Delete messages and attachments on iPhone (2024)

FAQs

Delete messages and attachments on iPhone? ›

Note: Deleting messages only affects your iPhone and other Apple devices where you're signed in with the same Apple ID.

Note: Deleting messages only affects your iPhone and other Apple devices where you're signed in with the same Apple ID.

The recipient can read your message before you unsend it. If you unsend a message, it will disappear from the recipient's screen, but they'll be notified that you unsent it.

You can only recover messages and conversations that you deleted within the last 30 to 40 days. If you delete a message before you update to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later, you can't recover that message.

If Messages is using a lot of space, image attachments are likely to blame, so simply deleting text conversations may not help enough. However, if you have long conversations full of text messages, they might take up quite a bit more space than you think.

Unfortunately, there is no "Delete All" button. Neither inside iPhone Storage > Messages, nor inside the settings for the conversation itself in the Messages app. Each attachment must be tapped. The only solution is to delete the entire message.

You can only unsend iMessages — in other words, you can only unsend texts that you send to other Apple devices. This means that you can't unsend messages when texting an Android phone. Quick tip: You can tell whether a text message you send is an iMessage by checking the color of the message.

Restore the phone using iCloud to retrieve old texts.

You'll be able to select the backup point you want to restore. Wait a few minutes for the phone to finish restoring everything from that backup point. Any texts that weren't deleted at that point in time will reappear in his inbox.

You can restore messages you deleted for up to 30 days. Open the Messages app on your iPhone. In the Messages conversation list, do one of the following: Tap Edit in the top-left corner, then tap Show Recently Deleted.

Tap "More" and select the text messages you want to delete by tapping the circle next to them. Tap the trash can icon to delete the selected messages. To ensure thetext messages are permanently deleted, connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes or Finder (depending on your operating system).

Are texts ever truly deleted? ›

When you move messages around or delete them, the data actually stays put. All you're doing is telling the phone to point at the files in different ways. Deleting a message from the inbox, for instance, just tells the phone not to point to it any more when it's listing the contents of that folder.

In the United States, there is no set time limit for how far back text messages can be subpoenaed from phone companies or iPhones by the FBI. The government can subpoena past records going back as far as they exist. Most phone companies keep records for 1-2 years.

- If you have backed up your iPhone using iCloud, your messages could be recoverable up to 180 days after deletion. This is because deleted messages are often included in iPhone backups. You can restore an iCloud backup and recover deleted messages that way.

Tap to open it and once you're there, press on an image to activate selection mode and tap everything you want to trash. When you're done, touch the trash can icon in the top right, and confirm by hitting Delete in the emerging dialog box.

To delete cache on iPhone for both your browser and other apps, open Settings > General > iPhone Storage. From there, scroll through your apps and select the app you want to clear. You'll see some options depending on whether you're clearing your browser cache, or deleting iPhone app caches.

The photo or video you selected will be permanently deleted, but the rest of the conversation will still appear in Messages.

Unsending removes the message from your recipient's device. If you're sending messages to someone who isn't using iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, or later, the original message remains in the conversation.

Managing Message Attachments

Here's how to clear them: Open Finder: Press Command + Shift + G. Navigate to Attachments: Type ~/Library/Messages/Attachments and press Enter. Delete files: Remove the files and folders you no longer need and empty the Trash​​​​.

Delete individual text messages

Tap the conversation. Touch and hold the message you want to delete. Optional: To delete multiple messages, touch and hold the first message, then tap more messages. Tap Delete to confirm.