iMessage Cannot Delete

[Pokerb01]

After upgrading to 16 (20A362) there is a message sent to me from my wife that I cannot delete. All other messages are able to get deleted; just this one cannot. It is the first message in the thread that doesn't delete yet subsequent messages in that same thread can be deleted.
I did try taking her phone off of Family Share from my phone...still won't delete. I also tried signing off iCloud and it still won't delete.
I'm thinking about backing off to 15.7 and deleting it and then upgrading again to 16, but I'm concerned that I'll lose something in the translation.
Has this been reported before (I Googled and didn't find anything) or can someone tell me how I can get into the nuts and bolts of the OS and delete it manually, or is there another way to do this??

 

[0128672]

Do you have Messages in the Cloud enabled so that you can see your Messages on other devices? I'm wondering if you could try deleting it on a Mac or iPad.

 

[Pokerb01]

Do you have Messages in the Cloud enabled so that you can see your Messages on other devices? I'm wondering if you could try deleting it on a Mac or iPad.

Thanks for the reply. I do have my iPad linked to my cloud account but none of the msgs on the iPhone show up on the iPad.

 

[Pokerb01]

Thanks for the reply. I do have my iPad linked to my cloud account but none of the msgs on the iPhone show up on the iPad.

Btw… before I upgraded to 16, I was able to delete her messages.

 

[0128672]

Thanks for the reply. I do have my iPad linked to my cloud account but none of the msgs on the iPhone show up on the iPad.

Are you sure that you have messages in icloud enabled on both your phone and iPad? Go to Settings > [Apple ID] > iCloud > Apps Using iCloud and scroll down to Messages. Tap on Messages and then check if Sync this iPhone (or Sync this iPad) is also enabled.

You also need to enable iCloud > Password & Keychain > Sync this Phone. On iPad 15.7 it's iCloud > Keychain.

Set up iCloud for Messages on all your devices

Learn how to set up iCloud and access your messages on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

support.apple.com

 

[Pokerb01]

Are you sure that you have messages in icloud enabled on both your phone and iPad? Go to Settings > [Apple ID] > iCloud > Apps Using iCloud and scroll down to Messages. Tap on Messages and then check if Sync this iPhone (or Sync this iPad) is also enabled.

You also need to enable iCloud > Password & Keychain > Sync this Phone. On iPad 15.7 it's iCloud > Keychain.

Set up iCloud for Messages on all your devices

Learn how to set up iCloud and access your messages on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

support.apple.com

I did these steps on both the phone and iPad (but didn’t see “sync this phone” anywhere as an option. However now I get the error msg on both phone and iPad that says “messages in iCloud is not available because iCloud and iMessage accounts are different”. Never got this in the past (when the phone was running 15.7 and below)plus I have no idea where to see the account for iMessage..

 

[0128672]

I did these steps on both the phone and iPad (but didn’t see “sync this phone” anywhere as an option. However now I get the error msg on both phone and iPad that says “messages in iCloud is not available because iCloud and iMessage accounts are different”. Never got this in the past (when the phone was running 15.7 and below)plus I have no idea where to see the account for iMessage..

On your phone go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. At the bottom of the list your Apple ID is displayed. It should match the Apple ID you use to log into the phone. Is at least one of the Send & Receive addresses that Apple ID or an email alias of that Apple ID?

 

[Pokerb01]

On your phone go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. At the bottom of the list your Apple ID is displayed. It should match the Apple ID you use to log into the phone. Is at least one of the Send & Receive addresses that Apple ID or an email alias of that Apple ID?

I’ve got 3 addresses where it says “you can receive iMessages…” and one is in fact the same address that my Apple ID is. I’ve tried a bunch of things since our last contact and nothing helps. It would seem that if I took my phone off the cloud and off Wi-Fi then that one msg could delete… but that didn’t work either.
I’m tempted to talk to an Apple genius and see if they could figure it out. I was going to downgrade to 15.7 but am concerned about messing that process up and losing stuff. So the Apple Store might be a last resort.

 

[Pokerb01]

UNBELIEVABLE… I just found the solution to this dilemma when I deleted all of the deleted messages that iMessage keeps for 30 days…after finding the thread of messages from my wife and deleting them, the original msg being held finally went away…!! What a relief and what an embarrassment to me after trying a multitude of account changes and adjustments…! Thanks again for all of your help and that explains why nothing was able to work…

 

[noobinator]

UNBELIEVABLE… I just found the solution to this dilemma when I deleted all of the deleted messages that iMessage keeps for 30 days…after finding the thread of messages from my wife and deleting them, the original msg being held finally went away…!! What a relief and what an embarrassment to me after trying a multitude of account changes and adjustments…! Thanks again for all of your help and that explains why nothing was able to work…

I had this problem too but mine was a text message, not an iMessage. Where did you go to find the deleted messages to permanently delete? I had to do a full restore and set up as new. It actually persisted to a new phone too when I started from that backup.

 

[Pokerb01]

I had this problem too but mine was a text message, not an iMessage. Where did you go to find the deleted messages to permanently delete? I had to do a full restore and set up as new. It actually persisted to a new phone too when I started from that backup.

 

[Pokerb01]

It is now part of ios16. Tap the circle with the 3 dots inside at the top of the message listing and I think if any have been deleted, it lets you look at them . I got rid of mine so I can’t find anymore deleted messages. But it’s new in ios16

 

[ephendi]

I have this problem with ios 16 and older ios 15 and big sur on Mac.

When use messages in cloud
- deleting message from Mac or ios 15 have no effect on ios 16 device. (Same icloud account)

When delete message on ios 16 device, message is deleted from all devices (ios 15 and Mac with big sur) correctly.

 

[ascender]

I have a whole conversation I can’t delete from my iPhone On iOS 16.

If I delete the messages on another device, they remain on the iPhone. If I delete messages on the iPhone, they don’t delete. If I delete the whole conversation by swiping… it just stays.

Aaaaargh!