iMessage is an instant messaging service that Apple Inc. developed and launched in 2011 and is available on several Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. You can use iMessage to communicate with your family, friends, or colleagues. If you have been using iMessage for some time, you might be wondering how long the iMessages stay on your iPhone.
So, how long do iMessages stay on an iPhone? iMessages will stay on your iPhone forever as long as you have enough storage space. Once you send a message on iMessage, it will remain under that person’s contact until you delete it. If you do not want the iMessages to stay on your iPhone forever, you can delete the conversations. You can also choose to automatically delete the iMessages on your phone after thirty days or one year.
Many people use text messages to communicate instead of audio or video calling. However, unlike audio and video calls, text messages usually remain on your phone for an extended time.
iPhones usually come with a huge memory that you can use to store data. While texting several people on iMessage, you will accumulate thousands of texts within a short time. If you are concerned about storage space on your iPhone, you might be wondering how long the iMessages would stay on it.
iMessages stay on an iPhone forever, as long as there is enough storage space. When you send an iMessage, it will remain in the conversation of the receiver forever, including the attachments such as photos, documents, and videos. However, Apple allows you to delete the iMessages if you do not want to keep certain conversations on your iPhone.
If you want to delete all iMessages on your iPhone, you can choose to automatically delete them from your device after 30 days or one year. You should note that iMessage backs up all iMessages on iCloud if you have enabled iCloud Backup or Messages in iCloud.
Text-only iMessages that do not contain attachments take up little storage space on your phone. Therefore, you can have hundreds of thousands of iMessages without taking up any significant space on your phone.
If your iPhone is not displaying the running out of storage space reminder, then the iMessages can stay on your device without affecting its performance. However, there are other reasons to remove iMessages from your iPhone, such as uncomfortable conversions, reducing clutter, or no longer speaking to the receiver, among others. In that case, you will have to delete the iMessages yourself.
Suppose you do not want iMessages to stay on your phone forever. In that case, you can delete the conversation you do not like or automatically delete all the old iMessages. To delete all the old iMessages, you have to set your device to automatically delete all messages from 30 days or one year ago. On your iPhone,
- go to “Settings”
- scroll down
- tap on “Message History”
- tap on “Keep Messages”
- select either “30 days” or “1 Year”
- tap “Delete” to confirm.
Your iPhone will delete all iMessages 30 days old or one year old.
If you have enabled iCloud Backup or Messages on your iPhone, iMessage will store all your iMessages on iCloud. If you run out of space on iCloud, you will have to delete the iMessages from iCloud, or you will have to turn off the Messages in iCloud feature.
You can delete certain messages, attachments, or entire conversations to free up space on iCloud. To avoid doing the same over and over when iCloud runs out of space, you should turn off the iCloud Backup and Messages on iCloud features. On your iPhone,
- go to “Settings”
- select your name
- tap on “iCloud”
- tap “Manage Storage”
- tap on “Messages”
- tap “Disable & Delete” to confirm.
Most people are concerned about unauthorized people reading their messages, and one way to protect your messages is to delete them. Apple designed iMessage to use end-to-end encryption. Hence, no one can read your messages apart from the receiver.
If you keep your iMessages on your phone forever, you need not worry about someone reading them as long as your device is secured. However, it was recently discovered that the iMessages backed up on iCloud are not end-to-end encrypted; therefore, Apple can access the contents of your iMessages if they want to. Therefore, to protect your iMessages from unwanted eyes, you should avoid backing them up on iCloud.
How Far Does iMessages Go Back?
At times, you can go back through your iMessages searching for certain information or an attachment. For example, if someone claims they did not say something or claim they did not receive your message. If you want to go back through your iMessages. You might be wondering how far back the iMessages can go on your Apple device.
The iMessages on your Apple devices can go back to where the conversation starts as long as you never deleted them. If you have set your iMessages to be automatically deleted after 30 days or one year, the iMessages will go as far back as the last time they were deleted.
Therefore, if you wanted to go back to your iMessages more than a year ago, you should not activate the auto-delete feature. If you want to access iMessages that you deleted a while ago, you can find them on your iCloud backup if you have activated the feature. If you did not enable the backup feature, you could use professional data recovery software to retrieve the deleted iMessages.
If you are looking for an old iMessage on your iPhone, the steps to find it are easy. On your iPhone, launch the Message app and drag your finder downwards across the middle of the screen to reveal a search bar. Tap the “Search Bar” and type any keyword for the iMessage you want to access.
The keyword can be a topic you were discussing, or if you cannot remember, you can type the receiver’s name. Tap “Search” and look through the search results to find the iMessages you were looking for. Alternatively, you can open the conversation of the person you believe sent the iMessage and scroll up until you find the old iMessage. However, only use the second method if the conversation is short.
iMessage has an auto-delete feature that, when enabled, will delete iMessages that are older than 30 days or one year. If you have selected your device to delete the iMessages after a certain period, your iMessages will only go back to that period.
