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How do you activate Messages in the cloud?

naasrd

naasrd

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
459
169
Dublin, Ireland
There doesn't seem to be any clear cut way to activate this; some people have it on, others don't, mine is still greyed out. Are there any steps you have to take, do all devices have to be running the betas? Mine are. I have Messages turned on in iCloud settings on phone and pad. Can anyone shed any light on this please?
 
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messages store automatically in the cloud, there isn't anything to turn on... or off. but you don't access them there; only on your devices (mac, iphone, etc).
 
fisherking said:
messages store automatically in the cloud, there isn't anything to turn on... or off. but you don't access them there; only on your devices (mac, iphone, etc).
Click to expand...

Actually, storing iMessages in the cloud is a new iOS 11 feature and you do, indeed need to turn it on to use it.

Unfortunately I can’t help with the question of why it’s greyed out for some people. I was able to turn it on while I was on beta 1 and it’s stayed on for me through beta 3.
 
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its still broken anyway, beta 2 said it couldnt update icloud settings at this time, beta 3 it turns on and looks fine, but never syncs. still says last sync is jun 23 from beta 1 from that 1 time it did work. rebooted etc, watched router traffic graphs for an hour, wifi interface is flat lined so its not silently doing it either.
 
BrettDS said:
Actually, storing iMessages in the cloud is a new iOS 11 feature and you do, indeed need to turn it on to use it.

Unfortunately I can’t help with the question of why it’s greyed out for some people. I was able to turn it on while I was on beta 1 and it’s stayed on for me through beta 3.
Click to expand...

i stand corrected. there IS that option in preferences (i was thinking of my mac, where it seems to be on without my selecting anything.)
 
I’m on PB 1 and it’s been syncing fine for me.
I turned it on day one and it’s been syncing ever since (as far as I’m aware, I don’t check that regularly)
 

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This is a new feature I wasn’t aware of

Yet whilst I since found the icloud messages option it’s greyed and unable to switch on via pb1

Turned on restrictions to allow make changes to icloud
Turned off restriction

store messages on icloud is still greyed
[doublepost=1499754850][/doublepost]since found this
You must turn on Two-Factor Authentication for your Apple ID in order to use the 'Messages on iCloud' function at this time. Hopefully this changes, but it's very likely to stay!

I dont want to return to two factor authentication

I can live with standard keep messages for 1year
 
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I actually like it the old way (turned off and not synching). Let's me keep messages on my phone clean while saving them on my Mac for future reference.
 
MozMan68 said:
I actually like it the old way (turned off and not synching). Let's me keep messages on my phone clean while saving them on my Mac for future reference.
Click to expand...

You could still do that by simply not enabling iCloud sync for messages on the Mac in High Sierra. That would still keep any iOS devices in line but allow you to use the Mac for archival.
 
Now that I have my messages synced through iCloud, I wish that I could send and receive them through iCloud from my Windows desktop
 
Donfor said:
This is a new feature I wasn’t aware of

Yet whilst I since found the icloud messages option it’s greyed and unable to switch on via pb1

Turned on restrictions to allow make changes to icloud
Turned off restriction

store messages on icloud is still greyed
[doublepost=1499754850][/doublepost]since found this
You must turn on Two-Factor Authentication for your Apple ID in order to use the 'Messages on iCloud' function at this time. Hopefully this changes, but it's very likely to stay!

I dont want to return to two factor authentication

I can live with standard keep messages for 1year
Click to expand...


Thanks, tried that but still no joy.
 
utwarreng said:
Now that I have my messages synced through iCloud, I wish that I could send and receive them through iCloud from my Windows desktop
Click to expand...

I feel like this will be a future feature, which is why we’re seeing the option to put our messages in the cloud versus syncing between Apple devices. This would be a great way to combat Google Hangouts.

naasrd said:
Thanks, tried that but still no joy.
Click to expand...

It’s not working for most users. I feel as if since this is a big backend/cloud feature, we’ll see this functioning more reliably later in the beta cycle.
 
Dwalls90 said:
I feel like this will be a future feature, which is why we’re seeing the option to put our messages in the cloud versus syncing between Apple devices. This would be a great way to combat Google Hangouts.
Click to expand...

Indeed and imessage access through the icloud portal is totally on the way.. bet on it.
 
I actually was having problems with iMessage one day. So I tried turning off iMessage, and sync messages with cloud. I was able to turn iMessage back on. But for the life of me, I cannot get messages to sync with iCloud again. It's just greyed out, and no matter what I tried. I can't activate it again.
 
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lsutigerfan1976 said:
I actually was having problems with iMessage one day. So I tried turning off iMessage, and sync messages with cloud. I was able to turn iMessage back on. But for the life of me, I cannot get messages to sync with iCloud again. It's just greyed out, and no matter what I tried. I can't activate it again.
Click to expand...

I have the same exact issue. Would sure love to know how to reactivate iMessage-iCloud sync again. Button grayed out here as well.
 
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Craiguyver said:
I have the same exact issue. Would sure love to know how to reactivate iMessage-iCloud sync again. Button grayed out here as well.
Click to expand...

I have managed to turn imessages saved in iCloud on from my phone. My iPad however is still greyed out. I can’t switch it on my iPad at all.
 
I turned it on on both my iPhone 7 and my Mac with the install of the first Public Beta's. After installing PB2 on both devices, it's still working on my phone but it is now grayed out on my Mac. I do wish/hope that it actually syncs going forward, i.e. delete from phone and it's deleted from the Mac. It did not do this with PB1 when both were enabled.

EDIT: I decided to try this and it indeed worked. I deleted a message on my phone and witnessed it being deleted at the same time on my Mac. Cool. However, it is greyed out on my Mac but I really think it is on. I get a blue bar on my mac at the bottom of messages like it is syncing/uploading.
icloud message.png

Yes, it is enabled and available
message Sync.png

and it is syncing per the bar above
 
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Seems like by turning iMessage off and then on again, all my old messages are gone. The only thing that happens now is it syncs any new messages I have. But I am not sure what happened to my old messages.
 
I had enabled it at one point but it seems to have deleted some messages I noticed I have many messages missing from like November 2016 to June 2017 for most of my major threads. I noticed when it began syncing that it notified me with A LOT of 'this message could not be sent' notifications... I think this was related to the missing messages.

It kind of annoys me but it is beta at this point and I also am upset because I like to keep every message..
 
i don't see the point (or at least, not until we can access messages on the icloud site), and it eats up a lot of space on my (basic) icloud storage. with it off, as always, my messages sync (between my mac & iphone). will keep it off (for now)...
 
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