How long before iCloud Messages get deleted?

[s2mike]

For my own reasons, I turned off “Messages in iCloud” months ago on both my iPhone and my Mac. I simply don’t want my devices syncing and I no longer want to see any hint of old Messages conversion threads.

Anyone know when the old messages will ultimately be deleted? Again, I turned the setting off months ago and, for a while, was seeing prompts about “you’ll lose your messages in XX days but you can still retain them…”

At this point, it doesn’t look like they’ll ever go away… every time I check my iCloud Messages settings, it just keeps giving me the option to “undo delete”… does anyone know when this cache of messages in the cloud will finally be permanently gone? It’s simply counting UP now: yesterday was “-51”, today is “-52”, and tomorrow will be “-53”…

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Those messages don't mean much, and I'm not sure why they are there, other than to push back to a paid plan. I've had iCloud photos still there almost a year after disabling the feature and lowing my plan to the free tier. iCloud messages are still around and I have it disabled. Apple Music still has my personal stuff synced two years after I ended my subscription.

 

[lemimouth]

What is in the cloud may stay in the cloud forever, even if deleted.

On your Mac, check the ~/Library/Application Support/CloudDocs/session/containers folder. I have here hundreds of files/folders from apps I've used during the last 10 years, and absolutely no way to delete it.