Why can't I force a backup of iMessage to iCloud?

[Schmactor]

Why is there no way to force a backup of iMessages to iCloud? I can click "backup now" to back up the rest of my phone, why can't I do the same for iMessage? It would be very helpful since this feature seems to have stalled from the outset and is no longer uploading any of my conversations to the cloud and it seems there is nothing I can do to get it started again.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Does toggling its switch seem to do anything?

 

[Schmactor]

Every time I toggle off I get the same message "Messages in icloud messages have not been fully downloaded to this phone. Disable and Download Messages?" I click yes but it never seems to download anything. This message pops up every time I toggle off. This last time I toggled off and back on it did seem to add a couple more conversations to iCloud but it's still only a fraction of what I have and doesn't seem to be adding any more.

 

[NoBoMac]

Plugged in to power and on wifi? Seem to recall that that is required to get the initial sync to complete (which makes some sense: might be trying to push gigabytes of data and don't want to drain battery and or blow through someone's data plan).

 

[Schmactor]

Plugged in to power and on wifi? Seem to recall that that is required to get the initial sync to complete (which makes some sense: might be trying to push gigabytes of data and don't want to drain battery and or blow through someone's data plan).

Yep, did that.

 

[Minorite]

Just to make sure, have you tried leaving it donwloading messages charging with a good Wi-Fi (better restart device and router first) overnight? As NoBoMac mentioned there could be tons of data and no progress bar....

 

[cynics]

Every time I toggle off I get the same message "Messages in icloud messages have not been fully downloaded to this phone. Disable and Download Messages?" I click yes but it never seems to download anything. This message pops up every time I toggle off. This last time I toggled off and back on it did seem to add a couple more conversations to iCloud but it's still only a fraction of what I have and doesn't seem to be adding any more.

If you are looking at 'conversations' in settings > appleid > iCloud > manage storage > messages that is just showing conversation that include data outside of the chat database. A message that is only text based will not show up there.

If you want to see how fast messages sync find on of those conversations that hasn't been updated "today". Click on it, send a message to that person(s) then go back to iCloud settings. When it says "today" that is how long it took.

For me, on wifi its near instant.

Do you have multiple devices that support Messages in iCloud? If so you can delete a chat from one and when it deletes from the other devices is how long it takes to sync as well. If you don't then you may want to just turn it off because turning it on removes messages from your iCloud back ups since they are stored on their own similar to iCloud Photo Library.

 

[Schmactor]

If you are looking at 'conversations' in settings > appleid > iCloud > manage storage > messages that is just showing conversation that include data outside of the chat database. A message that is only text based will not show up there.

THIS EXPLAINS IT! THANK YOU!