Old text messages appear out of nowhere. Why?

[zowenso]

Hello. So, I recently updated to iOS 26 two days ago. Yesterday I backed up my iPhone to my Mac doing an encrypted backup after I updated to iOS 26. I’m not sure if I always have to click the encrypted box or not, but I did and I leave the top one clicked that says back up all important data to iCloud ( see pic.)

Today out of no where, about a dozen or more really old text chats showed up back in my message app. Some 2-3 years old. They weren’t there earlier today or yesterday because I would have noticed.

Any feedback on why this may be happening?

Thank you.

 

[ApAx]

This happened to me, too. Messages from several years ago from contacts I don't even have any more. Very concerning about how long our data stays "out there" on Apple's end, and why it seems to not be handled correctly. When I delete the message from Messages in iCloud, I expect it to be deleted off Apple's databases as well. The only messages that should reappear should be ones part of a "restore from backup"

 

[zowenso]

This happened to me, too. Messages from several years ago from contacts I don't even have any more. Very concerning about how long our data stays "out there" on Apple's end, and why it seems to not be handled correctly. When I delete the message from Messages in iCloud, I expect it to be deleted off Apple's databases as well. The only messages that should reappear should be ones part of a "restore from backup"

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one, but I wish I knew why.

 

[taylor999]

Glad you mentioned this, I thought I was losing it when I saw old threads come back. Seems like a bug with iCloud sync more than anything.

 

[zowenso]

Glad you mentioned this, I thought I was losing it when I saw old threads come back. Seems like a bug with iCloud sync more than anything.

Ok thank you.