

Is iCloud messages turned on? That's what it means.

Because Messages doesn't seem to exist on iCloud?

There is no messages app, no. Messages are end-to-end encrypted so they cannot be accessed at iCloud.com, only on your device.

Are you saying that this 11.45gb is not actually used space in iCloud, it just represents all the messages synced across on my devices? So then they are not actually in iCloud?

No, that space is actually used. Your devices sync using iCloud.

My goal is that I do not need a backup of Messages. I do not want to sync them. I only use Messages on one device, iPhone. I want to free up that 11.45gb, and not use it for any Messages backup.

Turn off messages in iCloud (Settings > Name > iCloud). The messages you did sync will delete after 30 days.