How To Delete Saved iMessages and Free Up iPhone Memory Storage

Q: My iPhone says I have 2.2GB of messages caches (saved). I’ve looked into it in other forums and people are saying it’s a glitch with the iOS software…just wondering if there’s any new info on how to remove these unneeded messages. (iPhone 6, iOS 7.0.3)

Also read: how to recover deleted messages from your iPhone with a iOS Devices Data Recovery Tool for Mac and PC.

A: 8GB of memory storage is not enough space, considering that you’ve also got to take into account the amount of space iOS consumes before having only a small portion of memory storage left. I realize that you have an 8GB iPhone 4 now, and can’t do anything about that, but I would suggest getting at least a 16GB iPhone in the future. Since you have an 8GB iPhone 4, it’s likely that your saved iMessages are consuming nearly half of the 5GB of memory storage remaining on your iPhone.

It seems to be the case that there is a glitch with the software in iOS 9 I had 92MB of saved iMessages, and I deleted every message to find that there was still 5MB remaining. If you want to attempt to delete your saved iMessages, perform the following steps:

Step 1

Go into your iMessage app and select edit to delete saved iMessages.

Step 2

At this point, your text messages will gain a red circle with a line in the middle to the left of the phone number and date. In order to delete saved iMessages, you must tap on the red circle to the left of the individual name.

Step 3

After tapping the red circle, the word “delete” will appear to the right of the name and the date. Select “delete,” and the saved iMessages will disappear.

While I was able to get rid of my messages, the fact that you deleted 2.2GB of texts and still have saved iMessages consuming 2.2GB of space is a sign that your iOS software is very much damaged and needs to be restored to factory settings. Unfortunately, you’ll have to restore your iPhone to factory settings by placing it in recovery mode.

There is one thing you can do before restoring your device to factory settings, however: you can restore your iPhone 6 settings by going into your settings menu on your iPhone desktop, then scroll down to “reset,” select it, and then decide to “reset all settings.” This will not get rid of your content, but it may help recalibrate the amount of memory space your saved iMessages count contains – seeing that you’ve deleted all your messages but still see “2.2GB” of space. If, after resetting your settings, you still encounter the same problem, you’ll likely have to restore the device by placing it in recovery mode, then connecting it via USB to your computer, and follow the steps at iTunes to restore the device.

If you decide to restore your device, it is likely a good idea to use another app for your messaging needs. iMessage will fill up quickly, but there are other good apps that can best serve your needs, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, BlackBerry Messenger, and Google Hangouts. I would suggest resorting to one of these in the future. Two text messaging apps that I use on a regular basis are Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts, and both serve the purposes I need because they allow me to sync my phone contacts and text people who do not have Facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts.

I won’t just tell you to restore your device to factory settings, since it’s the case that the iOS software glitch will remain. If there’s a long-standing glitch in iOS, restoring the device won’t help the problem; rather, Apple must release an update to fix the glitch in iOS. Therefore, restoring it may get rid of the problem now, but you’re likely to encounter more saved iMessages issues in the future. Thus, using a new app for your texting activities may be best until Apple sorts out the saved iMessages glitch. This may not be the best news, but at least there are numerous other alternatives that you may come to like – along with your contacts.

Are you encountering 2.2GB of saved iMessages in your iMessage app that you cannot eliminate? Write in and let us know. We want to draw attention to the problem you’re having so that Apple will release an iOS update soon.

Method #2

For method #2 you’ll need to iBackupbot (Download link) and your iPhone 6 connected to a Mac or PC running the latest version of iTunes. Click here for the youtube instruction Guide for iBackupbot

1. First you need to backup your iPhone/iPad on iTunes, by connecting your iPhone to iTunes and select Backup Now
2. Now open the program iBackupbot on your PC/Mac and open System Files -> Mediadomain -> Library -> SMS -> Attachments and delete all of the unwanted files.(To select a lot of file hold on shift and click on the files)
3. Now with those junk cache files deleted, Restore your iPhone from iTunes

If you have a better Fix to this problem, leave a message below with the solution.