iOS 7 Messages (Saved) Can't Delete

Hey, my messages on imessage keep disappearing, especially my own messages. Do you know how to fix that?

I'm having the EXACT same problem. Have you figured out a way to delete your old messages?

Hey Everyone, I have tried Nickc25's list of instructions to do get rid of all of my attachements the long way (with double backups and turning documents and data on and off). When I try to restore from backup it tells me I don't have enough space to backup so I can't complete this.

I am worried in using ibackupbot in deleting from the system files. I see the 8.3GB of attachements in the multimedia file manager. I see them in system files but when I click delete it warns me I may delete files that will cause my phone to not work. Can someone help me further so I don't screw my phone up AND am able to restore from backup?

mate try this it worked for me just repeat the process and each time its deletes a large part of the saved texts that cant be reached ive posted this on every apple wall as it took me ages to find a easy solution any questions dude just let me know

Lucerova you are a legend dude

How to fix it:

1. 1. Select Settings > General > Spotlight Search
2. 2. Un-Check Messages in the Spotlight Search
3. 3. Delete all text messages that show in the Messages app
4. 4. Open the multi-tasking bar by double tapping on the Home button
5. 5. Close ALL running applications
6. 6. Restart your phone

*You may have to repeat this process multiple times depending on how much storage yourMessages app is currently using. In Settings > General > Usage, You may only see the mb or gb drop by a few hundred mb each time (don't panic). You need to continue repeating this process until the Messages app is only utilizing 20mb or less. --If you get stuck and you still have a significant amount of data used by Messages and noMessages to delete, Simply backup and restore your device at this point to empty the remaining caches and allow you to permanently remove the remaining data.

**Also be sure to re-enable Messages in your Spotlight Search. Select Settings > General > Spotlight Search

Preventative Tip:

Always ensure to clean out your Messages often, as well as restarting your device often. iOS has self maintaining functions that only run on startup. As long as you don't allow your message threads to over-populate after extended time periods, you will not need to repeat these steps.

Enjoy

I repeated this three times and it emptied my text cache which freed up 3 gig of space.

(with each time of doing the process it emptied a large part of the stored text data)

This is by far the quickest and easiest way to free the space I personally found I tried Nick's way but ran into the problem as most will that my phone is so full due to having loads of photos and videos that I want to keep that it wouldn't let me restore as it kept saying I haven't got enough space on my phone.

The above technique worked for me on the third go it did delete all my current texts but its worth it for 3 gig of space

Thanks again Lucerova

P.S still think apple should sort this out as my emails is also doing the same thing and i cant delete them

Thanks Man!

That worked and was so simple compared to the other "fixes" on this thread! Went from 950MB to 5MB in one pass!

Glad it helped dude.

Cheers Kurt

Hi there

I managed to knock off 50mb from my usage of 1gb, but that's as far as I can get.

I've deleted all of my messages. I go into Spotlight settings where Messages is already unticked.

I close down all other apps. Turn off, then turn back on again.

Done this a total of 3 times. Last 2 attempts were ineffectual.

Am I doing something wrong?

Regards

Steve

what i did was i also cleared my missed and recent calls im not sure it will work for you but it cleared 1.6gbs for me

I have the same exact problem. When I delete a message, the app gets glitchy and eventually freezes and opens to a white screen. When I restart my iPod, the app fixes itself for a little while. Then it does it again when I open an old conversation, or when multiple people message me at once. I have 1.7gb saved up, and I have mo idea how to fix this problem. Any luck for you?

Snowden has already commented on this. Messages are stored on Apple devices until they are uploaded for screening to the NSA. Apple holds these messages on your device and on the cloud service. Once the information has been uploaded to NSA, the messages then delete off your device. In order to not arouse suspecion, the device will always show you some amount to data as space being occupied on your device. Theorecically this data could be over written and not protected if they were on hidden sectors of your memory. The information stored on this "messages" partition is actually more than messages, thats why this space commitment can easily reach 3 gigs. Any computer science specialist will tell you that ASCII characters only use minimal kilobytes of data. Apple complies with this request to upload your personal data as outlined in the Patriot Act. The only way to delete this "messages" data hold is by doing a complete wipe of your device and not conducting a restore. It will clear the space off your device, but NSA actually has the information from the cloud service regardless.

Easy. Go to messages, and find the conversation you'd like to delete. When you get it, swipe left to delete.

My friend, I don't think you understand what the issue is!

I'm sure all of us know how to delete a message from the inbox, lol

After much searching on the web and reading many (sometimes amusing) posts on this topic here is what I have found.

In Settings>General>Usage my saved mesages were using 3.2Gb and no apparently immediate way of deleting them.

However as the good book says "seek and ye shall find".

SO this is where I went:

Settings>iCloud>Account> then scroll down to ADVANCED and select Mail; again scroll down to the bottom and select Advanced and yet again scroll to the bottom (well at least to DELETED MESSAGES) and tap on the line called Remove.

Here at last you will find a setting that enables you to select the period after which iOS will remove your deleted messages.

The shortest period is one day so you will haev to wait 24 hours to finally have that memory back but it should work and is a nice feature in iOS although it is well burried!!

After much searching on the web and reading many (sometimes amusing) posts on this topic here is what I have found.

In Settings>General>Usage my saved mesages were using 3.2Gb and no apparently immediate way of deleting them.

However as the good book says "seek and ye shall find".

SO this is where I went:

Settings>iCloud>Account> then scroll down to ADVANCED and select Mail; again scroll down to the bottom and select Advanced and yet again scroll to the bottom (well at least to DELETED MESSAGES) and tap on the line called Remove.

Here at last you will find a setting that enables you to select the period after which iOS will remove your deleted messages.

The shortest period is one day so you will haev to wait 24 hours to finally have that memory back but it should work and is a nice feature in iOS although it is well burried!!

Hi Double Canoe

Your message got me very excited, as it sounds like you've got it sussed. And you may well have.

But sadly not for my phone! Lol.

When I go to Settings>iCloud>Account, the only option under Advanced is Keychain, and that's a dead end. No settings to permanently remove deleted messages there, I'm afraid.

Perhaps it's due to the country I live in (England), where certain settings aren't available.

If so, I will blame our government.....they mess up everything else, lol

Best regards

Steve