Cannot decrease imessage Icloud space
I received the infamous "almost out of icloud storage" message. When checking, it turns out imessage is taking up most of it. So I did the due diligence of removing text messages manually. That didn't decrease the icloud space imessage was using. So then I changed the duration of imessage retention down to 30 days. Nothing changed. I have restarted the device multiple times (actually all my devices as I also have an iPad), but to no avail. I also hooked the phone up to iTunes to manually sync then back up the phone, but nothing is changing.
How can I reduce the space imessage takes up in icloud?
Thank you,
Roy
iPhone 14 Pro