Watch messages not in sync with iPhone messages

it's a bit of an old post but still worth a reply this behaviour of message deletion not syncing has occurred since day one with the Apple Watch there is no known solution at this stage trust me I have pushed this one through to Apple Engineering multiple times and have submitted alot of feedback I agree guys the changes you make on one device should sync to the next being in the support structure myself I wish I could do more to have this behaviour changed for your sanity and mine as I'm not only supporting people with the issue it but it personally drives me nuts all I can suggest is to keep making complaints and submitting that feedback I assure you the more feedback one issue gets the more likely that issue is to be resolved /addressed.

I agree. If it's an Apple choice, Apple should make it the User's choice. To add insult to injury when you delete a message on the Watch you must slide the message and choose Trash...quite a specific action that could not be performed by mistake, yet Apple then asks you to Confirm the delete. Moronic. Not a normal characteristic of Apple. They are usually quite smart about these things.

MagicTH2 wrote:

.. If it's an Apple choice, Apple should make it the User's choice. ..

If you would like to send feedback or suggestions to Apple, you can do so here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

You are not addressing Apple here. This is a user to user support forum. If you wish to let Apple know you would like to see a change in something, you need to use their feedback page here. http://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

If the watch does not meet your expectations, then you can return it. You have 14 days to return the device for a full refund.

tmfnj wrote:

There is no cost to incorporate this option, but there is a cost to ******* off your customers.

Of course there is a cost to incorporating any new feature into the code of the OS. There's development costs. There's testing to make sure that nothing got broken when the changes were made. There's a cost to adjusting the use interface, updating the documentation and support articles, training support staff.

Then, of course there's the fact that offering lots of choices has never been part of Apple's design philosophy. Not everyone agrees with this outlook but, on the whole, it doesn't seem to have hurt Apple.

You can submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

I suspect you will be taken more seriously if you don't use profanity in the suggestion.

Best of luck.

Message deletion is not synced across Apple Watch and iPhone - and there is no way to enable this.

Messages instead need to be deleted separately on each device.

The Mirror my iPhone setting for Apple Watch determines only how you are notified about new messages.

If you choose Custom, for example, you can decide whether your watch shows alerts, whether sound and/or haptic alerts are provided and whether (including how many times) alerts are repeated when new messages are received.

To delete a Messages conversation on your watch:

• Open the Messages app on your watch:
  • When viewing the time, go to the Home screen (by pressing once on the Digital Crown) > tap on the Messages app icon.
  • Or use Siri (eg "hey Siri, open Messages").
• When viewing the conversation list, swipe left on the conversation that you wish to delete > tap Delete / Trash.

Thanks for outlining it in a clear and concise manner I appreciate it, it will allow new comers to the post to get the picture very quickly. I would also like to say we're aware that this is expected behaviour at this stage but we are discussing how we believe this behaviour should be changeable. (I concur and I have a very close affiliation with Apple Support and it's processes) as discussed previously ensure you're leaving feedback at www.apple.com/feedback as I can assure you the more people that leave feedback for the same issue the more likely that issue will get prioritised and corrected with a update.

Agreed, Reyn - Something got messed up for me after the latest Watch IOS 3.1.3 and/or IOS 10.2.1 update January 2017.

My iMessage and text messages were in sync between IOS and MacOS devices in the past (in terms of iMessage/Text content AND if the message was read or unread).

But now if I get a text and read it on the iPhone, the Watch is still showing the text as UNREAD. If I read a new message on the Watch, the iPhone is still showing the message as UNREAD and the NOTIFICATIONS are not cleared. Wonder if this is an iCloud issue as the behaviour is flaky on MacOS as well.

In the past notifications worked perfectly for iMessage/Texts... by default the Watch gave me iMessage/text notifications unless I was actively using Messages.app in IOS or MacOS. Now its all over the place, messages read or unread, notifications cleared or not on other devices. :-(

EDIT (Read status sync issue): I tried restarting my devices, but this time I was sure to power off BOTH the iPhone6s and the Watch. Then powered on the iPhone6s. Once the phone was running, I started the Apple Watch Series 2. After a few old iMessage/text notifications popped up on the Apple Watch, the READ status and notifications on phone/watch for new messages are in sync again! :-)

I understand that not syncing message deletions was a choice Apple made when they wrote this code. Some people want it this way, many don't. If anything, the default method used by email and most other apps is to sync deletions. Why is messaging any different?

But, Apple, if you insist that messages are different, WHY NOT GIVE US THE OPTION?!!!

There is no cost to incorporate this option, but there is a cost to ******* off your customers. Maintaining multiple copies of intentionally deleted content is an unnecessary security risk, and there is no excuse for it except arrogance and/or laziness on the part of the coding team.

I've been using my new apple watch for 2 days now and I am ready to return it because of this one simple failure. I am certain that I am not alone.

I swear at the last wwdc i thought they said with the roll out of all the new iOS watch os and Mac OS version that iMessage would sync across all of our devices using iCloud. Its the one feature I really wish they had. Ive mentioned it to them several times with each iOS and watch os update and each time a new watch was released in hopes I wasn’t the only one and maybe there was enough of us to warrant them to at least look at it. Its tedious and annoying.

Yeah - sort of annoying - but that seems to be Apple's preference (even between iOS devices and Macs). If I delete a message from my iPhone, it still shows up in the Messages app on my Watch and my iPad (and even my iMac). You would think that since iMessages are part of iCloud that it would delete them from everywhere. Only seems to work that way with the various Mail apps - though deleting them from the Watch first does not delete them from my other devices. But deleting the Mail from anywhere else does delete it everywhere.

I agree this is BS, i have to manage my messages from my phone and my watch.

I get other devices, but my watch should is paired with my phone. Lets keep it that way.

I do have the Mirror Iphone setting turned on.

The Apple Watch is seen as a separate device for Messages, Mail, etc.

(This can be identified by the fact is appears as a device under the iCloud Settings, as well by the fact that it can continue to receive Messages and Mail even when disconnected from iPhone but connected to Wi-Fi.).

As already noted, iMessages are not kept in sync across Apple devices – this a security measurement by Apple. iMessages are not stored on a server once delivered to the recipient (a hands-off approach) – unlike IMAP email where the delete command is pushed back to the server and filtered down to other devices.