Deleting new messages on Apple Watch deletes all the message on iPhone

I like that I can get texts on my Watch, for sure. And prior to iOS18 I would go in to my Watch and clean up texts. Ya know, storage wise. I would still have those messages on my phone and would delete etc. The thing is, my phone is my main go-to, not my Watch. My Watch is an addition to the functionality. My phone is the main thing. Now they’ve made it so my phone doesn’t even do a text tone anymore, it comes from my Watch.

jadenie43 wrote:

Now they’ve made it so my phone doesn’t even do a text tone anymore, it comes from my Watch.

Since the first Watch was released it has always worked that way. It is not a case of “Now” - text tones have always defaulted to the watch if the watch was being worn and the phone was locked. This is not a change.

The reasoning is if you received text alerts on both devices it would be really annoying.

i'm wondering why I did the upgrade and now every time I delete a message off my watch I have to go and get it back on my phone cause it's deleting it on my phone as well and I'm not liking this. Is there anyway we can fix this?

I strongly agree that deleting messages on Apple Watch SHOULD NOT take the messages from my iPhone. How could Apple think this is a good idea? Best choice would be the user decides if one deletes from the other.

Similar to how my car makes me turn off the stall out button each time I start my car because I don’t like that, I wish we could turn this feature off and on to suit our needs instead of it just changing on us.

RiverviewPark wrote:

How could Apple think this is a good idea?

Maybe because people have been asking for this feature for years.

Best choice would be the user decides if one deletes from the other.

I guess you haven't owned Apple products for very long. That's rarely the choice Apple makes. But, you can let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

randerson64 wrote:

They probably did this because they want people to go out and buy new watches with more memory. It's always about selling more stuff...

If that’s a new feature how does that mean they want people to buy new watches that will do exactly the same thing? There seems to be a breakdown in basic logic in your explanation. Messages don’t use a significant amount of storage on a watch; on mine they occupy all of 14 MB.

randerson64 wrote:

They probably did this because they want people to go out and buy new watches with more memory. It's always about selling more stuff...

That doesn't make sense. I have a watch 10, and it behaves exactly the same way. Deleting from the watch deletes from the phone. It's great.

I agree this just happened to me. I used to be able to delete off the watch only and now it deleted a whole thread on my I phone as well. Had to go back in and recover. Please so an update and put back the way it was

I like the update. Glad they did this. I got tired of deleting messages on the iPhone and they would remain on the watch, then having to delete there too. It’s about time they fixed it. But they should make it a setting that we can choose to enable or disable.

OK APPLE ! it’s 6:57 am 11/01/2024 Apple just did another senseless update on the watch and it still deletes messages from the watch and phone at the same time. Change it back to how it was if I delete one of the other it stays on one of the devices , I know it’s not hard to give customers what they want ASAP !

I have been thinking I may have changed something accidentally so I have done a reset on my phone and watch and still seeing messages deleted from phone. No icloud sync for messages on any of my devices. I like to wait a few days to update/upgrade, to see if anything shows up in the forums. Didn't see any notices about this "feature" so I went ahead and applied the update. Gonna wait now till I am forced to apply any updates to OS. "Apple Intelligence"?, I don't think so.

I have been dealing with this issue since the update IOS 18. I've talked to several APPLE techs and most recently, sent the analytics to Apple. I'm expecting some kind of response tomorrow.

The issue is that when I delete a message on my watch, it deletes the ENTIRE thread on my phone. I now have billions of messages on my watch that I don't want.

The IOS 18.1 did not fix this issue either.

And, it's true that this is not affecting all Apple Watches and phones. Both techs that I talked to were not experiencing this problem.

I have a iPhone 13 and an Apple Watch 9

Yea I’ve complained a few times too and I hope they add an option where u can decide if u want this or not! I have having so many threads on my watch but don’t want them deleted off my phone!!! 😡😡😡

This is a terrible iOs update. I hate having texts on my watch AND my phone. I want them off my watch and for them to remain on my phone. WHY did they do this?? I am seriously considering going back to my Google Pixel. Fix this, Apple - we paid way too much for this.