Disable and Delete iCloud Messages - After 30 days

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Level 1

3 points

Disable and Delete iCloud Messages - After 30 days

I'm doing the disable and delete messages from iCloud to clean out some old messages that refused to delete and kept showing back up. At what point are they actually deleted after the 30 days? Currently, I see the below and it says "in 0 days, the messages stored in iCloud will be deleted", today is day 32. Will that change when it's done? I don't want to turn sync back on too soon and have to start over.

Just as reference, I have iCloud Messages disabled on ALL devices (iPad, Mac, and iPhone) and did it the same day.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 25, 2024 12:50 PM

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Answer 1

Greenmymac Author

Level 1

3 points

Aug 26, 2024 5:03 AM in response to plumber4549

So i ripped the bandaid off and turned on “use this iPhone” under messages in the cloud. Once I did that I saw the 55,000 messages count and was like crap. Hit “sync now” still there. Hit sync now again and that number went down to 1,000. So the old messages were indeed deleted from iCloud and all is good!!

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Answer 2

sberman

Level 10

271,976 points

Aug 25, 2024 4:30 PM in response to Greenmymac

Greenmymac wrote:

That appears to be deleting the current conversations stored on my phone. I want the current conversations stored on my phone to sync to iCloud after all the old messages in iCloud are gone.

I understand and I agree with this.

Given these facts, what iCloud storage do you claim is currently occupied by old messages that have not been deleted?

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Answer 3

Greenmymac Author

Level 1

3 points

Aug 25, 2024 4:37 PM in response to sberman

Currently when I look at iCloud Storage it says Messages = 0 KB. I’m past the 30 days of the disable and delete. I’m just worried if I hit “undo disable and delete” and the messages that were supposedly deleted will come back.

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Answer 4

Aug 26, 2024 3:26 AM in response to Greenmymac

I’m in this exact situation! Yesterday was for sure day 30 for me as well, I marked the calendar. I also get the same thing you do 0 days till messages in the cloud will be deleted. I want to turn cloud messages back on but don’t want to start the 30 days again.

I did this once before a few years ago don’t remember seeing this message at all.

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Answer 5

sberman

Level 10

271,976 points

Aug 25, 2024 4:11 PM in response to Greenmymac

Tap the “Top Conversations” row. Then tap “Edit” in the upper right, followed by the trash can that appears there.

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Answer 6

Greenmymac Author

Level 1

3 points

Aug 25, 2024 4:19 PM in response to sberman

That appears to be deleting the current conversations stored on my phone. I want the current conversations stored on my phone to sync to iCloud after all the old messages in iCloud are gone.

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Answer 7

sberman

Level 10

271,976 points

Aug 25, 2024 4:45 PM in response to Greenmymac

Ah, I understand once again. You’ve been very clear.

Sorry I cannot offer a good response. I’ll keep thinking about this. Perhaps someone else can help.

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Answer 8

Aug 26, 2024 5:43 AM in response to Greenmymac

Thank you for the update I’ll turn mine on and hope for the same results.

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Disable and Delete iCloud Messages - After 30 days

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