For example, if you have selected iMessages to be automatically deleted after 30 days, the only iMessages on your phone will be those below 30 days. Therefore, if you want to access iMessages older than 30 days or one year, you should not enable the auto-delete feature.
If you had enabled the auto-delete feature or had deleted some iMessages, you can access them if you had enabled iCloud Backup. If your iCloud had enough storage after you deleted the iMessages, you could successfully retrieve them using your iPhone or computer. To use your iPhone,
- open “Settings”
- tap on “General”
- tap on “Reset”
- select “Erase All Content and Setting”
- the “Apps & Data” screen will pop up and select to recover data from iCloud.
- log in to your iCloud account
- tap on “Choose Backup”
- select the data you want to iMessages you want to retrieve from the backup list.
You can also retrieve deleted iMessages on your iPhone without a backup. Some people choose not to backup data or iMessages on their iCloud. Therefore, once the iMessages are deleted from the iPhone, it might seem that there is no way to get them back.
If you want to read deleted iMessages and there is no back, you will have to download and install the professional data recovery software. Several data recovery software apps are available, such as Tenorshare Ultdata, iSkySoft Data Recovery, and iExplorer. Choose the data recovery app you like and follow the app’s instructions to retrieve your old deleted iMessages.
Does Apple Delete Old iMessages?
If you have been using iMessages to communicate with people for some time, the old iMessages will be piling up. Some people choose to keep the iMessages, while others will delete some or all of them. If you have been keeping old iMessages on your Apple device, you might be wondering if Apple will delete them.
Apple does not delete old iMessages, and you can keep them on your device for as long as you want. Apple will only delete old iMessages if you enable the auto-delete feature on iMessage. Apple included the feature that allows you to select if the iMessages are deleted after 30 days or one year. Since Apple does not delete any iMessages without your permission, you will have to do it yourself, and there are several ways you can do so, including the auto-delete feature.
If you frequently use iMessages to communicate with people, the messages can take up considerable space in your device’s storage space; hence it is vital that you delete iMessages frequently to free up space.
When cleaning or decluttering your iMessage, you can delete certain messages, entire conversations, or all iMessages. Choose the option that works with your current situation. To delete iMessages,
- open the “Messages” app on your iPhone and if you want to delete an entire conversation
- select the thread you want to delete
- swipe left
- tap on “Delete”
- tap “Delete” again to confirm your action.
If you want to delete certain messages with a conversation, open a conversation and long press on a message bubble you want to delete. Tap on “More” and tap on the recycle bin icon to delete the message.
If you do not want to go through the trouble of deleting messages and conversations every time, you should select the auto-delete feature. If you like to go back on iMessages, you should select the one-year period, which gives you enough time to go back through your messages.
If you do not like to go back to messages, you should enable your device to delete the iMessages after 30 days. You should note that if you choose to delete a single conversation, it does not undo the message. Once you click send on an iMessage, the receiver will receive it unless there is a problem with the network.
If you have enabled iCloud Backup or Messages on iCloud, Apple will not delete those messages. However, Apple will not store any iMessages on iCloud if you run out of space. Therefore, if you want iCloud to keep updating your iMessages, you should either upgrade your storage or free up space by deleting files that you do not need. After deleting the iMessages in iCloud, you should disable the iCloud Backup feature. You can use your iPhone or Mac to disable the iCloud Backup feature.
iMessage allows you to send attachments such as photos, videos, and documents. When you include an attachment on your iMessage, it will take up more space on your iPhone or iCloud. The more attachments you send, the more storage space the iMessages will occupy on your device or iCloud.
If you send attachments regularly, you should find ways to create more space on your iPhone or buy more space on iCloud. You should note that attachments are usually uploaded automatically to the Apple servers when the message is sent. However, if the iMessage is not sent, the attachment will be deleted from the Apple server after 30 days.
Summary
iMessages will stay in your iPhone forever; all you need to do is ensure you have enough storage space and you have disabled the auto-delete feature. iMessages do not take up a lot of storage space on your iPhone or iCloud, especially if they are text-only. Therefore, Apple has allowed users to keep their iMessage for as long as they want.
If you want to delete the iMessages, you can do so by deleting specific messages, or you can delete entire conversations. You can also enable the auto-delete feature that allows your iPhone to delete the iMessages after 30 days or one year.
You do not need to worry about Apple deleting your old iMessages because they do not do that. As long as you have enough storage space on iCloud, Apple will let you keep your old iMessages for as long as you want. However, Apple will delete attachments from their server if they are not sent after 30 days.
