messages in iCloud- how does it free up space

[Irishappletech]

I use messages in iCloud and love it but curious as to how it frees up space. Ive noticed even though I have the messages in the cloud I still see some messages showing on the devices local storage- when I go to settings-iphone storage-messages "Conversations" I see 5 message conversations appearing which are also appearing when I go to settings-icloud-manage storage-messages "Conversations" why are they showing in both places.

Also am I correct to say that unlike iCloud photo library there is no optimise storage so the messages stay both on device and iCloud itself. Please see the images attached. Any help greatly appreciated

 

[GreyOS]

It doesn’t free up space on your device. The advantages are:
- frees up space in your backup files
- syncing between multiple devices
- can restore messages when setting up device as new

 

[Irishappletech]

I thought it frees up space on the device. I read an apple support Article that says it does. as you can see in the photos why are some of them showing in the phones local storage and some showing on the iCloud storage

 

[GreyOS]

I thought it frees up space on the device. I read an apple support Article that says it does. as you can see in the photos why are some of them showing in the phones local storage and some showing on the iCloud storage

Sorry, my understanding of messages in iCloud must be wrong then. Interested to hear from others

 

[Irishappletech]

thats ok

 

[Mlrollin91]

Sorry, my understanding of messages in iCloud must be wrong then. Interested to hear from others

Your understanding is pretty much correct except attachments are stored in the cloud. So that’s how it frees up space.
[doublepost=1548435720][/doublepost]

I thought it frees up space on the device. I read an apple support Article that says it does. as you can see in the photos why are some of them showing in the phones local storage and some showing on the iCloud storage

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208532

Article clearly states that attachments are stored in the cloud and not the phone, not the entire message. So any strand without an attachment will still stay on the phone.

 

[Irishappletech]

That’s interesting if the messages aren’t in iCloud how is it when I set up the device as new and turn on messages in iCloud all my messages come back including the images attachments and ordinary texts for everyone. Thanks
[doublepost=1548437311][/doublepost]The article says all message history is also stored in iCloud it’s in the first paragraph

 

[Mlrollin91]

That’s interesting if the messages aren’t in iCloud how is it when I set up the device as new and turn on messages in iCloud all my messages come back including the images attachments and ordinary texts for everyone. Thanks
[doublepost=1548437311][/doublepost]The article says all message history is also stored in iCloud it’s in the first paragraph

Everything is stored in iCloud. But when it comes to what’s on your phone are the message strands without the attchements.

Local Storage: Messages without attachments included.
iCloud: All messages and All attachments.

That’s how it saves device storage.

 

[Irishappletech]

Ah right cool. Yeah in the devices local storage I see 4 conversations that are also showing under the conversations in iCloud storage

 

[tamaralig]

For what you're experiencing, Messages in iCloud still uses some form of local storage, that way you can still see and interact with the Messages, similar to iCloud Photo Library. For all intents and purposes, iCloud Messages is for cross device syncing. Meaning it's not designed to completely save you space on your devices, especially if the Message threads has attachments. If and when your device needs space, your iOS will start "cleaning" off files and make room for anything that's "syncing" through iCloud. For instance on my iPhone (the place I send the most messages) directly, my Messages are using 70.1MB but on iCloud storage, it shows they are using 9.31GB. On my phone what I noticed, is the last few messages I got yesterday that had attachments are the only ones that show up when I tap Photos from Settings > General > ipHone Storage > Messages everything else shows Zero KB. Now what I noticed from Settings > name > iCloud > Manage Storage > Messages, when I tap into it and hit Conversations, those messages listed there, are the people I've swapped the most screenshots, pictures, gifs with size wise. from the OP's pictures it's looking about right IMHO

 

[Irishappletech]

hi thats a big help. yes what you said make sense. when I go to settings-phone storage-messages-conversations I see "Zero KB" where it says conversations but if I click back in it changes to 9.5mb under conversations. I am wondering why does the local storage show 4/5 conversations here if these are already showing in the "Conversations" section of iCloud storage for messages. thanks

 

[itsmilo]

It’s just a mess as discussed here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imessage-size-all-over-the-place.2165811/

I also hate how I still have to go in and delete every attachment manually from each device. It should be removed from them all if I delete it from one device. Just like the Photo app. Or at least give me a freaking „delete all“ button in a thread

 

[ram130]

So question, when you got less than 11gb local storage. I’m assuming it’s normal to see tap to download a lot?

