Q: How do I delete saved text messages that are taking up storage on my iphone?

Just to reiterate for those who may still be looking for this solution, your process works beautifully. The only thing I would add is to force an iCloud backup at your step number 6 before the reboot. This will tell iCloud the messages are deleted and prevent some from restoring from iCloud after the reboot. This allows the procedure to work fully the first time.  You shouldn't have to repeat it several times. Cheers and again THANK YOU.

Maybe it does, but it's still ridiculously complicated for the average user, and unnecessarily so.  Imagine a 90-year old trying to recover space on his phone.  If they can't do it, your product/solution fails.

Personally I found the solution of closing all the apps, deleting the messages, and setting the phone down for 20 minutes so it could finish deleting stuff worked quite well.  It still left a few hundred MB in messages, even though the app showed no threads... That is a product/OS flaw.

I think we are all agreed the procedure is tedious. On the other hand, had I inadvertently deleted a string of texts, it's comforting to know it could have been restored simply by rebooting. Not sure where the line is drawn between a restoration system and a tedious deletion procedure. It seems to make sense that a deletion of this magnitude should be followed by a new backup to confirm the deletion before it's final.

I went to Apple today with this very problem. I had to restore and set up as a new phone meaning I deleted ALL texts. I did not lose contacts or apps and it was a bit annoying to have to set up mail accounts again but I am glad I did it. I had almost 2gb of stored messages on a 16g phone.

Hey Nick,

I tried doing your second method but I keep getting the same message every time I try and restore my backup on iCloud (your 4th step) It says "iTunes could not restore because not enough free space is available on the iPhone." I have a 16gb phone and am using 13gb, so I'm not sure why I keep getting this message? Any help please would be great!

I tried this and it said that I didn't have enough space to restore my back up

Instructions from GoldenLord on page two works like a charm.  A little tedious though, but no purchases.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1639507&page=2

This works perfectly.  Everyone should use Kurty999's method.

Thanks @Nickc25

I did this once & it did nothing. 4 hours later, having done this entire step 1 TWICE and after having to back up & totally re-set my phone, it finally worked! I have to say I was super worried about having to download a site from the internet in order to clear memory from my iPhone. Apple seriously needs to fix this. This was such a pain in the a** to go through! Thank you for your help!

For next time, Kurly999 has a much easier solution. Owning an Apple iphone requires a lot of work.

These aren't phones anymore.  They're computers.  Computers require maintenance.

I have spent two days deleting my texts!  I several of the methods combined.  I think what finally really worked was making sure my iPad and computer messages were deleted and OFF when I was deleting them from my phone.  Then syncing, then rebooting.  Each time it would only delete a portion of the data. After two days, it finally deleted them all.  I'm not sure why apple hasn't come up with a simpler answer.  Good luck to all of you.  It's a huge pain!!

setting>messages>message history>30 days.  My phone was set to Forever.  I have space again!

Kurty999's method works on my iPhone6 (IOS 8.1). I was able to purge over 3.4GB of data out of the "messages" section.

First, i manually deleted all my text messages by swiping and deleting. After this was done my usage was reporting 3.4GB under messages.

Next i did the steps he outlined:

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

Only after that was done did my usage report "messages" as 63 Mb (which i can live with).

Definitely which that Apple's IOS could manage this part of storage more efficiently.

Go to Settings > Messages.

There's an option of how long to save messages. Check 30 days. An option will come up saying it will delete all messages that are older than 30 days. Click delete. Should free up space.