Yesterday on our iPhone 5c we suddenly lost all text messages, history and attachments. According to the 5c there are still 8.1 Gb used. How do we recover these?
- iPhone 5c - 32 Gb - IOS 10.3.2
- Phone storage was full; usage: about 12 Gb of Photos (about 6,000 photos), 12Gb of "Documents and Data", 58 Apps using 2.63 Gb, and maybe 600-700 Mb of Music. Thought maybe this (lack of available storage) was causing the problem.
- Had been using iCloud storage for backup (had upgraded to 50Gb a few months ago) but that had filled several months ago and as a result no backups have been taken since the last one (dated October 2017).
- Connected iPhone to our mac mini. Checked iTunes; saw all "Sync" items already unchecked except Music. Unchecked "Sync Music" and re-synced in iTunes. Freed up 600-700 Mb.
- Opened "Photos" app on mac mini and "Imported" all photos that it could see/find on the iPhone into a new Album for the 5c = 3,955 photos imported. Checked "Delete photos from device after Import". Done. Freed up just under 11 Gb on the iPhone. Interestingly, iTunes still shows "2,000 photos".
- Ran iTunes backup on iPhone 5c. Updated the IOS to 10.3.3. Updated successfully.
- Opened up Messages on iPhone 5c. Still no text messages showing up before yesterday. Checked iPhone General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Storage > Manage Storage. Used = 18.08 Gb, Available = 10.47 Gb.
- Messages app is largest usage (by far) = 8.1 Gb. Breakdown only shows "Messages (Saved)" = 8.1Gb. No further details. Assuming most of this is the photo attachments trapped in all of the text messages?? Where are these "Messages (Saved)" stored? How do I access them? How do I recover them? How do I back them up/import them off of the iPhone 5c?
- Photos & Camera app 2nd largest usage = 1.82 Gb (breakdown: Photo Library = 174.4Mb, Synced from iTunes = 895.7Mb, My Photo Stream = 753.1Mb, Shared Photo Stream = 6Kb)
iPhone 5c, iOS 10.3.2, 32Gb