Quick insight:

So I sent these around last Saturday. Then got a replacement iPhone and did a restore and everything was there. 1 day later I’m seeing the above for majority of my messages and I’ve tried downloading them but it disappears again few hours later. So I’m wondering if it’s space.

 

[Irishappletech]

is anyone else seeing conversations showing if they go to settings- iPhone storage-messages-conversations. When you click in are you seeing anything. thanks

 

[tspear8183]

is anyone else seeing conversations showing if they go to settings- iPhone storage-messages-conversations. When you click in are you seeing anything. thanks

No. I have no conversations. Honestly, my messages has been acting up since the 12.1.3 update. It constantly said “downloading from iCloud” or “uploading paused, connect to power and WiFi” or something like that. Decided to turn off messages in cloud and try again after the 12.2 release.

 

[Irishappletech]

I have message conversation showing here and in iCloud storage

 

[ram130]

is anyone else seeing conversations showing if they go to settings- iPhone storage-messages-conversations. When you click in are you seeing anything. thanks

Yep and taking up 100 mb.

 

[Irishappletech]

same with me but with a different storage amount. are you noticing they're are people who are also showing up in the iCloud settings. when u go to settings-icloud-manage storage-messages-conversations.

You see these people showing here too as well as in the local storage on the phone

what is this why is it showing in both places

Thanks

 

[christian.terra]

I tried to free up iCloud storage by deleting all my imessages, about 20GB worth. Now imessage is taking up 15GB in the cloud even though I deleted them all. No clue how to get rid of them.

 

[Irishappletech]

yeah it works great but the settings and background is a bit confusing

 

[ram130]

Yea funny. So on my iPad I already had messages there and didn’t have messages in iCloud on it. Enabled it. And it deleted most of the attachments right away in a lot of my messages thread. I wasn’t even low on storage. Then I look on the local storage and it still had some previous messages taking about the same amount of space. So I disabled it, logged out of iCloud. Deleted those, rebooted. Open messages, it still had some message threads there even though NOTHING was showing on local storage. I did proceeded to log back in and enable back messages in iCloud, rebooted, left it over night on the charger, and guess what? Those convo I deleted are no longer showing on the iPad ..yet it’s showing on all my devices just fine. When I send or get a new message, i see that but no message history yet I got the history on all my devices.

Like. What happened to it syncing those convos over from iCloud? lol. And for the love of god give us an option on how we deal with attachments. Not all of us want them gone from local. Then to make it worse, so message threads I saw before rebooting are still there and local.

My only solution is restoring from a backup and letting it download everything from iCloud.

same with me but with a different storage amount. are you noticing they're are people who are also showing up in the iCloud settings. when u go to settings-icloud-manage storage-messages-conversations.

You see these people showing here too as well as in the local storage on the phone

what is this why is it showing in both places

Thanks

This is happening due to them storing recent messages and attachments from messages so it appears right away when you open the app. But it’s so damn inconsistent lol.

 

[Irishappletech]

Yeah that’s a pity that happened to you it’s been great so far for me I did notice it seemed to delete a chat log for 2 people on messages only showing recent ones randomly so I just deleted that conversation and started fresh with the person but thankfully otherwise it works well. Yeah the local storage for messages shows me 5 conversations under the conversations section the rest all say zero kb and these same 5 conversations are showing in the iCloud storage for messages too