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User profile for user: Ash-Heath
Ash-Heath Author
User level: Level 1
53 points

Messages using all iCloud storage space

I'm trying to troubleshoot iMessage issues with my wife's iOS devices as somewhere along the way Messages was disabled in iCloud so changes were not being synchronized across her devices. After enabling Messages in iCloud on her iPhone 13, iPad Air 4, and Macbook Pro it's now showing that all of her iCloud storage space is used.


What I don't understand is that when I look at iPhone storage for Messages and it shows that it's using 600MB of space on her phone, but when I look at her iCloud storage it shows Messages is using 2.9GB of space.


I have also changed the message history to 1 year (although it resets to forever any time I enable/disable Messages on a device to troubleshoot).


Is there a period of time that needs to elapse before iCloud storage reduces to the same as what shows on the individual devices?


Is there something I'm missing that is causing the Messages in iCloud to not be removed/deleted to match the devices?


Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Posted on Feb 2, 2022 4:22 PM

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User profile for user: Bill_T1
Bill_T1
User level: Community Specialist

Posted on Feb 3, 2022 11:54 AM

Hello Zemurd,


We see you have some questions or concerns regarding Messages, storage and iCloud. We hope to help clarify some points that may help.


The behavior you describe is expected with regard to Message storage. Once you elect to store messages in iCloud, attachments and other Messages data is moved to iCloud and is no longer stored on the device directly, freeing up device storage. If you disable Messages in iCloud, that data would transfer back to the device and based on your figures, require approximately 3.5GB or more of device storage instead. Data stored in iCloud is also not included in backups which will affect their size. This feature is covered in greater detail at Use Messages in iCloud.


Storing data in iCloud is a great way to free up device storage where possible, as iCloud storage may be expanded with a subscription where device storage will not change. You can learn more about these options at Upgrade to iCloud+.


We hope this helps!

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User profile for user: Bill_T1
Bill_T1
User level: Community Specialist

Feb 3, 2022 11:54 AM in response to Ash-Heath

Hello Zemurd,


We see you have some questions or concerns regarding Messages, storage and iCloud. We hope to help clarify some points that may help.


The behavior you describe is expected with regard to Message storage. Once you elect to store messages in iCloud, attachments and other Messages data is moved to iCloud and is no longer stored on the device directly, freeing up device storage. If you disable Messages in iCloud, that data would transfer back to the device and based on your figures, require approximately 3.5GB or more of device storage instead. Data stored in iCloud is also not included in backups which will affect their size. This feature is covered in greater detail at Use Messages in iCloud.


Storing data in iCloud is a great way to free up device storage where possible, as iCloud storage may be expanded with a subscription where device storage will not change. You can learn more about these options at Upgrade to iCloud+.


We hope this helps!

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User profile for user: Ash-Heath
Ash-Heath Author
User level: Level 1
53 points

Feb 3, 2022 12:13 PM in response to Bill_T1

Thanks Bill, and I'm not sure how my profile name here changed to Zedmurd. I've tried to see where to change it back but can't seem to find that anywhere.


When we found that Messages in iCloud was disabled on her devices and turned it back on, her message retention was also set to "forever" which we changed to "1 year". I'm assuming things stored in iCloud are a result of the forever setting so do you know if when you delete a message/conversation from the Messages app, is the space immediately freed up in iCloud or does it retain the items for a recovery period?


I wasn't sure if her Messages usage in iCloud would eventually come down now that we've enabled syncing in iCloud, have reduced retention to 1 year, and have cleaned up junk messages.

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Messages using all iCloud storage space

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