So I thought if I just deleted old Messages threads which contained lots of graphics that storage would become available again for other purposes. Wrong. Apparently, graphics remain saved on your device even when you delete the thread. You need to delete the graphics separately.
Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Messages > Review Large Attachments
I’m not sure what retaining those attachments there is supposed to do for me. If I deleted the thread I’m either not interested in its contents, or I’ll have already saved them to some other location (camera roll, Dropbox, etc.).
Anyway, if you’re running low on memory this could be low hanging fruit. And for those who don’t want to go over it by hand, there’s an auto delete option. I would have thought that this is the same as in Settings > Messages > Keep Messages, but apparently not. A moment ago the latter for me was set to forever, but the under iPhone Storage it was showing on.
Not sure if you remember but I had a space issues after resetting my phone a few weeks back.
My phone tells me I have 5+ gb in texts, which is more than I had prior to resetting it. Right after I reset it, it was 5.85gb and after two weeks it dropped down to 5.05gb. I believe what’s happening is that some of the photos/videos are kind of going to the cloud, i.e. sometimes I scroll back in a message and there are images I can’t see anymore but I can tap to download.
Also, that large attachment things is junk! It tells me I can save 163mb by reviewing large attachments. That’s peanuts compared to 5gb!
Documents and data tells me my top conversations are 0kb, but clicking it shows my SO at 758mb
I don’t touch the phone much on weekends and I seem to regain some space then. I’ve also gone and deleted some conversations and have been deleting photos after sending or receiving if I don’t need them anymore.
I don’t want to set conversations to delete as I have a couple of friends who have passed in recent years and I kind of like knowing their thoughts are still on my phone.
