Messages in iCloud: Reduce iPhone local storage?

My iPhone storage is full. Most of the storage is taken up by about 80gb in messages. Right now in my iCloud back up settings "Messages" are set to "off". If I switch that to on will the local storage be reduced? Or will it simply back up all those messages to the cloud while keeping my local storage at 80gb?

I have over 1tb available in the cloud, so I would rather store that data there.

iPhone 15

Posted on Jan 10, 2026 9:54 AM

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Posted on Jan 10, 2026 10:24 AM

If you have messages deselected in your iCloud backup, the messages are. not included in your device backup.

If you enable messages in iCloud, then messages will offload attachments and sync messages across your devices. Messages are then synced, not backed up.

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Messages in iCloud: Reduce iPhone local storage?

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