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They should have an option to automatically clear texts older than a certain date
- Thread starter TH55
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I am using a 32GB iPhone 4S. I bought it when it came out and I noticed significant lag developing in the last 4 months. I did some searches and read that deleting all txts helped speed tremendously. I did and it has, the lag almost completely disappeared.
Cool deal. Not that I don't think this would be a valid feature, I'm just having trouble understanding exactly why this increases speeds. Afaik the older texts are cached, meaning they take up (minuscule) storage space, but aren't actually loaded until you tap "load earlier messages". Theoretically they shouldn't be able to "bog down" your phone any more than filling your free space with media should. Either way, neat that it works for you. 
Oh wow, good point. They are cached.....hmmm. I wonder why it's suddenly faster? What other variables are there?Cool deal. Not that I don't think this would be a valid feature, I'm just having trouble understanding exactly why this increases speeds. Afaik the older texts are cached, meaning they take up (minuscule) storage space, but aren't actually loaded until you tap "load earlier messages". Theoretically they shouldn't be able to "bog down" your phone any more than filling your free space with media should. Either way, neat that it works for you.
I'm not certain. There are quirky things in iOS still. I know the YouTube app, even when it was official apple, would have trouble buffering in wifi but bit mobile data. Still does this for me and bunches of others on the AppStore version (since they removed it from iOS 6).
I do recall my wife's iPhone 4 being sluggish and I wish I still had it to try this out. She is in the 5 now, so no dice. It's really the only reason she wanted to upgrade (especially since she has to pay full price - her work lays for the line and she pays for the phone unless she wants a blackberry). She loves her IPhone 4 and had it for over two years.
i never understood why people even keep text messages. unless i really really need some info thats in the body of the text, i delete all my messages after im done with the conversation.
Well, I can tell you that people that I frequently text, I have no interest in starting a new thread by finding their name in contacts or typing their number in each and every time. People who I don't text frequently, I will certainly delete threads. It's not that I want to have three years worth of texts backed up. It's that deleting them is just annoying.
Why do you bother? I never delete texts. They all backup to iCloud so when I switch phones they just re-download.
because i dont need 300 text threads in my message app, sucking down memory or storage space. unless its someone i talk to everyday or frequently, i delete them. thats why i bother. if i need to send a text to someone who i dont have an open thread with, it takes me two seconds to start one.
I agree, it's annoying now having to delete them and then having to start a new one. We shouldn't have to either, the iPhone should be capable of storing lots of texts without compromising the performance.
Text messages don't take up hardly any storage space. I have several years worth and haven't noticed any issues with performance. I guess I just don't want the hassle of dealing with managing messages. I just leave it alone and let it work as intended.
With 3,820 messages, the size of my sms.db is 2.2MB. These messages have 114 attachments total and they add up to about 282MB. What you are noticing is a placebo effect.
Unless there were more/larger attachments (pictures/videos/etc.) which added up to a larger space that they were taking up (let's say maybe even 1 GB) and the phone was already down to like less than 200 MB of free space. Having a GB or 2 GB (I even make sure to have at least 3 GB) free on the phone can make a difference in performance.
You might have some attachments that were too recent in some thread to be immediately cached so they had to be immediately available when you opened the messages app.
Because every iPhone does that. It is a combination of a lot of things. Usually a restore can help some. The messaging app is not always in memory so I don't see how you can say the entire phone slows down because of that single app.
I have a 16GB 4s and have messages going back to 2007 when the original iPhone came out. I have pictures that I save from websites that take up far more space them thousands of text messages going back to 2007.