Quick Delete Messages on Mac OS Monterey - Why Remove This??

[ckeck]

Why in the world would Apple remove the ability to quick delete messages in the Messages app on MacOS? This change is beyond frustrating.

Is anyone aware of a way to enable the delete option when you hovered over a conversation? 🤞

 

[fisherking]

right-click, select 'delete'...? works here...

 

[halledise]

control+delete on your keyboard.
it's a tad laborious but it works

 

[ckeck]

right-click, select 'delete'...? works here...

Used to just hover over a conversation and click on the "X" button that automatically popped up. Now I need to select a conversation, right-click, choose delete, then confirm ... quite a bit more cumbersome.

 

[ckeck]

control+delete on your keyboard.
it's a tad laborious but it works

Hmmm ... I'd totally be fine with a keyboard shortcut, but that does not work for me. The "delete conversation" action in the menu also does not list a hotkey/shortcut of any kind.

Are you sure this works on your end? Are you on Monterey?

 

[fisherking]

control+delete on your keyboard.
it's a tad laborious but it works

yeah, this does not work here either. sure you haven't set up a custom key command?...

 

[curdy]

I can also two finger slide to the left on the trackpad of my MBP while over the conversation in the side bar and delete comes up.

 

[adrianlondon]

They really should implement an easier/quicker way to delete a message thread. They should also provide a backup/undo function. In the opposite order to that I listed

 

[ckeck]

They really should implement an easier/quicker way to delete a message thread. They should also provide a backup/undo function. In the opposite order to that I listed

Not sure why I can't just click "Delete" when a conversation is highlighted to bring up the "Confirm Delete" dialog box, and then "Enter" to confirm. Cleaning up random conversations or spam texts/messages that come in every single day has become quite tedious.

 

[halledise]

highlight the iMessage you wish to delete.
then tap control+delete on your keyboard.
you will be asked to confirm.
yes.
it's a tad laborious but it works

 

[halledise]

yeah, this does not work here either. sure you haven't set up a custom key command?...

hello fisherking. the answer is 'nay'

 

[halledise]

one could possibly set up a script using the automator app located in your applications folder.
unsure about this as i've never warmed to automator …

 

[dkgee]

highlight the iMessage you wish to delete.
then tap control+delete on your keyboard.

This keystroke command DEFINITELY does not work on a 2021 MBP (M1) running OS Monterey. There is no longer a small X in the corner of the conversation and none of the modifiers with the 'delete' key trigger any action. Two-finger swiping does reveal a red Delete tab but that still requires a confirmation that cannot be accomplished on the keyboard. REMARKABLY poor interface for Apple !

 

[adrianlondon]

They really should implement an easier/quicker way to delete a message thread. They should also provide a backup/undo function. In the opposite order to that I listed

Well, we got a "recently deleted" in iOS 16, so that's something.

 

[HenryAZ]

Two-finger swiping does reveal a red Delete tab but that still requires a confirmation that cannot be accomplished on the keyboard.

Tab, spacebar. But you have to have System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts/All controls checked at the bottom.

 

[snowghost]

Used to just hover over a conversation and click on the "X" button that automatically popped up. Now I need to select a conversation, right-click, choose delete, then confirm ... quite a bit more cumbersome.

Did they fix the missing red "x"? I use that to close, but not delete a thread. Idiotic they took that away.

 

[AZGuy7]

Is anyone having issues deleting messages entirely on the new M1 iMacs message app with OS Monterey 12.5?

Just bought a new iMac and spent nearly a week trying to figure it out with Apple Support. They ultimately said it was a faulty machine. They sent me a new one. It had Monterey 12.2 installed. The messages worked fine with 12.2. Then it had me update to 12.5 and well, now I cant delete again. Swiping left to the red flag doesn't work. Delete conversation in menu. Even Clear Transcript first and then Delete Conversation doesn't work. I've had everything synced (iPhone, iPad, iMac) and I can do the delete action on my iMac and the messages will delete on the iPhone and iPad but not the iMac. So I've unsynced from iCloud. All messages show up on all devices now of course. I can manually delete from iPhone and iPad fine. But no luck on iMac. The only way I've managed to delete a conversation is delete each sentence by itself. Both the other persons and mine. I have to go through the entire conversation deleting each response and once the last line is gone...poof...the message is gone entirely.

Any ideas? Because senior level techs at Apple Support clearly have no idea. I mean they sent me another iMac after trying all avenues including a completely reinstall on that first one.

I cant be the only one with this issue?!?! I think its something with 12.5 Monterey and the M1 chip iMacs.

 

[BanditoB]

My first suggestion would be to reinstall MacOS 12.5. It shouldn't hurt anything to try this even though it didn't correct anything with your previous 12.2 installation.

Another thing that you might want to try is to create another user account and then log that one into your iCloud account and see what messages does there.

When you set up your iMac did you do a migration or restore from a backup? If so, that is a potential source for the problem. If you're able to and have the time, you could reset your iMac and set it up as new to see if that corrects the issue.

 

[AZGuy7]

Thanks for your suggestions but have already done this. I reinstalled 12.5 on the older/new iMac to no avail. Thats why they said return it and they sent me a new one.

We did try a new User account and it worked at first but started doing it again.

I purposely didn't do any Migration Assistant on the 1st iMac from the old one to the 1st new one. And I didn't do it again on this new 2nd one. Clean install. I really have added nothing.

I honestly feel this is a M1 Monterey 12.4/12.5 issue conflicting with Messages app. At first I thought maybe iCloud but that doesn't make sense because I can delete the message from my iMac and it fully deletes it from my synced iPhone and iPad. Doesn't always do it in reverse. Since then I've unsynced so I delete each message on each device which I prefer. No messages are being saved to iCloud either. I have that unchecked.

Again..the only way to delete the messages is to delete each sentence line by line. Or I can "delete" the message (It still shows) and restart the machine and then its gone or I can delete it then...until I start getting more messages and then back to the same thing again.

I think its an M1 thing cause my Mom has an Intel iMac running Monterey 12.5 and she's having no issues.

Its also like maybe if there is a cache or history being recorded on the Messages that isn't clearing out. I'm baffled and so is Apple.

 

[chabig]

Used to just hover over a conversation and click on the "X" button that automatically popped up. Now I need to select a conversation, right-click, choose delete, then confirm ... quite a bit more cumbersome.

That was a few years ago, before messages were synced to iCloud. When Apple added iCloud syncing they wanted to make sure you understood that when you delete a thread on one device, it's gone from every device. Now that a few years have gone by, I too wish they would provide a way to eliminate the confirmation step.

 

[Cnsal]

I just upgraded to Monterey (12.6) from Catalina. I don't sync my iMessage to iCloud.
I can still select multiple messages, but when i right click to Delete... and confirm that i want to delete the messages, only the last message is deleted, instead of all those that's selected.
I feel like this is a bug.

 

[AZGuy7]

I just upgraded to Monterey (12.6) from Catalina. I don't sync my iMessage to iCloud.
I can still select multiple messages, but when i right click to Delete... and confirm that i want to delete the messages, only the last message is deleted, instead of all those that's selected.
I feel like this is a bug.

Well at least you can do that. I cant delete messages at all, let alone multiple ones. Every message conversation I have, I have to delete every sentence both myself and the other person sends in the thread. I dont sync either between iMessages and iCloud. I think this is all an iCloud issue. I've been trying to figure this out with Senior Apple Support who's been sending the issue to the engineers above the senior tech level. All I can hope for is this issue is solved with the new Messages app in OS Ventura.