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Well, if 5GB of free iCloud storage wasn't nearly enough for anyone before, because apparently Apple can't figure out how to do incremental backups so backups basically grow by snowballing without end eventually requiring one to delete the iCloud backup and create a new, what do you all think will happen now? Most people have easily over 5GB of text messages, and if they count towards your iCloud storage--time to upgrade!
 
Sigh. No one is ever happy about anything.

Possibly now the masses can find something out to whine, stamp their feet and hold their breath until they have it their way. I'm going to assume it came late because it wasn't ready and instead of releasing it in a buggy state they held it back.

You can breathe now and move on with your lives.
I feel the same way.

Also makes me wish that MacRumors Forum had a button to downvote posts as well as heart them, so we could express displeasure for negative posts without having to engage with all that gunk.
 
Well, if 5GB of free iCloud storage wasn't nearly enough for anyone before, because apparently Apple can't figure out how to do incremental backups so backups basically grow by snowballing without end eventually requiring one to delete the iCloud backup and create a new, what do you all think will happen now? Most people have easily over 5GB of text messages, and if they count towards your iCloud storage--time to upgrade!
Once you enable Messages in iCloud, they would not be in iCloud backup.
 
In 2016 there were just under 800 million iCloud accounts, so lets assume there are that many now. 800,000,000 accounts x 15 GB storage = 12 billion GB = 12 exabytes, which is larger than the current estimated data capacity of the Big Four (Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook). Does that answer your question?

Nope.
 
I've been able to keep my texts from one iphone to the next using the Backup feature.

How is this different?
 
Why the hell would you want to keep your messages for ten years? Don't understand this. I delete all my messages daily.

Wow you can't think of a single reason? How about.... whats the gate code to my grandparents place again? I think they texted me. Let me search. AH THERE IT IS. The code is, McToolThinksHowHeDoesThingsIsTheOnlyRightWay

What a weird gate code
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I've been able to keep my texts from one iphone to the next using the Backup feature.

How is this different?

iPad, Mac, and moving them to the cloud so they don't take up space on all those devices.
 
Once you enable Messages in iCloud, they would not be in iCloud backup.

That's fair. But here's the problem. Currently I delete large attachments from within messages on my iPhone. My iPad does whatever. But my Mac keeps a repository of ALL messages with ALL attachments. By deleting the message attachments (photos/videos/etc) from my iPhone, my messages, which incidentally go back about 7 years, only take up about 350MB.

With Messages in iCloud, if I delete attachments from my phone they will also delete from everywhere, including my mac. The only way to have a copy of everything is by not deleting, which is how people end up with 20-30-40GB of Messages (I've seen this firsthand).
 
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I've been able to keep my texts from one iphone to the next using the Backup feature.

How is this different?

I was wondering about that as well. Currently, if you delete a conversation on the Mac/iPhone it won't reflect on the other device so the syncing should be instant now.
 
I know everyone is cheering for this but has anyone tried it yet on iOS 11.3 beta? I just updated, synced my iMessage to iCloud and all it saved me was 300mb in storage space. The 15+GB of texts, photos, videos and attachments still hold up storage.
 
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does it work on Apple Watch so if you delete a message it removes from Apple Watch
Yes, just like how it got there in the first place.
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Is it possible that Apple will add Messages on icloud.com?
Now THAT would be cool if they did!
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I've been able to keep my texts from one iphone to the next using the Backup feature.

How is this different?
What about setting up as new? Ever done that?!
 
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You may not. I like it because I can set up a new device and all the messages will be there. I also like that I can delete a message of my iPhone and it's deleted on my iPad. For some, it may not be a feature you use. So you don't use it.

I like being able to delete a message once, and it’s gone on all my devices.. like a deleted email. So that sounds promising.
 
I want to be able to delete messages or conversations across an iPhone, iPad, and iMac. I also want to be able to silence conversations across these devices. Will this feature let me do this?

I am very concerned about this feature if it means I must allow all messages to be stored in iCould. In fact, if implemented without good security I won't be able to use this feature. I understand the current Messages security system. It is solid, other than a man in the middle attack. Currently messages are encrypted from sender to receiver. But, if the messages are stored on iCloud, just like Notes or other things are, then this won't be true anymore. I don't want that.

I need to know how exactly they handle storing of messages, if it is a feature you get when you turn this on. I just hope I am able to use this because I do want the two features I mentioned in the first paragraph.
 
Originally when I beta tested this feature before they pulled it. I was able to sync all my messages from my iPhone to the cloud. And they would all show up on my iPad. But when I enabled it on my iPhone and iPad today. The messages on my phone are not showing on my iPad. What am I missing here?
 
Has anyone tried this with multiple devices yet?

I have an iPad, iPhone, and a Macbook pro.. All with different messages. Do these get merged, duplicated, ??
 
I don't get this, aren't texts already synced across all your devices already? What does this change?
no they are not. I delete it on my phone it stays on my mac. if you have to start your phone from a fresh isntall you loose all your messages.
 
So does this mean I won't be able to view Messages offline, like in Airplane mode?
Obvious there will be a local cache.
[doublepost=1516825278][/doublepost]Question for people testing. What becomes the source of truth? I turn on iPhone iMessages in the cloud then MacBook. Does the MacBook copy everything from the cloud or try to do a compare first?
 
I don't get this, aren't texts already synced across all your devices already? What does this change?
Say you have an iPhone and iPad using iMessage and iCloud Backup. Until iOS 11.3, those devices’ message databases were stored as part of each device’s backup, so basically each message was stored on iCloud twice.

iOS 11.3 stores the message database only once, separately from iOS device backups, and all devices work from the same database. So, in addition, if you delete a message or thread on one device, it’s automatically deleted from the rest, too. (This isn’t the case in iOS 11.2.5 and earlier.)

Think of it as the difference in migrating from photos in iCloud backups to iCloud Photo Library.
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Is it possible that Apple will add Messages on icloud.com?
Highly unlikely.
 
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