I am planning to stop using iMessages in iCloud temporarily, as I have reason to believe what is in iCloud for my id is corrupt (multiple devices say not all messages have been downloaded and this has been for a long time, and one device has a stuck badge that never changes). Lots of people claim resets, restores, setup new, toggling badge setting, etc. fix it, there is no consensus solution - none have worked for me - and if the problem is a corrupt iCloud message database, then none of these will solve the problem.
Since there isn't a direct way to clear out the iMessages data that is in iCloud, this is my plan, does it look correct? There's not a lot written on this.
I have 3 devices - iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro.
1. On iPad, tap on every message thread - scroll all the way to the beginning of the thread - tap on any jpg or video that has not downloaded, and download it (done).
2. On the iPad, perform Settings > [name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Messages. Then tap Disable & Delete. I get a message that says I have 30 days to download all messages. This turns off iCloud iMessages on all 3 devices (done, and verified that iMessages is turned off.)
3. Put iPad into Airplane mode, and again tap on every message, and ensure all messages and all attachments are present (done).
4. In a day or so, verify that iCloud backups of iPhone and iPad are bigger than before, since they now contain iMessage data, which used to be saved in iCloud outside the backup, like Photos are if saved in iCloud.
5. Wait 30 days, for Apple to permanently delete iCloud messages.
6. On day 31, turn iCloud Messages "On" on iPad. This *should* sync what is on the iPad with iCloud.
7. Turn on iCloud messages for iPhone and MacBook Pro. They should then sync with the newly created iCloud messages data from step 5. Their local copies should be identical to what is on the iCloud, I don't know if it will ask me to choose merge or replace.
Once step 6 is done and a little time has passed for everything to sync, I should have a good iCloud database and devices in sync.
From what I have read, I think my only downside of not being on iCloud and getting messages sync'd for 30 days, since my iPhone does text message forwarding to the iPad and MacBook Pro, is (1) replacing a device (not planned) will have to get messages from a backup, (2) If I delete a thread (not planned) it will not sync, (3) each iPad/iPhone backup will have their own message data included in the iCloud backup, instead of having 1 iCloud message backed-up separately (hence step #4; I have the iCloud space to handle this, my iCloud Message database is about 3GB) . The three devices should stay in sync for 30 days anyway.
What do you think - any flaws/mistakes in this process? Anything you think I need to know? Thanks for reading this! If it's correct, I hope this helps someone in the future with a stuck badge or corrupt iCloud message database, since it took a lot of reading to piece this together as a solution!
Since there isn't a direct way to clear out the iMessages data that is in iCloud, this is my plan, does it look correct? There's not a lot written on this.
I have 3 devices - iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro.
1. On iPad, tap on every message thread - scroll all the way to the beginning of the thread - tap on any jpg or video that has not downloaded, and download it (done).
2. On the iPad, perform Settings > [name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Messages. Then tap Disable & Delete. I get a message that says I have 30 days to download all messages. This turns off iCloud iMessages on all 3 devices (done, and verified that iMessages is turned off.)
3. Put iPad into Airplane mode, and again tap on every message, and ensure all messages and all attachments are present (done).
4. In a day or so, verify that iCloud backups of iPhone and iPad are bigger than before, since they now contain iMessage data, which used to be saved in iCloud outside the backup, like Photos are if saved in iCloud.
5. Wait 30 days, for Apple to permanently delete iCloud messages.
6. On day 31, turn iCloud Messages "On" on iPad. This *should* sync what is on the iPad with iCloud.
7. Turn on iCloud messages for iPhone and MacBook Pro. They should then sync with the newly created iCloud messages data from step 5. Their local copies should be identical to what is on the iCloud, I don't know if it will ask me to choose merge or replace.
Once step 6 is done and a little time has passed for everything to sync, I should have a good iCloud database and devices in sync.
From what I have read, I think my only downside of not being on iCloud and getting messages sync'd for 30 days, since my iPhone does text message forwarding to the iPad and MacBook Pro, is (1) replacing a device (not planned) will have to get messages from a backup, (2) If I delete a thread (not planned) it will not sync, (3) each iPad/iPhone backup will have their own message data included in the iCloud backup, instead of having 1 iCloud message backed-up separately (hence step #4; I have the iCloud space to handle this, my iCloud Message database is about 3GB) . The three devices should stay in sync for 30 days anyway.
What do you think - any flaws/mistakes in this process? Anything you think I need to know? Thanks for reading this! If it's correct, I hope this helps someone in the future with a stuck badge or corrupt iCloud message database, since it took a lot of reading to piece this together as a solution!