Mass deleting messages in Messages?

Question

Mass deleting messages in Messages?

Up until a few weeks ago, I used to be able to hold down a key combination while clicking the X on messages to mass-delete texts within Messages. Option + Command used to work, and Option + Shift used to work as well. Now neither works. I have a ton of texts and deleting each one individually, while also having to click to confirm the deletion is SUPER ANNOYING. Why would Apple remove the ability to mass delete texts on High Sierra and not provide another option? Does anyone else know how to mass delete texts from Messages now?

a multitude of macs

Posted on Jul 10, 2018 9:28 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 13, 2018 12:58 AM in response to Marco Klobas

One more thing: if you use Messages in iCloud (synced), curiously you can delete multiple conversations on an iOS device.

Open Messages on your iPhone/iPad

Select Edit

Select the radio button next to the conversations you want to remove

Select Delete when done

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Answer 2

Jul 13, 2018 12:48 AM in response to sjsjsjsjsjsjs

Wait a sec, maybe I misunderstood: do you want to delete a bunch of messages (those elements shown as bubbles) or a bunch of conversations (those elements listed on the left sidebar)? I was referring so far to the first action.

In the case of conversations I can delete them only individually.

Here's an article describing how to delete messages and conversations within Messages app: https://appletoolbox.com/2018/02/how-to-delete-texts-and-imessages-on-your-mac/

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Answer 3

Jul 13, 2018 10:13 PM in response to Marco Klobas

Oh yes, I mean conversations. Looks like we're using the same term for two different things. I used to be able to hold down OPT+CMD and just click the X on down the row of conversations, and they'd delete quickly and easily without the confirmation button popping up. Apple seems to have removed that capability in the past few weeks, which is asinine.

Re: your suggestion on mobile, yup, they're easy to remove on mobile. Sadly desktop is a decade behind iOS' capabilities in this and many other ways.

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Answer 4

Jul 10, 2018 11:23 PM in response to sjsjsjsjsjsjs

Here on High Sierra I can select multiple messages: select the first message – press and hold Shift – select the last message. Once the messages are highlighted I press cancel to delete them in batch.

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Answer 5

Jul 13, 2018 12:32 AM in response to sjsjsjsjsjsjs

Yes, quite strange.

Try opening a conversation in a separate window: File -> Open Conversation in Separate Window

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Answer 6

Jul 14, 2018 12:09 AM in response to sjsjsjsjsjsjs

Hi Stephanie,

yes, unfortunately it's not possible to remove multiple conversations. Hope Apple will consider to restore this feature.

You can leave a feedback here: Feedback - Messages - Apple

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Answer 7

Jul 10, 2018 11:34 PM in response to Marco Klobas

I can't seem to do that. Do you perchance have the setting "save history when conversations are closed" checked in Messages? I don't want to turn on that setting, because the whole point is that I want to delete these messages en masse from my computer, so I don't want Messages to save the history. Thanks, though. 🙂

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Answer 8

Jul 13, 2018 12:17 AM in response to Marco Klobas

This is very strange. I have the exact same settings in Messages, but I can't select more than one message at a time, let alone delete multiple messages. When I press Shift + click more than one message, the first message I selected un-selects.

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Answer 9

kblawson

Level 1

10 points

Jul 19, 2018 7:18 AM in response to sjsjsjsjsjsjs

I have tried what you wrote and it does not work. I am not able to mass delete imessage in mass. This apps ***** , takes so much time to delete each one at a time. Can't figure out why apple makes this so hard

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