Greetings JamieOrt,
That's a fantastic question! There are features built in to the iPhone and iCloud that may help with optimizing the storage on your device. Bear in mind, utilizing these features does not prevent content such as message threads/conversations from showing in the Messages app or prevent the messages from utilizing storage space on the device. Instead, optimizing storage may allow for content to sync to iCloud and remain visible on your device while helping make more available space as your device storage nears being full. Since you're noticing Messages using 70GB of storage, you may benefit from enabling Messages in iCloud. The steps for enabling this feature are listed below and can be found in the following article.
- "Go to the Settings app.
- Tap your name.
- Tap iCloud.
- Turn on Messages."
Use Messages in iCloud
Once Messages in iCloud has been enabled, you may see tips appear for optimizing storage using the steps below. You can learn more about optimizing storage on your iPhone via the following article.
- "Tap Show All to see all the recommendations for your device.
- Read the description of each recommendation, then tap Enable to turn it on or tap the recommendation to review the contents you can delete."
How to check the storage on your iPhone and iPad
Take care!
