I had over 1 MILLION texts in iCloud [Archive]

Tradd

2-18-24, 9:33am

I was doing some digital decluttering yesterday. I discovered I had more than 1 MILLION texts backed up in iCloud (Apple’s cloud service). This is from at least a decade of syncing messages between iPhone/iPad/Mac. I turned off Messages for iCloud and suddenly I have a ton more storage in iCloud. I was able to downgrade to the 50GB plan. NOTE: if you shut this off, you don’t have the sync between your devices and you HAVE NO BACKUP! If your phone bricks, you’re out of luck. I don’t care as I don’t keep my messages.

Tried to upload a screenshot of the setting showing all those messages but it wasn’t working.

Tradd

2-18-24, 10:33am

5752

Alan

2-18-24, 11:21am

Wow! Over a ten year span that's over 300 texts a day, every single day. Even at twice that time span it's still over 150 a day. Do you sleep?

Tradd

2-18-24, 12:45pm

Wow! Over a ten year span that's over 300 texts a day, every single day. Even at twice that time span it's still over 150 a day. Do you sleep?

Yes, I do. I’m shocked there’s that many. I first had an iPhone in 2008. Maybe they go that far back!

bae

2-18-24, 2:37pm

I just received a public records request for all of my texts for the last 3 months. I believe there were 24 responsive records to this request.

Thank goodness I basically don't use texting. Likely because such things didn't even work where I live until just 2-3 years ago, so I never got into the habit.

Tybee

2-18-24, 3:12pm

IF you don't back up your gmails to the cloud and you erase them and it's been over 60 days since you erased them, is there any way to get them back?

I tried and got all my old emails that I had deleted, but the ones I want aren't they--they are from a friend who died.

Tradd

2-18-24, 3:26pm

IF you don't back up your gmails to the cloud and you erase them and it's been over 60 days since you erased them, is there any way to get them back?

I tried and got all my old emails that I had deleted, but the ones I want aren't they--they are from a friend who died.

I don’t know. My Gmail emails are accessed via the web and apps on my phone. I don’t access via Outlook or anything like that so they’re not downloaded to my laptop. I think you’re out of luck, unfortunately.

Tybee

2-18-24, 4:18pm

Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts on it. I concluded the same but holding out hope , I guess.

jp1

2-18-24, 5:58pm

I believe when you archive gmails they get deleted after a certain time period. If you leave them in your inbox they get kept indefinitely. I have the email client on my PC set to actually download them and I keep them that way. My phone leaves them at Google so as I archive them they get deleted from google’s servers.

Tybee

2-18-24, 9:23pm

I believe when you archive gmails they get deleted after a certain time period. If you leave them in your inbox they get kept indefinitely. I have the email client on my PC set to actually download them and I keep them that way. My phone leaves them at Google so as I archive them they get deleted from google’s servers.
Yes, that's in line with what I have found, thank you.