Help me get rid of 46 GB and 250k + "messages" and attachments in iCloud

Question

Help me get rid of 46 GB and 250k + "messages" and attachments in iCloud

I have looked everywhere and from what I can tell, Apple actually doesn't have a way for you to manage the storage of messages in iCloud.

How about this: give me access to the folder where all that data is stored in iCloud and I will remove it myself with a script or command.

I am so tired of the circular, useless instructions that tell you to go to devices and turn on or off iCloud and change retention settings.

No matter what I have tried, iCloud hangs on to more than 250k messages, going back, it seems, for a decade or more.

I just want a one year retention of messages and attachments and I want everything older than one year GONE PERMANENTLY WITH NO RETENTION ANYWHERE.

Why is this so hard for apple?

Posted on Dec 15, 2025 12:10 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 25, 2025 10:10 AM in response to sberman

This isn't the issue, as far as I can see. No matter what I do I cannot seem to erase my message storage and history in iCloud. If I turn on back up messages to iCloud from any device it "finds" 46gb and hundreds of thousands of messages going back decades... and there seems to be no way to wipe these out. I can set any device to "discard after 30 days" or "1 year" or whatever, but that setting isn't applied to icloud and there's no direct access to the messages stored in icloud that I can locate.

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Answer 2

sberman

Level 10

272,478 points

Dec 25, 2025 1:10 PM in response to Matthew Baldwin

Consider trying this:

Open the Messages app on your Mac
Tap "View" on the Menu Bar
Choose "Recently Deleted"
Are there messages there you are able to delete? Select all the messages there and delete them.

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Answer 3

sberman

Level 10

272,478 points

Dec 15, 2025 7:01 PM in response to Matthew Baldwin

See “Check your iCloud storage on your Mac“ here.

Check your iCloud storage on any device - Apple Support

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