Can't delete attachments in Yosemite (Messages)

[Imory]

Yosemite is running great, but it seems like I can't delete attachments within the messages app. Such as pictures etc. Is it perhaps a bug, or something I'm only experiencing?

Edit: Figured it out in post #4.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

I can delete from Messages here OK. I'd got excited for a minute because I thought that with all this iCloud syncing it might remove the attachment everywhere. It doesn't 🙁

But, other than that it seems to work for me. Doesn't look like you can select multiples though like you can in iOS.

 

[Imory]

I can delete from Messages here OK. I'd got excited for a minute because I thought that with all this iCloud syncing it might remove the attachment everywhere. It doesn't 🙁

But, other than that it seems to work for me. Doesn't look like you can select multiples though like you can in iOS.

It doesn't work for me. God damnit. Everything else seems to work fine. What do I do?

Hang on, it did work with another person, but it doesn't work with this very long messaging thread I have going on with a friend of mine. It's very inconsistent. It worked once, but now I can't get it to work with others.

 

[Imory]

I figured this out and thought I'd share, just in case someone else encounters the same problem. I have messaging threads dating back more than a year ago with pictures and several types of attachments. The thing is that it seems you can only delete it if you scroll through the "message-thread" and the let the messages app "load" your previous conversations. For instance, trying to delete something that was sent months ago won't work unless you scroll back a month or two and let the messages app "reload/load" that segment, whereas you later on can delete it through details -----> attachments.

This was not what I'd hoped for at all and doesn't really give us the feature we'd expected. What attachments really is through details is basically giving you a simple way to copy the stuff you've sent, but to actually delete something far back, you essentially have to scroll back a bit (or a lot) to load/cache that attachment/convo.

In conclusion, trying to delete attachments sent months/year ago won't work unless you cache/load that segment of your thread by scrolling back and "reloading" old messages. Messages simply won't be able to find the file for you.

Hope that made sense.

 

[adnbek]

Easy way to delete them all is by navigating to the ~/Library/Messages/Attachments folder and deleting everything within.

 

[Imory]

Easy way to delete them all is by navigating to the ~/Library/Messages/Attachments folder and deleting everything within.

I shall remember that, thanks. Still, it would be nice if the advertised feature actually worked like it should. 😉

Although, isn't that directory a bit of a mess? I think I once went through it and the numbers and names made no sense. Might be mistaken though.

 

[adnbek]

I shall remember that, thanks. Still, it would be nice if the advertised feature actually worked like it should. 😉

Although, isn't that directory a bit of a mess? I think I once went through it and the numbers and names made no sense. Might be mistaken though.

Yeah, it's a mess because that's Apple's way of not wanting one to poke inside. But if you delete all the folders inside, you're pretty much getting rid of all attachments from all the messages you've sent or received.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

Great tip, thanks.

I just tweaked it a bit by using the Go menu to ~/Library/Messages/Attachments then in the search box typing kind: image then saved the search as "iMessage Pix". Now I've got it in my Finder sidebar and it lets me see all the actual images that are in iMessages and I can delete from there. OK, the empty numbered folder will remain inside the ~/Library/Messages/Attachments folder but I'll try and use Hazel to clear those out I think.

 

[Imory]

Yeah, it's a mess because that's Apple's way of not wanting one to poke inside. But if you delete all the folders inside, you're pretty much getting rid of all attachments from all the messages you've sent or received.

So that would pretty much delete all attachments? But if I want to delete the attachments individually from different conversations, would your method still work?

Great tip, thanks.

I just tweaked it a bit by using the Go menu to ~/Library/Messages/Attachments then in the search box typing kind: image then saved the search as "iMessage Pix". Now I've got it in my Finder sidebar and it lets me see all the actual images that are in iMessages and I can delete from there. OK, the empty numbered folder will remain inside the ~/Library/Messages/Attachments folder but I'll try and use Hazel to clear those out I think.

