Why does my Mac have 25gb of iMessage, but my iPhone has 2gb?

[Webcat86]

As the title says really. My iCloud says I've got 43gb of messages, so I want to clear some out. My iPhone storage says there's only a few gb on there, but the Mac has 25gb.

What is the reason for this disparity, as iCloud sync should mean it's the same on all, no? And 99% of my messaging is done on the phone, so I'm confused why that isn't carrying the bulk of the storage if there's going to be a disparity between devices.

 

[Wando64]

I don't know, but maybe the phone is keeping more stuff on iCloud, to download on demand?

 

[Webcat86]

I don't know, but maybe the phone is keeping more stuff on iCloud, to download on demand?

That definitely makes sense. I saw a Reddit post earlier, from a year ago, with people speculating that each device has its own messages backup onto iCloud because deleting from one place didn't free up iCloud space, but this doesn't feel very likely to me

 

[Wando64]

That definitely makes sense. I saw a Reddit post earlier, from a year ago, with people speculating that each device has its own messages backup onto iCloud because deleting from one place didn't free up iCloud space, but this doesn't feel very likely to me

Do you have a lot of photos/videos in your messages?
If so, do you have Optimise Storage ON in Photos?
Maybe it also affects images stored in Messages.

 

[Webcat86]

Do you have a lot of photos/videos in your messages?
If so, do you have Optimise Storage ON in Photos?
Maybe it also affects images stored in Messages.

Yes and yes

 

[Webcat86]

Do you have a lot of photos/videos in your messages?
If so, do you have Optimise Storage ON in Photos?
Maybe it also affects images stored in Messages.

Here is the Reddit thread I mentioned. I have also just noticed that iCloud web says Documents is 25gb, but iCloud Drive on my Mac is only 10gb, and it's not telling me where the other 15gb is coming from.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/109f5tv

 

[Wando64]

Here is the Reddit thread I mentioned. I have also just noticed that iCloud web says Documents is 25gb, but iCloud Drive on my Mac is only 10gb, and it's not telling me where the other 15gb is coming from.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/109f5tv

Your iCloud Drive replicates the content of the Mac folders: Documents, Desktop and Downloads.
In addition it contains a copy of all recently deleted files and folders (I am not sure for how long)

EDIT: sorry I've seen that you compared with the iCloud Drive folder on Mac, which also contains Documents, Desktop and Downloads. The only explanation I have is that there might be a lot of recently deleted files.

 

[Webcat86]

Your iCloud Drive replicates the content of the Mac folders: Documents, Desktop and Downloads.
In addition it contains a copy of all recently deleted files and folders (I am not sure for how long)

EDIT: sorry I've seen that you compared with the iCloud Drive folder on Mac, which also contains Documents, Desktop and Downloads. The only explanation I have is that there might be a lot of recently deleted files.

Thanks. I'm reading on Reddit about people saying that to fix the messages bloat, you need to disable messages from iCloud sync on each device, delete the messages on all devices except your primary (iPhone, most likely), wait 30 days for it to take effect in the cloud, and then re-enable the iCloud sync. Apparently this then syncs only the stuff from the primary device, but reactivating it before 30 days just restores everything to all the devices.