Running Out of Storage? Clean Up Apple Messages to Free Up Space

My family and I love to share pictures and videos in a group text in Apple Messages. TSince COVID-19 struck, it has been mostly dogs, babies, food, snow, hiking, and multiple pictures of the 20+ bananas I accidentally bought in an online grocery order. Most of them aren’t photos and videos that I want to keep forever. And even if I save my own copies, I don’t necessarily want them buried in a text thread. What good do they do me there?

In addition to backing up and organizing photos from an iPhone or iPad, which you probably want to do first, you might also delete them from your Apple Messages app. Doing so will help you free up space on not only your mobile devices, but also any computers where you use Messages. Below are instructions for how to do it, but first, you need to know about three strange things that you might encounter while removing images and videos from your Apple devices.

Watch Out for These 3 Quirks

In my experience deleting videos and images from Messages, I’ve noticed three quirks.

First, even though I sync Messages between macOS and mobile devices, deleting the images and videos from one location doesn’t delete them from the other. In other words, I can delete videos sent over text from my phone, but they still appear when I open Messages on my computer. If you’re tidying up, be sure to do it in all the places where you use Messages.

This second quirk happens on iPhone specifically. When I select multiple videos or images to delete from the Messages app, a button appears confirming that I want to Delete X Messages, and the X number is often wrong. For example, I deleted one video (and it didn’t have any reactions on it, such as a heart or thumbs up) and the confirmation message said Delete 3 Messages. I don’t know why this occurs, but it’s never caused an unwanted deletion.

Third, on mobile devices, if I try to scroll through the message thread to select multiple images and videos at once, the app often cannot handle it. Scrolling gets jittery and the app jumps around, making it impossible to see what I selected. This problem doesn’t occur if I select multiple images and videos that are very close to one another, but it does happen when scrolling through the message history. You’re best off deleting a few pieces of media at a time, then scrolling back and forth to find more.

How to Delete Videos and Images from Messages on a Mac

There are two ways to delete videos and images from your Messages app on a Mac. One way lets you delete them on the spot, one by one, and is best for clearing media right away. The other way lets you delete content in bulk; this method also enables you to sort items by size or date. This second option is best for when you want to free up space quickly and get rid of a bunch of photos, videos, bitmoji, or other visual content all at once.

You can also delete entire conversations, meaning get rid of the entire text history in addition to all the media within the message thread. It’s a much more extreme option. To do that, just right-click on the conversation and select Delete Conversation.

Method 1: Delete Videos and Images from Apple Message on the Spot

1. Open Messages on your Mac.
2. Navigate to the conversation where you received or sent the content you want to delete.
3. Find the image or video.
4. Right-click (click with two fingers) on it and select Delete.
5. Repeat for each video and image.

Method 2: Delete Videos and Images from Apple Message en Masse

1. Click the Apple icon at the very upper left corner of your screen.
2. Select About This Mac.
3. Select Storage and wait for your computer to calculate the storage usage. This can take a minute. When it’s done, the gray storage bar becomes multicolored and you see a numerical summary of your storage use. See the image below.
4. Click Manage.

5. Navigate in the left rail to Messages.

   

6. Now, you have a Finder-style window showing videos, photos, stickers, and other image content that you’ve sent or received in Messages.
7. I recommend filtering the content by size. Click on the Size column until it displays from largest to smallest.
8. Now, you can review the content. Click any file to open it and see it in a larger view.
9. Just as you would select any other files, here you can bulk select the items you want to delete by selecting the first one, holding the shift key, and selecting the last one. Or you can press and hold Command while you select images to delete in bulk.
10. Then, either click Delete at the bottom right or right-click and select Delete.

How to Delete Videos and Images from Messages on iPhone or iPad

Once again, you have two options for deleting videos and images from an iPhone or iPad. One is to do it from the Messages app, which we’ll cover first. The second is to do it from the Settings, which allows you to focus on attachments and images that take up the most space.

Method 1: Delete Videos and Images Directly from the Messages App

1. Open the Messages app. 
2. Navigate to the conversation with the videos and images you want to delete.
3. Find the content you want to delete, and then press and hold it.
4. A small menu with options appears. Choose More.
5. Now, you can select multiple pieces of media by tapping the circle to the left of them (keep in mind the quirk mentioned earlier; scrolling may become jumpy, so stick to what’s in view or close by).
6. Tap the trash icon at the bottom left and confirm the deletion (keep in mind the quirk mentioned earlier; the number may not be accurate).

Method 2: Delete Video and Messages From the Settings

1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone/iPad Storage. Give this page a moment to load.
2. Find Messages and tap it.
3. This next page lets you see how much data is taken up by conversations, photos, videos, GIFs and Stickers, and other data. There’s also an option to Review Large attachments, which is what I recommend. Tap Review Large attachments.
4. Tap Edit. You can now select any of the images and videos in this list to delete them in bulk. Tap the trash icon when you’re ready to delete them.

How to Save a Photo or Video from Apple Messages

If you find any images or videos that you want to save, you can make a local copy on your device and then back up the image and organize it for safekeeping later. Here’s how to save a copy:

• On a mobile device, press and hold the image or video. Tap Save and a copy will be saved in your Photos app.
• On a macOS computer, right-click the image or video. You can select Add to Photos Library to save it there. Alternatively, you can select the Copy the image option and then paste it wherever you want to store it.

More Ways to Clean Your Tech

There’s more to tidy up than just the images and videos stuck in your Messages app. For starters, did you know it’s safe to use Clorox wipes to clean your phone? You might want to spring clean other digital junk from your PCs and mobile devices. PCMag also has tips on freeing up space on an Apple Watch, keeping a neat desk, and organizing your messy cables.