iCloud Deleting message attachments - everywhere?

[Webcat86]

I’m deleting attachments from Messages, I’ve got 8gb+ just with my wife. If I delete them using my iPad, will it automatically remove them from my iPhone/Mac/iCloud or do I need to do it from each device manually?

I know usually it’s one and done, but remember reading some very convoluted steps for this in particular - people saying you need to turn off iCloud messages, delete each file manually on each device, then wait 30 days for the sync to reflect in iCloud then re-enable iCloud messages.

This seems absurd and I’m wondering if it’s still the case or not?

 

[CharlesShaw]

I've never deleted just the attachment(s) from a Message, but if your other devices are also using iCloud for Messages, and considering the quoted sentence below from the linked support article, it seems reasonable that the deleted attachments from older messages will no longer download if or when you were to re-open them on the other devices. You could test it by deleting an attachment or two from an older message on the iPad and seeing if that is the case. And then test it on a recently accessed message.

"... your messages are stored in the cloud, with only the most recently accessed Messages stored locally on your device."

Keep your messages up to date with iCloud

Get an overview of what you can do with iCloud and Messages.

support.apple.com

 

[Webcat86]

I've never deleted just the attachment(s) from a Message, but if your other devices are also using iCloud for Messages, and considering the quoted sentence below from the linked support article, it seems reasonable that the deleted attachments from older messages will no longer download if or when you were to re-open them on the other devices. You could test it by deleting an attachment or two from an older message on the iPad and seeing if that is the case. And then test it on a recently accessed message.

"... your messages are stored in the cloud, with only the most recently accessed Messages stored locally on your device."

Keep your messages up to date with iCloud

Get an overview of what you can do with iCloud and Messages.

support.apple.com

I’m talking about cloud storage, the only way to delete from iCloud is by deleting from the device.

 

[CharlesShaw]

I’m talking about cloud storage, the only way to delete from iCloud is by deleting from the device.

Have you tried deleting an attachment from a message and then checking to see if it's also been deleted on your other device?

 

[Webcat86]

Have you tried deleting an attachment from a message and then checking to see if it's also been deleted on your other device?

As far as I’m aware, this takes 30 days. What I’m trying to find out is after those 30 days, whether deleted images will be restored on the device because they’re on the other devices, or if they’ll be deleted from the other devices because they’ve been removed from one.

I am specifically talking about media within messages, which is a separate process to syncing the Photos app

Edit: I deleted some photos from messages on my iPad earlier tonight, and they aren't showing on my Mac messages. That's a good start, except that when I scroll to the very end of the photos available in this message thread, there are heaps showing that don't appear on my iPad or iPhone. So it's a really confusing endeavour.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Edit: I deleted some photos from messages on my iPad earlier tonight, and they aren't showing on my Mac messages. That's a good start, except that when I scroll to the very end of the photos available in this message thread, there are heaps showing that don't appear on my iPad or iPhone. So it's a really confusing endeavour.

Since I normally delete all of my messages, and don't usually use iCloud Messages, I have nothing to lose tinkering with it, so I figured I could test it, as I happened to have a couple messages with photos that were going to be deleted anyway.

Deleting the photos from a message on my iPhone immediately deleted them on my iPad. I then turned on iCloud Messages on my Mac and the message downloaded with the original photos, along with some random other messages from the recent past. So yes, there's a cache in iCloud that you'll to wait out. When I turn off iCloud Messages, and click on "manage storage" then "turn off and delete from iCloud" it says "you'll have 30 days to download your messages from iCloud."

 

[Webcat86]

Since I normally delete all of my messages, and don't usually use iCloud Messages, I have nothing to lose tinkering with it, so I figured I could test it, as I happened to have a couple messages with photos that were going to be deleted anyway.

Deleting the photos from a message on my iPhone immediately deleted them on my iPad. I then turned on iCloud Messages on my Mac and the message downloaded with the original photos, along with some random other messages from the recent past. So yes, there's a cache in iCloud that you'll to wait out. When I turn off iCloud Messages, and click on "manage storage" then "turn off and delete from iCloud" it says "you'll have 30 days to download your messages from iCloud."

Thanks for testing this. I'm a little confused by your final sentence — do you think it's necessary to turn off iCloud Messages? This was something I'd read previously, that you had to turn it off on each device, delete the relevant files on each device, I think turn it back on on a single device, then wait 30 days before turning it back on for the others. That feels unnecessarily complicated and un-Apple so I'm hoping it isn't the case.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Thanks for testing this. I'm a little confused by your final sentence — do you think it's necessary to turn off iCloud Messages? This was something I'd read previously, that you had to turn it off on each device, delete the relevant files on each device, I think turn it back on on a single device, then wait 30 days before turning it back on for the others. That feels unnecessarily complicated and un-Apple so I'm hoping it isn't the case.

No, I only mentioned that as confirmation that iCloud is indeed holding onto copies of the messages for a defined period.

I wasn't paying attention to which device deleted what when I was tinkering, but it appears that once a device using iCloud messages has deleted something it won't be downloaded again to that device if it's turned back on again. Or not, lol, it's confusing. And unlike deleting a photo in a message, recovering it from the list of deleted messages on that device puts it back but not on the other devices.

 

[Webcat86]

No, I only mentioned that as confirmation that iCloud is indeed holding onto copies of the messages for a defined period.

I wasn't paying attention to which device deleted what when I was tinkering, but it appears that once a device using iCloud messages has deleted something it won't be downloaded again to that device if it's turned back on again. Or not, lol, it's confusing. And unlike deleting a photo in a message, recovering it from the list of deleted messages on that device puts it back but not on the other devices.

Thanks. The other thing I’ve noticed is that on the Mac, these attachments are all stored in a folder - which makes me wonder if they’re stored locally or not. Would they have a folder if they were solely in the cloud?

Now that the Mac has iPhone mirroring I’m tempted to turn off iCloud messages on the computer and nuke that local folder, and keep iCloud messages turned off on that computer

 

[CharlesShaw]

I suspect that you're still seeing them because they're still in recently deleted status. When you delete a message or photo from a conversation, it remains in recently deleted for 30 days unless you permanently delete it from the list of recently deleted messages.

Add: note that even if you permanently delete them from the device, they'll still be taking up iCloud space for 30 days, apparently. The simplest thing is to just let it run its course, I suppose.

And now I'm finally understanding how some users are always running out of storage space, having never participated in or saved a busy group conversation with lots of photos!

 

[Webcat86]

I suspect that you're still seeing them because they're still in recently deleted status. When you delete a message or photo from a conversation, it remains in recently deleted for 30 days unless you permanently delete it from the list of recently deleted messages.

Add: note that even if you permanently delete them from the device, they'll still be taking up iCloud space for 30 days, apparently. The simplest thing is to just let it run its course, I suppose.

I understand that for ones I've deleted, but the head-scratcher for me currently is that the Mac is showing older photos that I haven't deleted — meaning these are photos from 10 years ago, but only in the Mac messages media section and not the media section on my iPhone or iPad. So it's like they haven't synced in the first place.

And now I'm finally understanding how some users are always running out of storage space, having never participated in or saved a busy group conversation with lots of photos!

Yes and even worse than that, if you receive a photo on WhatsApp, then forward it to 3 chats, it takes up space 4 separate times!