Riiight. 😛

Not sure I understood completely. I used spotlight to search for "/Library/Messages/Attachments" and saw a ton of folders, some empty, others not. It's a bunch of random numbers and letters. If I delete a picture within a folder, would I then have to delete the folder it was in? How far "back" do I go until I reach the attachments folder? This whole thing seems like a mess.

It seems I'm going to have to stick to my own tiring method in order to not corrupt any files.

There's supposed to be a new feature which will let you name a conversation. Does anyone know how to do it?

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

Think the conversation naming is for Group ones only. So 1-1 you can't rename. For a Group, if you click the Details 'button' it comes up Unnamed Group Conversation and you can change it there.

As for the attachments, If you're looking at all those stupidly named folders and type kind: image in the search box top right corner you should see all the individual images. If you click SAVE this can save it as a search in your Finder sidebar. You can delete individual images from there. I guess the empty folders won't be that much of a problem

 

[typicaluser]

Yosemite is running great, but it seems like I can't delete attachments within the messages app. Such as pictures etc. Is it perhaps a bug, or something I'm only experiencing?

Edit: Figured it out in post #4.

Considering installing Yosemite but curious whether running great depends on a clean installation. This is off topic but can you please let me know if you did a clean installation?

 

[Imory]

Think the conversation naming is for Group ones only. So 1-1 you can't rename. For a Group, if you click the Details 'button' it comes up Unnamed Group Conversation and you can change it there.

As for the attachments, If you're looking at all those stupidly named folders and type kind: image in the search box top right corner you should see all the individual images. If you click SAVE this can save it as a search in your Finder sidebar. You can delete individual images from there. I guess the empty folders won't be that much of a problem

I see. Thanks!

Hmm, well that's not a bad idea. I'll give it a try.

So what do you run Yosemite on? I have an Air (2013) and I'm currently at 80% with 5:30 hours left. Safari is the only thing running with 5 tabs...that doesn't sound very good. It should be somewhere between 7-8 hours.

Considering installing Yosemite but curious whether running great depends on a clean installation. This is off topic but can you please let me know if you did a clean installation?

Well, not sure how much this will give you in terms of deciding, but I didn't make a clean install and quite frankly I don't really intend to or see the point of it (unless you use the betas).

 

[typicaluser]

Well, not sure how much this will give you in terms of deciding, but I didn't make a clean install and quite frankly I don't really intend to or see the point of it (unless you use the betas).

It helps me a lot. I think I am going to do a regular update after a certain period to make sure there is no big surprise. Thanks!

 

[drtimhill]

Delete Message Attachments Broken

I've had the same problem and to be blunt it's pretty pathetic. So far as I can figure out the option to delete attachments in Messages simple doesn't work.

1. Open Messages.
2. Choose a conversation.
3. Click "Details" in the upper-right of the conversation.
4. Select one or more attachments (images) to delete.
5. Right-click and choose "Delete" .. accept the "Are you sure you want to delete.." dialog.
6. Wait as .. NOTHING HAPPENS. No confirmation. No dismiss of the attachments box. Nothing.
7. Close Messages. Try again. No anything.

Are the attachments deleted? Nope.

It's broken. it's a joke. Does anyone at Apple care about software quality any more?

 

[Imory]

I've had the same problem and to be blunt it's pretty pathetic. So far as I can figure out the option to delete attachments in Messages simple doesn't work.

1. Open Messages.
2. Choose a conversation.
3. Click "Details" in the upper-right of the conversation.
4. Select one or more attachments (images) to delete.
5. Right-click and choose "Delete" .. accept the "Are you sure you want to delete.." dialog.
6. Wait as .. NOTHING HAPPENS. No confirmation. No dismiss of the attachments box. Nothing.
7. Close Messages. Try again. No anything.

Are the attachments deleted? Nope.

It's broken. it's a joke. Does anyone at Apple care about software quality any more?

Been there. The only way to delete them without going through the directory is to cache/load the thread until you're close to that specific time frame of the attachment you want to delete.