iCloud messaging setting

[i4k20c]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded from the iphone X to the iphone 12.

I noticed that my settings for iClould Messaging is turned off. However, my iCloud backup is on. I remember turning this setting off a long time ago because i think i once accidently deleted a messaging thread and was told since I had this turned on, it is gone forever.

Is there any harm in keeping it off? Even with it off, I still get messages to my Mac and all my messages came back on my iphone 12 (i assume through the icloud backup or phone data migration)?

Can someone help me better understand what is happening when you toggle messaging on/off within the icloud settings in iOS 14.4.1

Thank you!

 

[lostless]

It only changes how messages are backed up. iCloud backup is a unified backup. Meaning all the storage from people sending images and videos, ect, get backed up as one backup. Also it allows to delete a message and it will delete across every device on iCloud backup.
Now if you choose to not use iCloud backup, each device is on its own. iCloud backup It will still back up your messages by default (you can turn this off), but it becomes part of the device backup. It’s not unified. So let’s say you have 6gb of messages like I do. Each device receives all messages but backs up separately. So you could be wasting iCloud storage by doubling, or more by backing up each device separately. In this case though, if you erase a message off one device, it won’t clear off another. So you could clear all the messages off one device to get back some storage, but still leave everything on another.
the advatge of iCloud backup is that if you restore a device and not from a backup, your messages will remain and download to a fresh device. But if don’t use iCloud storage, your message backups are tied to the device backup.
Hope that all makes sense.

 

[Peter K.]

Great explanation, @lostless.