If you don't care about the text-based portion of conversations in Messages, you can delete it along with everything else in the conversation. Delete multiple items by tapping "Edit," select the items you want to delete, then tap the trash can.ĭeleting attachments or conversations from here will delete them from your device, but if you sync your messages with iCloud, they will also be removed from the cloud, just as in Option 1. Delete individual items by swiping left on the attachment. Tap "Photos," and you'll find the same type of page we see in Option 1 your photos sent and receive in messages will appear sorted by file size, largest to smallest.
You'll see the total amount of data that each category takes up so that you'll know if it's something you want to look into. Other: includes other types of attached files such as PDFs, Word documents, etc.GIFs and Stickers: includes all animated GIFs and stickers.Photos: includes any photo, screenshot, etc.Top Conversations: includes messages from what iOS deems your top conversations.You can find these by visiting the same place in Settings (General –> iPhone Storage –> Messages) under the Documents header. Option 2: Choose from Documents CategoriesĪnother way to delete attachments in your messages is to sort through them by category. If not, tap "Messages," then tap "Review Large Attachments" from there. If you see the "Review Large Attachments" suggestion, tap it.
To start, open Settings, then head to General –> iPhone Storage. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer a smart way to manage your messages in iCloud. Interestingly, deleting these attachments works the same whether you're using Messages on iCloud or not. That's why you can end up having way more "Messages" data in iCloud than you do on your actual iPhone. If iOS determines you don't have enough room internally, it begins deleting that content from your device. Those items also remain on your iPhone, so long as you have enough internal storage to keep them. Every iMessage and SMS, as well as every MMS, GIF, video, picture, and other types of media files you might send and receive, are all right there in the cloud as you have available iCloud storage to fill. With Messages on iCloud, Apple stores your entire messaging history on its servers. Don't Miss: Eliminate Unwanted Texts & iMessages on Your iPhone to Avoid Spam, Scams & Phishing Attacks.What's likely stealing all the storage space are all the attachments you send and receive - audio, photos, stickers, videos, GIFs, and files. Sure, you might have a lot of text-based messages in your history, but I bet they aren't really taking up that much space on your iPhone. Since SMS texts and text-only iMessages don't contain any media, they take up very little space since each text-based message is of very small size. That may sound confusing, but I'll explain everything below, starting with: How could your messages possibly be taking up so much data?
#HOW TO BACKUP IPHONE TO ICLOUD ERROR NOT ENOUGH STORAGE FREE#
But if deleting message after message doesn't free up your storage much, it's likely because "Messages" doesn't really mean messages. When iOS starts barking at you that you've run out of iCloud or iPhone storage, a quick trip to your settings to see what the culprit is may show that Messages is one of the worst offenders.