"Syncing Paused" in iMessages

I don’t know if this will apply to everybody else, but this was a rather easy fix for me after pining over this for hours.

I simply ran a full manual back up in settings and then it started synchronizing right after that

Just an update! 17.3 software update 17.3 was released today and my messages are syncing again to my new phone. Hope that helps😊

Do you have plenty of iCloud storage? A friend's phone was doing this and she was out of iCloud storage. She upgraded her storage and it took care of this problem for her.

Spoke with an engineer at Apple yesterday, he said this was an "emerging issue" and a recognized bug and expect a fix to be released anytime now, possibly even this week.

I don’t believe it’s fixed yet. It’s been a problem since December. I just went into iCloud and unmarked my messages to sync because it wasn’t important to me and that fixed the problem.

Just going to that screen (on my phone; even though syncing does not always seem to be ann option) and then back to the main list on iMessage on my iPhone seems to be working for me (it pauses randomly but then I redo it and it’s down to a few hundred messages left)- thanks!!!:)

It’s been at least 3 months since this issue was reported and it’s still happening on the latest 17.4 on my 15 pro max. I’ve tried every combination of enabling/disabling message syncing, iMessage, resetting network settings, signing out and into iCloud as well as doing a full iTunes backup and device reset/restore. Messages still says “syncing paused” and I’m beginning to lose my mind at Apple’s lack of acknowledgment or reassurance this will be fixed soon.

My current issue is the icloud backup storage. I delete my texts manually everyday. I know I was told by apple it takes up to 4 days for texts to be deleted on the server end. Sometimes 180days too. I have 25 contacts, 1 photo, 0 texts. AND the new feature in ios 17.2 is the messages in icloud, well that toggle wont turn on. Its actually frozen and wont move. Also under next backup size that part doesnt show anymore. It just says LOADING. Someone else in apple community said this is happening on her MAC. I had to buy more storage just to be safe. I went from 55mb to now 57mb but I dont have texts, I deleted them so its like whats taking the space up? I just keep reporting it on apple feedback. I refuse to sit on the phone with the supervisor for them to say yeah we cant fix it. Someone said on another page itll magically fix itself.

I have an iPhone 15 Pro, phone just updated to 17.2….. and syncing is now paused. Tried the sync setting in Messages using iCloud, located within settings. At first it went immediately back to Syncing is Paused, then I did a hard reboot/forced restart, and it changed to Syncing with iCloud for about 10-15 seconds then back to Syncing is Paused. Apple need to get their sh** together. Known issue and update was released with the same bug.

I made contact with Apple today and was informed again that it is an “emerging issue“ and that they are working on a fix. The last time I spoke with them, they acted like a fix may have been eminent. The thing is, it has not been fixed according to others in various versions of 17.3 that have been released.

This is happening for me as well, but is only part of a problem with Messages that seems to have been introduced after installing 17.2.1 (on an iPhone 14 Pro). I can receive iMessages from established contacts, but can only send text messages in reply. Their replies to me then come in again as iMessages -- most of the time. For some contacts, I never see their replies (sent as iMessages) on my phone, but I can't figure out what's different about those contacts. Yet those replies that never showed up on my phone were coming across in Messages on my Mac, but now the Mac has stopped syncing Messages completely. This started after going in to the Genius Bar last Monday for help with the iPhone, which didn't help and actually made things worse - messages didn't stop syncing until after the Genius Bar employee toggled the "Messages in iCloud" setting on my phone. Their final suggestion was to reinstall the operating system without using a backup, which I haven't done (because I'm not sure it would work given what I read here, and it would be a massive inconvenience to restore everything).

Wanted to add that my first sync after updating added 9,000 messages to the cloud so it clearly was not being backed up in the cloud once the problem started. That was phone.

The iPad added another 1,300.

So even though the messages were generally showing everywhere, the backups were haywire.

So I was having this issue as of 1/25/24. Went to Apple because I was trying to optimize my storage. Kept getting the Sync paused. Apparently 17.3 iOS is out and after I updated, it started syncing...all 259, 191 messages. Then I closed the settings app to take a call. Now it's doing it again, but did at least sync 23K of the messages. I'm at my wits end

OK iPhone Pro, Max here. Messages are not syncing. I just updated to 17.3 like some of you said, and now when I go into iCloud messages and click sync now it grays out for a second, but then returns to sync now. So to everyone that says the iOS update fixes it heads up, update 17.3 does not fix this!!!

Looks like we’ll be getting another bug fix. Power reset, my phone is charged. I have tons of storage available. Quite annoying and it seems like this is not the first time that this issue has appeared after an iOS update.