So watchOS 11 now deletes messages on phone

[Night Spring]

Sure, but I'm too tightly wound to do that! I mean that is what this scenario is making me do now. Either I forget about them and leave em all on the watch and consequently the phone, or I delete them from the watch and thus the phone.

I just don't understand how this affects you practically. You said you never manipulate your messages from your watch, since it's much easier to do that from your phone. I can understand that it bugs you psychologically to know that the messages are on your watch. But other than having to ignore that fact, does it actually affect your workflow?

 

[ger19]

But it's not like the messages take up space on your watch. They're just...there.

That’s what I was wondering. Are the messages actually on the watch, as in taking up memory? Or, is the watch just reading them from iCloud.

 

[Fatboy71]

I came here to post this same problem.

I used to delete a text message from off of my Apple Watch, but the text message would remain on my iPhone. That was the way I liked it as I didn't want to have a long list of texts from different contacts on the small screen of my Apple Watch where I would have to scroll quite a bit to go through all the contacts in the Messages app.

Once I read the text, I then had no need to have it on Apple Watch and I would then delete it, and I then knew that it would be still on my iPhone.

Now, if I delete the text message from off of my Apple Watch, the same text message is also deleted from off of my iPhone as well and vice versa (just tried it now to see).

My first thought was that iCloud for Messages was switched on. But I have checked the setting and it is switched off (just as I've always had it).

 

[nZtiZia]

I just noticed this happening after I upgraded to watch 11 on my series 8. At first, I couldn’t figure out what was going on because I always delete most if not all of the messages from my watch. But I keep a lot of my messages on the phone. I don’t like having 30 full conversations on my watch. But as I was deleting them off my watch, as I normally do, all of a sudden they were no messages on my phone. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on. Now I know. I’m happy that some of you like this set up, but I for one am very disappointed and wished that Apple would at least give us the option to turn this feature off if we don’t want it. but of course, Apple knows what’s best for all of us and has decided to implement this without an option to turn it off. SMH.

i understand the issue. here's my take and how the new OS's affect my workflow:

Apple Watch and iPhone user here. a major complaint for years was that deleting a text in one device didn't delete it in the other device, so it had to be deleted TWICE (once from each device...annoying). now with watchOS 11 & iOS 18, they are finally synced, which is good...somewhat. i keep about 15 dedicated text strings in iPhone Messages (which i consider my archive). if i delete a text from the iPhone, i want it deleted from the Watch, BUT not the other way around. why? the Watch screen is much smaller real estate than the iPhone, so after a viewing text on the Watch, i delete it to keep that small area clean, and i will go back to it on the iPhone if i need to, but with watchOS 11, it deletes the text off the iPhone, too. I DON'T WANT THAT! users need the choice when deleting texts (iPhone only, Watch only, or both).

iCloud Messages is on (as i've had it before), so i will experiment with it off to see if this improves the deletion behavior between Watch and iPhone

i also sent feedback to Apple.

 

[MALmen]

Finally if this is true

 

[DDustiNN]

I am the same and only read the notifications on my watch. Then I respond via my phone.

But… If you are only using your watch for the notifications, and not for scrolling through messages… Why does it matter if they remain on your watch or not? Can’t you just leave them there and it would make no difference? Or are you actually going through your watch to text people?

I very rarely actually go into the Messages app on my watch, for the same reason as you: I’d rather do it on a bigger screen. So it really makes no difference what is or isn’t there on my watch. I don’t delete any messages (except scams), so I have all texts dating back to 2012 on my phone. Never bothered to check how far back the watch goes, lol. And no desire to 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[nZtiZia]

I am the same and only read the notifications on my watch. Then I respond via my phone.

But… If you are only using your watch for the notifications, and not for scrolling through messages… Why does it matter if they remain on your watch or not? Can’t you just leave them there and it would make no difference? Or are you actually going through your watch to text people?

I very rarely actually go into the Messages app on my watch, for the same reason as you: I’d rather do it on a bigger screen. So it really makes no difference what is or isn’t there on my watch. I don’t delete any messages (except scams), so I have all texts dating back to 2012 on my phone. Never bothered to check how far back the watch goes, lol. And no desire to 🤷🏻‍♂️

i like to keep my wife's/kids' threads on my Watch as i do text them through it (sometimes my phone is in another room), so deleting extraneous texts from the Watch's Messages landing page keeps it "clean". again, when i delete extraneous texts from my Watch, i don't necessarily want them completely removed from my account.

i turned off sync Messages in iCloud, but didn't like the behavior. with Messages in three areas (MacBook, Watch and iPhone), turning off iCloud sync forced me to manage each area separately...

 

[arc of the universe]

But it's not like the messages take up space on your watch. They're just...there.

this is my understanding as well.

to prove this, you can check how much space Messages is taking up on your iPhone, and, check to see how much space is being used for Messages on your Watch.

i have several GB of Messages verifiably taking up space on my iPhone as i choose to toggle the option to never delete any conversations automatically.
but on the Watch, you can go to Settings/General/Storage and see how much space is being taken up.
on my Watch there is currently 81MB being used by Messages. even though its several GB on the iPhone.

i use Messages on the Watch to get the notification of it and read it. ii dont delete it (as this would certainly delete from my iPhone as well). i get the Notification on the Watch, read it, and swipe it away (not delete it). and it isn't really storing all the Messages on the Watch. they seem to be just visible on the Watch.

if the original poster is indicating that apple has changed some WatchOS behaviour then its probably true.
but in my workflow, nothing has changed. and its ideal.