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delete messages on iphone but keep in icloud

how can i delete messages on my iphone to clear up space on the phone but keep the messages in icloud


iPhone 12

Posted on Dec 30, 2022 10:55 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 31, 2022 3:27 PM

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide an answer, if I select 30 days will that delete the messages on the iPhone only or both iPhone and iCloud?


Thank you so much, Happy New Year!

5 replies

Jan 1, 2023 4:53 AM in response to sprintopinto

You can't. iCloud is a synching service NOT a cloud storage service, delete from one and it's gone from all. The only way to prevent this from happening is to remove your iPhone from iCloud, but that's not really a viable option, because you would lose access to everything else which relies on iCloud, and. the next time you connected you phone to iCloud it would sync.


If these are messages you need to keep, the you'd be better off with a standard cloud backup service which, as I have stated, iCloud is not.

Dec 31, 2022 3:20 PM in response to sprintopinto

Hello sprintopinto,


Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. Deleting messages on an iPhone would clear up the storage space on your iPhone, but also remove these messages in iCloud.


However; you can make an adjustment to manage the message history to optimize the storage space. You can go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. From here you can select 30 Days or 1 Year. By selecting either one of these time frames, messages would be deleted. This is an option that's available to you.


Best regards.

delete messages on iphone but keep in icloud

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