How do I get rid of saved messages on iOS7?

Messages (Saved) is taking up 3.3 GB on my iphone in ios 7..

is there any other solution getting rid of this other than a clean restore?

when you say backup to icloud, I don't have a setting in ios7 to back up to icloud for "messages"

so there is no simple swipe right to clear the memory?

man. this must surely be a bug -- other apps have an option to delete documents/etc when viewing their usage..

hope they get it fixed.

For me, the usage reported in "messages (saved)" actually increases every time I delete a conversation... I've just deleted a test message I sent to myself and it went up 0.2Mb, go figure.

I too was having this issue, at first. However, I then decided to try the old trick of genuine patience. It worked. It takes a bit. But after deleting everything and just waiting it eventually deleted everything. It took about 20 min or so for 2gb. Then once i waited and it was all finished I was able to restart my phone without the messages coming back. So in think by the one person syncing to iTunes/iCloud each time was just the time it took to actually delete the messages.

I think apple could maybe build a status bar for this or work to improve the process of the data removal.

So give it a go and just wait.

i took your advice j.berk. i had to delete 4gb and just let it sit overnight after deleting. it was fine in the morning.

thanks so much!

🙂

do i have to delete the messages then restart my phone?

I have deleted all the messages out of the iMessage app, reset my phone (I have the 5s) and backed up to itunes. None of these actions worked to delete the 2 gigs of saved iMessages that are listed in settings>general>usuage (storage). I did not set this iphone up as a new iphone.

having to do them one thread at a time for undreds or thousands of conversations is a bug.

Here is a solution that worked perferctly for me and freed up 5GB(!) of space on my iPhone 5 with iOS7:

1. Back up your iPhone to iTunes.
2. Use something like iBackupBot or similar to delete everything in the following folders:
   1. HomeDomain/Library/SMS and
   2. MediaDomain/Library/SMS
3. Restore your iPhone from backup (in iTunes click on "Restore Backup..."). What happens is that the edited backup (without the messages) will restore.
4. Make sure you make a copy of the backup before you do this in case something fails with the backup editor.

Disclaimer - It worked for me but I take no responsibilty for this solution - do it at your own risk.

Firstly you DO NOT have to do a factory reset / wipe device, it is simply not required to get the space back!!

Mine had 3GB and I just got rid of it all, here is how:

METHOD ONE:

1. Make a backup in iTunes
2. open iBackupBot (Google it)
3. Go to the relevant backup
4. Click on Multimedia File Manager and click on the other Multimedia files tab
5. Sort by filename by clicking the Filename tab
6. Find MediaDomain/Library/SMS/Attachments and highlight all of them, then press delete. You can also click to export to a folder of your choice, if you want to save them that is.
7. Then go to System Files>MediaDomain>Library>SMS>Attachments
8. They will be all listed here, highlight them all and press delete
9. Then just restore that backup using iTunes!

Tadaa! Space recovered, your messages are still there but without the attachments! METHOD TWO:

1. Backup your device in iTunes and then to iCloud
2. Go to Settings>iCloud and toggle Documents & Data to OFF
3. Then do a 2nd backup to iTunes and iCloud
4. Then restore the device from iCloud and the message attachments should be gone, turn Documents & Data back on again in the settings

PLEASE NOTE: Method two is a much longer process but some users may feel more comfortable with this method.

P.S You may want to make two backups in case you get any of the above steps wrong, but it is simple to follow the above and not do anything wrong!

P.P.S You could also just go through every single conversation and delete the attachments one by one, but if you have hundreds or thousands of attachments, this will take a VERY LONG TIME!!!

Yeah, this bug is extremely annoying. Wasting 2 gigabytes of my iPhone, another 2 from the OS, and my phone is half full with crap. Oh well, maybe they'll address it with the next update.

I did your Method 1, and I know that it deleted what I needed it to because it shows messages taking up 4 GB on my phone, and in Ibackupbot, I deleted 4 GB; however, when I try to restore my backup through iTunes, it days I can't because there isn't enough space on my phone? What am I doing wrong?