I thought I might be having issues with the read state in Messages syncing to my new 14-inch MacBook Pro, and when I went to check the setting, I was taken aback to discover that there are supposedly 3,513,526 messages in iCloud. I’m not a particularly heavy user of Messages, and although I’ve been using it for as long as it’s been available, I’m surprised that it says I’ve sent and received 3.5 million messages. That can’t be right.
How many messages show up when you look at System Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Messages?
And for what it’s worth, it’s taking up 9.63 GB of storage, something that shows up only in the iPhone version of this. That doesn’t bother me—I presume it’s mostly attachments.
In my case, it’s zero, because I don’t use Mesages in iCloud. When I delete a thread from one device, I don’t want it disappearing from all others. Depending on context, I want to keep some for a longer time on my Mac, or on my phone.
As for where the huge number comes from, I wonder if it may have something to do with the underlying protocol. For instance, whenever the “typing a response” indicator appears and disappears, is that happening through messages that are generated and handled internally by the app? If you send a large object (image, video, sound clip), is it uploaded to cloud storage and sent as a URL? Or is it sent via a (possibly long) sequence of message objects?
We know that iMessage is built over Apple’s Push Notification service. We also know that devices send keep-alive messages all the time so the server will know if you’re on- or off-line. Do these messages all count toward that message count?
I’d love to know for sure. Does anyone know more about how iMessage works that might have more than idle speculation?
I think I’ve used iMessages in iCloud as long as it’s been a thing, and my number is WAY lower than all of yours (consuming 3.4 GB). I have, though, deleted threads from old co-workers I no longer work with, but those probably comprised less than 2 or 3% of my total.
I consider myself a light texter, and have been storing messages in iCloud only for the last six years. I see 40,928 messages totaling 7.9 GB. It’s hard for me to understand how even a heavy texter might reach a figure in the millions.
My count of ~86k seems close, as for the one person I text to a lot I have ~82k messages (according to iMazing), so I could have accumulated an additional ~4k.
The odd thing for me is that it said I’d last synced at 2:14am (it was about 2:30pm when I looked at the dialog), yet messages (actual Messages messages, not SMS) I’d sent today from my iMac also show up on my iPhone. How did they get there if not via iCloud?
I have none. I don’t use iCloud for Messages even though my family plan these days has an iCloud+ subscription. To me, that’s one important distinction between messages and email. Email (if it’s not spam) I store forever. Text messages I don’t.
Every once in a while I get something as an iMessage that I want to keep (like a photo or doc), but I always end up saving that to its proper storage location (eg. Photos of Files) and so eventually I delete all my iMessage threads without regrets. I’ve never looked back. I like to keep my Messages app clean. I have about a dozen threads in there, mostly with people I routinely text. Everything in there that doesn’t see use over the course of maybe a month or two jut gets nuked.
Just checked. Although it says 3GB it shows ~15000 messages. I’m curious how that number of messages takes up that much space when Mail shows only 108 MB used.
That dialog is only on Sonoma and later, he notes after fruitlessly looking for it on Ventura.
I have Messages in iCloud on, save forever, and don’t delete sign-in code messages. Still, I only have 5,348 messages. Account Storage says it is using 63.9 MB.
82,975, but I limit mine to one year. I’m in in a fairly lively group text of puzzlers (wordle plus about 6 others) with lots of tapbacks, which I’m sure also count. Plus a few family groups and a sister who likes to share social media posts. So I think mine tracks.
106,441 messages, 4.9 GB - but I went through a big deletion purge about 6 months or so back. I don’t remember why - I think it was just because of how many unread message I had, which are mostly the various automated information messages I receive. Things like prescriptions ready, recurring transactions, bill pay confirmations, upcoming bill dates, etc. I see them when they come across (mostly on the phone) but I don’t click into them, and so the “unread messages” badge keeps climbing. I want to say I had around 50k-100k unread messages when I finally went on my cleaning binge. It’s sitting at 131 today.
Most of the actual space is from attachments from family and friends.
