Is the Messages setting for "Keep Messages" device specific?

Question

Is the Messages setting for "Keep Messages" device specific?

I have both a 16gb iPad Mini and a 64gb iPhone 6. It's important for me to keep the full Messages archive on my phone so I can go back and review earlier Messages. I don't care so much on the iPad Mini, since it's more of a consumption device and I'd like to reclaim the available space. However, I still want Messages enabled so that I can send replies when I am using it.

In iOS 8, there's a new setting for the Messages app for Message History. The Setting is called "Keep Messages" and the options are Forever, 1 Year, and 30 days.

I want to know if this is a device-specific setting, or more of an iCloud-level setting. If I set this option to "30 Days" on my iPad, will it only be destructive on my iPad or affect the overall Messages history that I have stored in iCloud and delete Messages from my iPhone as well?

iPad Mini, iOS 8.3

Posted on Apr 19, 2015 5:22 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

beaks

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2016 3:16 AM in response to Chris Allwein

TL;DR: it's a local (per device) setting.

I have just chatted with Apple Support regarding this question. Here is the transcript from that chat:

me

In the settings for Messages there's an option to set how long messages are stored. If I set it to 30 days on my iPad, and Forever on my iPhone what happens to the old messages on my iPhone? Are they kept forever or are they deleted?

Is that setting per device or global all of my devices?

Jermaine

Ok so if you set it for 30 days on iPad it will still be there for 30 days. And if set for forever on the iPhone it should always be on the iphone.

me

So, that setting is per device?

If I wanted to make sure my old messages were always deleted, from all devices, I would have to set that to 30 days on all of my devices.

And if I want to free up space on just one device I can set that to 30 days without worrying that my old messages on other devices will be deleted?

Jermaine

So yes the setting is per device locally.

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