iCloud Storage - Messages

[Terry_C]

Hello, I hope this is in the right place, apologies if not.

I currently have 5GB iCloud storage which has been sufficient for years and has always hovered about 2-3GB includng iPhone and iPad backups and a small amount on Drive . Just recently it has reached its limit. It shows 1.89GB in use for Messages. I have deleted all photos, videos and other sundry attachments from all messages on my devices (including iMAC) with no reduction in the iCloud storage being shown.

iPhone storage for Messages shows 33.5MB and iPad 341.6MB (I assume these should be the same if synced as well?), I don't use Apple Mail. In fact I don't have a great number of messages anyway as the device storage would indicate.

Am I wrong to expect some space to be recovered? I know I can stop syncing and download the messages, but if I turn on syncing again presumably it's back to square one?

If I've missed something fundamental here then I'm sorry for troubling the forum!

Thanks

Terry

 

[IWT]

Terry, you are not troubling the forum at all. We deal with questions that range from the basic to the most complex.

As a start, I'd be inclined to switch off iCloud syncing on ALL devices, wait a short time, then switch them all on again. Surprisingly, that simple action may resolve the problem.

Please post back if you go ahead with my suggestion. Interesting to know the result.

(I agree that the discrepancy between the iPhone and iPad Message storage is more than I'd expect; but smaller differences are well recognised).

Ian

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I went to my iPhone and went to Settings, click on my profile, iCloud->Manage Storage and went to Messages and then Top Conversations..

I was using 946MB when I started. I chose an old conversation where I didn't care about the pictures and deleted from that conversation and now my storage is being reported as 897MB.

So if you deleted multimedia content from your messages leaving just the text, the size should definitely have gone down.

 

[Terry_C]

Terry, you are not troubling the forum at all. We deal with questions that range from the basic to the most complex.

As a start, I'd be inclined to switch off iCloud syncing on ALL devices, wait a short time, then switch them all on again. Surprisingly, that simple action may resolve the problem.

Please post back if you go ahead with my suggestion. Interesting to know the result.

(I agree that the discrepancy between the iPhone and iPad Message storage is more than I'd expect; but smaller differences are well recognised).

Ian

Thanks Ian, do you mean select the “Disable and download all messages” option on all devices when I stop messages syncing?

 

[IWT]

What I sort of meant was:

On the iPhone & iPad - Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > under Apps Using iCloud > Tap on "Show All" > Scroll down to Messages & Tap on it > Turn Off Sync with this iDevice.

Repeat process after a few minutes and Turn On Sync with this iDevice.

Ian

 

[Terry_C]

What I sort of meant was:

On the iPhone & iPad - Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > under Apps Using iCloud > Tap on "Show All" > Scroll down to Messages & Tap on it > Turn Off Sync with this iDevice.

Repeat process after a few minutes and Turn On Sync with this iDevice.

Ian

 

[Terry_C]

@IWT

Thanks Ian. I've done that on all devices that as well as signing out and back in but with the result that it's gone up to 1.9GB (there are no more messages). Which I can't understand at all. In manage account storage, Top Conversations shows 356 MB on iPhone and iPad so at least that's consistent.

Terry

 

[IWT]

Hi Terry

But isn't that good??

You said:

I currently have 5GB iCloud storage

Just recently it has reached its limit.

Now, if I have not misunderstood you, the total is 1.9GB. Please don't hesitate to correct me - no offence - I'm here to help like all the others. How's that worse?

Your iPhone/iPad are consistent - which is a huge improvement on 33.5 MB v 341MB.

Give us it straight - where lies the problem now?

Ian

 

[Terry_C]

Hi Terry

But isn't that good??

You said:




Now, if I have not misunderstood you, the total is 1.9GB. Please don't hesitate to correct me - no offence - I'm here to help like all the others. How's that worse?

Your iPhone/iPad are consistent - which is a huge improvement on 33.5 MB v 341MB.

Give us it straight - where lies the problem now?

Ian

Ah sorry I wasn’t clear Ian, I meant the messages component of the total storage is 1.9GB not the total, which is 4.6GB

Terry