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ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 25, 2010
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I notice my iCloud Messages has 30gb of messages in iCloud. That’s turned on and sync with all my devices (image 1).

All the messages are on my iPhone, but under storage it only shows 435mb on the device itself (image 2).

Any idea why these messages aren’t being stored on my iPhone and how I can get them on there permanently?
 

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Messages in iCloud is supposed to hold all of your messages, whereas your phone offloads them to free up space (most noticeable after getting a new device / phone, it has little to no space taken due to only loading the last few messages for conversations).

Only way to keep all messages on your device is to turn off Messages in iCloud for that device, it will prompt you if you want to disable and download all messages.
 
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Messages in iCloud is supposed to hold all of your messages, whereas your phone offloads them to free up space (most noticeable after getting a new device / phone, it has little to no space taken due to only loading the last few messages for conversations).

Only way to keep all messages on your device is to turn off Messages in iCloud for that device, it will prompt you if you want to disable and download all messages.
So on a new device, there’s almost no messages on the device? They’re all stored in iCloud?

I notice pictures take a second to load sometimes when I go and look at old conversations…that’s because they’re all in iCloud?

I wish I could put them on my phone as well.
 
So on a new device, there’s almost no messages on the device? They’re all stored in iCloud?

I notice pictures take a second to load sometimes when I go and look at old conversations…that’s because they’re all in iCloud?

I wish I could put them on my phone as well.
Yet, many people are trying to figure out how to have less stuff permanently on their phone as it takes up too much storage.
 
Yet, many people are trying to figure out how to have less stuff permanently on their phone as it takes up too much storage.
Whereas I have plenty of storage on all my devices - but my iCloud is getting near the next tier.

I actually want to know how to reduce the 7.8 gigabytes of messages I've got in iCloud!

I've deleted lots to attachments, etc., but the occupancy in iCloud never drops.

I do wish there were a save options between one year and forever. Two or three years would be fine.
 
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Messages in iCloud is supposed to hold all of your messages, whereas your phone offloads them to free up space (most noticeable after getting a new device / phone, it has little to no space taken due to only loading the last few messages for conversations).

Only way to keep all messages on your device is to turn off Messages in iCloud for that device, it will prompt you if you want to disable and download all messages.
weird. i have messages in icloud turned off, but i still get messages on my other devices . is that normal? is it better to keep it off or turn it back on?
 
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weird. i have messages in icloud turned off, but i still get messages on my other devices . is that normal? is it better to keep it off or turn it back on?
If your other devices are enrolled in iMessage, you‘ll get these messages on there. Same goes for basic text messaging if you enabled forwarding for these devices.

Messages in iCloud ties it all together by syncing your messages, so if you delete them on one device, they vanish on every other device with Messages in iCloud enabled. It also serves as a cloud backup in case you lose your device, move to a new one or simply want to free up space locally by having 100% of your texts on iCloud and only the most recent ones on your device.
 
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