iMessage storage increases when updating contact info on iPhone

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Level 1

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iMessage storage increases when updating contact info on iPhone

Hey, I was updating my contact info (name and photo) through the messages app and noticed that every time i pressed “Set up name and photo” my imessage storage would increase by 200-300MB. I went as far as just simply pressing “set up name and photo” and pressing done to see if it would still increase, and what do i know, IT DID!

Now is this a bug, or is it apple creating some sort of cache for every time I edit my name and photo? Keep in mind, i didn’t update it every time and it STILL increased.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: imessages storage bug/issue

Posted on Jul 10, 2025 09:04 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 10, 2025 09:25 AM in response to PowWow332

I suspect that if you change your info and photo it updates every incoming and outgoing message in the messages database with the new information. iOS does not remove deleted content immediately; it marks it as no longe used, and then cleans it up as processing time and power permit. And in some cases it saves the out-of-date content for 30 days, so it can be recovered.

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Answer 2

PowWow332 Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 10, 2025 09:50 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

hmm, interesting! I never really thought about, Thanks for the good answer!

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