Deleting media from iMessage is a MESS

Question

Level 2

302 points

Deleting media from iMessage is a MESS

I am trying to delete old media from my iMessage conversations. I do NOT want to erase the whole conversations. The iCloud ID is attached to two Macs and one iPhone. I have tried 3 ways:

Selecting "details" on iMessage on the Mac and deleting media from there.
Scrolling down on the conversation information on the iPhone and deleting media from there.
Deleting media by accessing Preferences / iPhone Storage / iMessages on the iPhone.

NONE of the above methods does the trick. Either erasing does NOTHING, or the selected media goes away and then downloads later again from some "backup", or from another device that's on the same iCloud ID, random photos or videos show up on different devices, this is getting frustrating!

Why is iMessage media management such a mess?

iPhone 11

Posted on Nov 13, 2022 3:06 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Thanar Author

Level 2

302 points

Nov 13, 2022 6:14 AM in response to muguy

Exactly. That's how it should work. But it doesn't on my case.

Right now, I am looking at a conversation's media on the MacBook, it's got around 20 pictures; the ones I wanted to keep. The same one conversation on the iPhone has 100s of pictures. Both devices are one the same appleID and have iMessage syncing active.

Reply

Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

90,440 points

Nov 13, 2022 5:49 AM in response to Thanar

I cannot recreate your issue. I long press on the media, select more, and trash. Nothing is recovered and the media deletes on all devices

Reply

Deleting media from iMessage is a MESS

Similar questions