How To Quickly Delete The iMessages That Are Taking Up All Your Storage Space

If you own an iPhone, there may come a time when you get so frustrated with a lack of storage space that prevents you from downloading apps and taking photos that you find yourself at your wit’s end attempting to address it. Waiting and waiting for storage to fill up and then rushing to find ways to add more storage isn’t the best tech habit, of course — preventative measures work best. But what can you do if you find yourself stuck in a situation where you need to take a video or photos and are essentially being blocked from doing so by your phone? 

There are a few major storage-stealing culprits on your iPhone. Photos and videos consume a great deal of storage space and, whenever possible, it’s a good idea to move over what you want to save to iCloud and delete the rest. But we get it: photos make you sentimental and it will take too much time to sift through them and decide which to keep and which to toss. You need a storage-clearing solution right now. 

And that’s when you can shift your focus to iMessages. Chances are you’ve sent and received so many iMessages over the years that have accumulated on your phone. You’ve probably forgotten they even exist. But they’re silently taking up precious storage space and it’s time to do something about them. The idea of deleting each message one by one (all 900 of them) is just going to discourage you from even trying. This is the way to quickly delete the iMessages that are taking up all your storage space. 

It may have taken years to acquire all of the iMessages on your phone, but luckily, it takes just minutes to delete them if you know a smart shortcut. 

“iPhones frequently run out of storage,” says Justin Marshall, head of digital at Desky. “Using the method described, you can quickly fix the issue by deleting all or the majority of your messages from your iPhone.” 

Because it was configured (by default) to keep messages “forever,” our iPhone had 2.2GB of messages on it, Marshall said. “To instantly delete all messages from your iPhone, just follow these easy steps: Launch the Settings app, scroll down and tap Messages. Tap the area where it says “Keep messages under message history”. Choose one of the first two selections from the list of three possibilities: 30 days, a year, or forever. By tapping the Delete option, you can confirm that you want to get rid of the previous messages and attachments. The majority of the texts on your iPhone will be deleted if you choose the 30-day option, saving you a significant amount of storage. To complete the task, open the Messages app, select Edit, then choose the few remaining conversations and touch Delete.”

Selecting a time period now will also set you up for storage success later: your phone will automatically delete messages after a certain period of time to ensure they no longer remain on your device. Try this tip today to gain back storage — and then take your time tackling photos and videos next.