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I wish that SMS and iMessages were part of iCloud.

MrGimper

MrGimper

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 22, 2012
9,189
13,384
Andover, UK
That SMS and iMessages were part of iCloud.

The only thing that stops me and I imagine many others from doing a clean install, is that you lose messages.

If messages were some way integrated into iCloud the same way contacts pictures documents etc are, then you could just clean install and your messages would sync back down to your devices after a clean install like everything else.

End rant.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
MrGimper said:
That SMS and iMessages were part of iCloud.

The only thing that stops me and I imagine many others from doing a clean install, is that you lose messages.

If messages were some way integrated into iCloud the same way contacts pictures documents etc are, then you could just clean install and your messages would sync back down to your devices after a clean install like everything else.

End rant.
Click to expand...

I would like the feature to do a clean install and pick what I can sync back. I would do messages and pictures/videos only. I agree though, this needs to be a feature.
 
MrGimper said:
That SMS and iMessages were part of iCloud.

The only thing that stops me and I imagine many others from doing a clean install, is that you lose messages.

If messages were some way integrated into iCloud the same way contacts pictures documents etc are, then you could just clean install and your messages would sync back down to your devices after a clean install like everything else.

End rant.
Click to expand...

You make a good point. I would love to see this because then my Messages on Mac and iMessage would be in sync as well. That would save me a lot of time, especially since there is no way to delete more than one conversation at a time in Messages.
 
Hmm....I don't remember losing my messages when installing ios 8 beta 1 from scratch.
 
andyw715 said:
Hmm....I don't remember losing my messages when installing ios 8 beta 1 from scratch.
Click to expand...
Yeah I could be off on this but I'm pretty sure I had my messages back anytime I would restore from iCloud.
 
C DM said:
Yeah I could be off on this but I'm pretty sure I had my messages back anytime I would restore from iCloud.
Click to expand...

Yes -- when you restore from a backup. However, what the OP is suggesting (and I agree completely) is that messages should be synced automatically like contacts, calendars, etc., separate from the all-or-nothing full backups.
 
Here’s what iCloud backs up:

Purchase history for music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books

Photos and videos in your Camera Roll

Device settings

App data

Home screen and app organization

iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages

Ringtones

Visual Voicemail


http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519
 
^ Yes that's backups.

What OP is saying, if you set up as a new device, but log into your iCloud account, you can sync back, e.g. your contacts. This is because there is an iCloud sync service for that, separate from the backup service.


You only get messages back if you restore from a backup - either local or iCloud. But you can't sync messages separately.

I agree, this would be fantastic. And I feel like now that now message continuity is better than ever, this is more likely to happen...
 
rorschach said:
Yes -- when you restore from a backup. However, what the OP is suggesting (and I agree completely) is that messages should be synced automatically like contacts, calendars, etc., separate from the all-or-nothing full backups.
Click to expand...
OP is saying photos and contacts and all that come back without the backup just from iCloud. Seems like messages would come back from that as well if something like photos seems to.
 
C DM said:
OP is saying photos and contacts and all that come back without the backup just from iCloud. Seems like messages would come back from that as well if something like photos seems to.
Click to expand...

Currently only photos that are in the Photo Stream come back without a backup, which leaves out any older photos that may be in the Camera Roll. I think iCloud photo will change that because photos will be automatically uploaded and accessible to any device without the limitations of Photo Stream. My guess as to why Apple is not doing this with iMessage is the fact that people almost NEVER delete old conversations which can quickly add up and take a whole lot more space than Contacts.
 
VSMacOne said:
My guess as to why Apple is not doing this with iMessage is the fact that people almost NEVER delete old conversations which can quickly add up and take a whole lot more space than Contacts.
Click to expand...

Good point.

It'd be nice to have a similar thing to the current Photo Stream but for messages: you'd get the last 30 days / 1000 messages sync'd to new devices.

