iMessages and iCloud Query - Missing gaps of messages?

[smallguy]

Hi All,

I'll try my best to explain this simply as it's confusing... well at-least for me!

I synced my iPhone 6 to iCloud for iMessages about a week ago. Anyway... I then did an iCloud back up of my 6 and bought an iPhone X which i set up using the iPhone 6 iCloud backup.

It appears my iPhone X is missing gaps of messages within conversations. For example, if someone messaged me in July, August and September, it wouldn't have the messages from August.

Will this eventually get synced across from my other devices? My Mac is now syncing to iCloud and has the same messages as my iPhone 6 does.

I did notice if I turned off the green toggle for iMessages in iCloud it says "Messages to this iPhone have not been fully downloaded yet".

Hopefully this makes sense!

Kind regards

 

[ace8cjc]

The same thing has happened to me.

I enabled Messages in iCloud when it was first released, so everything has been stored in iCloud for months. Earlier this week, I reset my phone, upgraded to iOS 12, and signed back in to iCloud. It re-downloaded most messages, but I'm missing all of August, and half of September. If I turn the green messages toggle off in iCloud settings, it says the same thing: "Messages to this iPhone have not been fully downloaded yet"

That message, plus the space I can see being used in iCloud, tells me those missing messages are still there waiting to be synced to my iPhone.

It's been a few days and they haven't synced. I've reset the phone again, re-signed in to iCloud, tried different wifi networks, and plugged it in for 12 hours straight (on the same wifi) to give it time to download everything. No luck.

I spoke with Apple Support, and they can't figure it out. After escalating me higher and higher, they eventually opened a case with their Development side to investigate. That was today. So we'll see, but it sounds like something is going on with their servers versus a problem with our local phones/networks - especially if we're both missing messages from August.

 

[RawisTheGameHhH]

i am in the same boat, have you guys heard anything since?

 

[ace8cjc]

Nothing yet - although Apple Support is supposed to get back to me tomorrow. I'll update the thread when I hear back.

 

[ace8cjc]

Apple Support provided me with a few links to check settings:

Keep all your messages in iCloud
Get Help with messages in iCloud
Use Continuity to Connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch

I had tried everything in there - no luck. I did eventually fix the problem by tinkering around. It's a bit confusing though, so hopefully it translates to text here:

Messages in iCloud was enabled on both my Mac and iPhone. All of the conversations were up-to-date on my Mac, but I was missing history on my iPhone. I was also missing certain conversations on my iPhone altogether (that were still on my Mac). So, I went through and either deleted messages threads I no longer needed, or sent a quick message to that thread to "update" it. If the thread wasn't on my iPhone, I sent it from my Mac, thus creating a thread on my iPhone in the process. When I was done, the thread count on my Mac and iPhone at least matched now thanks to the "update" message I sent, but I was still missing the history for some threads on the iPhone. To fix that, I reset my phone again, but this time (with all messages lined up on both devices before reset), it downloaded the full history.

See, I had reset my phone multiple times before and it never download that missing message history. It wasn't until I sent a message to each thread as an "update" (before resetting), THEN reset the phone, did all the message history download. It's almost like it needed the start of a thread present on both devices, and after the restore, it see's the thread, and downloads the history.

It's a risky workaround, as you have to reset your phone to try it, but that's what ultimately worked for me. Maybe you guys found an easier way? Good luck!