Old messages never delete from iCloud, even after deleting them on all devices and backups

Question

Old messages never delete from iCloud, even after deleting them on all devices and backups

I have deleted 100% of the messages from all of my devices, and yet iCloud still shows I have more than 31,000 messages. It seems as though they are never clearing from iCloud (and when I say never, I mean NEVER. 31,000 probably represents ever message I have sent over the last 10 years).

I have tried disabling/deleting multiple times, and even deleted all of my device backups.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Edited by Moderator]

Original Title: Old messages are not deleting from iCloud… ever.

iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 10, 2025 8:05 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

272,448 points

Sep 11, 2025 5:46 PM in response to MaxFromWestPalm

Check Settings > [your Apple Account] > iCloud > [Saved to iCloud] > Messages in iCloud.

How does your storage appear there?
You may tap “Manage Storage” and perform housekeeping there.

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Answer 2

Sep 16, 2025 7:25 PM in response to MaxFromWestPalm

Its supposed to take 4 days for texts to delete on the server end. Thats what apple told me years ago. Make sure youre deleting them from recently deleted too. This has def been an issue since ios 18. And has gotten worse on ios 26. Good luck

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Answer 3

Sep 17, 2025 6:50 PM in response to sberman

The screen print above is where that is from. It shows it is only taking up about ~63MB of storage (which is probably correct because I usually have ~5 text conversations that include pictures at any given time), but the message count is 31,000+. I guess it's not really a problem because it is not eating up my storage, but I can't help but wonder why I cannot get the message count to show accurately.

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Answer 4

Sep 17, 2025 6:56 PM in response to countrylizzard

Thanks, I have deleted them from all devices as well as recently deleted. I have even shut off sync for over a month hoping they would get deleted, but it did not happen.

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