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Messages in iCloud still taking up space after having disabled it
- Thread starter felixen
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Doh, I hadn’t seen that button. That must be it. So if I do this, the messages will still be stored on my devices (Mac and iPhone), right? They just won’t be in iCloud.
Because when I clicked to disable Messages in iCloud, I got a message saying my device would start downloading all the messages locally. So I assume I will still have them even if I delete them on my second screenshot, right?
Keep in mind you need to turn Messages in iCloud off on all your devices using it.
Something else to know is you won't save too much space. Messages in iCloud moves your messages out of the iCloud Backup. Turning it back off downloads them back to the device and they are once again included in the iCloud Backup.
So you save 17gb in iCloud storage from Messages in iCloud but you gain 17gb in iCloud Backup. To compound on this problem it increases multiplicity across devices. So where an iPhone and iPad were sharing a single 17gb data set of 'Messages in iCloud' they will both get their own +17gb iCloud Backup size aka 34gb.
Something else to know is you won't save too much space. Messages in iCloud moves your messages out of the iCloud Backup. Turning it back off downloads them back to the device and they are once again included in the iCloud Backup.
So you save 17gb in iCloud storage from Messages in iCloud but you gain 17gb in iCloud Backup. To compound on this problem it increases multiplicity across devices. So where an iPhone and iPad were sharing a single 17gb data set of 'Messages in iCloud' they will both get their own +17gb iCloud Backup size aka 34gb.
Set up iCloud for Messages on all your devices
Learn how to set up iCloud and access your messages on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
support.apple.com
I see, that makes sense actually. Ah bummer, I was hoping I could free up some space this way. I refuse to upgrade from 200 GB to 2 TB just because I like taking a bunch of photos and video 🙂
I've gotten into the habit of deleting photos/videos from my iMessage threads after viewing/sending them.
it really is cost effective to up your storage in iCloud to save all your pix and videos rather than buy a ton of storage on your phone each upgrade. you don't need to look at your pix and videos constantly just have them available on demand.
The way I keep the size under control is to Auto delete messages. You can set, 1 month or a year from the settings. Just know you have to set this on each device. Unless you really want to keep old messages.
I see, that makes sense actually. Ah bummer, I was hoping I could free up some space this way. I refuse to upgrade from 200 GB to 2 TB just because I like taking a bunch of photos and video
I really wish Apple and other cloud storage providers would offer more options, or better yet, a pay per use option. Why pay for 2TB when you only need 250GB.
The saga continues. Earlier today I went to the local iPhone storage in settings, went to Messages, and I deleted a bunch of photos and videos. It brought the data down from 16 GB to 4 GB.
However, when I go to my iCloud storage settings, it still says that Messages take up 16 GB. Shouldn’t that number have come down? Previously when I’ve deleted entire threads in the Messages app, I noticed that the number in iCloud storage would go down as well
However, when I go to my iCloud storage settings, it still says that Messages take up 16 GB. Shouldn’t that number have come down? Previously when I’ve deleted entire threads in the Messages app, I noticed that the number in iCloud storage would go down as well
This! I wish there was a tier between 200GB and 2TB. I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more but I’m not paying nearly 3X more for something that’s way more than I need. I’m sure it’s all carefully thought out though but that doesn’t make it a good user experience 🙂
This! I wish there was a tier between 200GB and 2TB. I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more but I’m not paying nearly 3X more for something that’s way more than I need. I’m sure it’s all carefully thought out though but that doesn’t make it a good user experience
Like cell phone plans. I don’t need unlimited, or even hundreds of minutes a month, unless they want to also give me unlimited hours in the day to use those minutes. It’s difficult finding a plan that actually suits your needs. So what do people do? They end up paying money for something they never use. My missus and I have been on true pre-paid for years, cost per minute and MB is higher, but at the end of the month we’ve barely used €2 credit each. I’ve only recently switched to a monthly plan because a local provider came out with a very good deal; €5/month for 2GB and 150 local minutes. I use about 2/3 of the data, but maybe only 10 of the minutes. The moment they increase that price I go back to pre-paid. Luckily no commitment.
So, who wants pre-paid cloud storage?
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How did it go eventually? I have the same problem. Deleted lots of videos and photos, now it’s 654mb on iPhone but 1.8gb on iCloud? I thought it was supposed to sync.
OP, I think you are under the false assumption that Apple is good at what they do, so that what you expect to happen would actually happen. I have discovered that on both the devices and the cloud, the only way to ensure you would not be out of storage eventually is to purchase overwhelmingly more storage than you need.
For example, I had one device that had 64GB of storage and was running out. Say it had 500MB left, so that it was becoming unusable. So I chose to save my pictures only on the cloud on that device. The device is then supposed to only store the thumbnails. This immediately freed up a number of GBs. Say now I had 8GB.
But in a matter of minutes the OS allowed other things to take up this extra storage and I was down to about 500MB again. This is just one example, and there are numerous instances where Apple things take up (or free up) storage in expected (and wrong) ways.
For example, I had one device that had 64GB of storage and was running out. Say it had 500MB left, so that it was becoming unusable. So I chose to save my pictures only on the cloud on that device. The device is then supposed to only store the thumbnails. This immediately freed up a number of GBs. Say now I had 8GB.
But in a matter of minutes the OS allowed other things to take up this extra storage and I was down to about 500MB again. This is just one example, and there are numerous instances where Apple things take up (or free up) storage in expected (and wrong) ways.
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Is it actually showing the Green bar in iCloud? If so then that isn’t your standard messages.. it’s your “Sync’d Between Apple Devices Using Same ID” type of thing. Standard backup of messages to a specific device doesn’t use the same storage type as the messages you see taking space in iCloud.
What do you mean man? I don’t even use any other apple devices for iMessages. I have an iPhone and a mac that has iMessages disabled and not syncing so what’s in iCloud is only from iPhone syncing.
Basically for OP to rid those messages they will have to Disable&Delete the file within Manage Storage… that’s the easiest way to do it if they don’t fee the need to have Messages sync’d between all of their devices. The storage space that standard Message backups take doesn’t show in your iCloud storage like the OP is showing pictures of… those are just the messages that Apple is syncing across all Apple devices belonging to said person’s account. Turning on or off iMessage will not remove that backup file whatsoever. If Messages shows in iCloud then it isn’t your standard iMessage backup… it’s just your “Sync’d across all devices” backup which is useless if you only use one Apple device. Standard iMessage backups are backed up separately from your visible iCloud storage and you don’t see that anywhere.
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I ended up upgrading my iCloud storage like the sucker I am 😂 I figured that even if I was able to free up a chunk of storage, I’d eventually run into the same problem again in the near future. I have a 5 month old daughter and those photos and videos pile up fairly quickly lol