That way you'd feel at home on your new device (or freshly installed device) right away, and cloud storage wouldn't be so much of an issue.

edit:
All of that said, 30 days / 1000 photos for Photo Stream could be quite a lot of sotage, potentially more than most people's 5 year message history if they're mostly just text, yet they did Photo Stream and might be holding even more with iCloud Photo, like you said... So I'm not sure cloud storage space is the issue for messages tbh.
 
They sync from device to device now right? If so if you have another device and restore your phone would it sync from the other?
 
Hi All

I'm the OP and yes I was talking about having messages in the cloud outside of a backup. If you want to keep your messages you HAVE to restore a backup. I was ranting about having messages sync as part of the other iCloud "stuff" so you could clean install, not restore, and messages come back down with all your other synced "stuff" when you sign in to iCloud.

Messages don't automagically sync back from another device if you have one
 
Piggybacking off that, I would love it if they synced messages and added an iMessage section to iCloud.com. It would make things a lot easier using my windows computer at work.
 
This would be so great.

Spent a good portion of my day last week just trying to get my messages back when I downgraded from iOS 8 back to 7.1.2. Thank god for iFile. Would be nice to have a better solution though, can't count the times I've lost all my messages from restoring/ not wanting to go through the hassle of recovering them manually.
 
boston04and07 said:
Piggybacking off that, I would love it if they synced messages and added an iMessage section to iCloud.com. It would make things a lot easier using my windows computer at work.
Click to expand...

This. I've been using GoogleVoice for SMS for five years and I can get to them from any device or any browser. They're all still there too, going back 5 years and I can search them all instantly.

Google innovation since FIVE YEARS AGO. Apple fail.
 
iMessage available on iCloud.com would just be fantastic. I use my Mac for iMessage (and SMS shortly) pretty much exclusively when I'm sat at my desk, very rarely touch my phone.

If iMessage was available when on working a PC as well, that'd be great.
 
YES me too! Happy that someone realise detail things like this.

This is an awesome feature to make sure everything is in sync.
 
I don't know why iMessages isn't included right on icloud.com. It would be perfect so we can type with our actual keyboards when we are on our desktops, like at work for instance. No need to worry about if I have a signal or not sitting on my office.
 
Use Telegram. Does exactly this. Awesome messaging app. Cross platform too. The downside is that you have to convince all your contacts.
 
For this reason, I stopped using iMessage altogether. Thanks to Hangouts and Facebook Messenger, all messages are synced across all devices and are web accessible too.
 
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whats wrong with restoring from a backup? everyone wants EVERYTHING in the cloud, well what happens when you loose internet or the servers go down, or get shutdown, or get hacked? mass panic..

just make a non encrypted backup then extract the sms.db(i think thats it) & move it over to your clean install or whatever, do it manually or theres pc software for it
 
Yun0 said:
whats wrong with restoring from a backup? everyone wants EVERYTHING in the cloud, well what happens when you loose internet or the servers go down, or get shutdown, or get hacked? mass panic..

just make a non encrypted backup then extract the sms.db(i think thats it) & move it over to your clean install or whatever, do it manually or theres pc software for it
Click to expand...

can you explain how this works in more detail?
 
Yun0 said:
whats wrong with restoring from a backup? everyone wants EVERYTHING in the cloud, well what happens when you loose internet or the servers go down, or get shutdown, or get hacked? mass panic..
Click to expand...

That's why you still have the normal backups in case you lose information in iCloud. You would have iMessages stored in iCloud as well as in the backup file.
 
hehe299792458 said:
can you explain how this works in more detail?
Click to expand...

http://www.imactools.com/iphonebackupviewer/
http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-backup-iphone-sms-text-messages-and-export-to-pdf-html-or-ms-excel/
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/01/30/sms-imessage-transfer/
http://blog.i-funbox.com/?p=1748#sthash.OtH3LVik.dpbs

pulling the file out of the itunes backup and putting it into the backup made from the fresh device should also work, then after restoring from the fresh backup you just made there would be nothing on it obviously, except the messages

jailbreaking is easier & faster ofc, if youre into that & i think 7.1.2 is currently jb'able
 
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