How to Delete Messages and Attachments from iMessage

Managing the content of your iMessage app may not be as easy as it sounds, especially if you are using the same account across several devices. For example, even if you never use iMessage on your Mac, your iPhone iMessage conversations will still be archived on the computer. This may end up draining a lot of disk space, especially if you frequently rely on images and other media attachments. In this post, we will teach you how to delete messages and attachments from iMessage on different devices, as well as how to better control the disk space that iMessage uses.

Disable iCloud for Messages

If you are looking to stop your Mac from archiving messages, then you should consider disabling iCloud for the iMessage app. If you try to delete messages while iCloud synchronization is turned on, you may end up wiping the messages from all devices. By Disabling iCloud, you will only delete the locally stored copies of the messages and attachments.

  1. Open iMessage and go to Messages -> Preferences.
  2. Press iMessage and uncheck Enable Messages in iCloud
  3. Leave the menu and start deleting messages.

How to Delete Messages?

There are several ways to approach this problem. If you are looking to remove specific conversations, you can simply open iMessage, right-click the conversation you want to dispose of, and press Delete Conversation. However, what if you are looking to wipe out all messages and attachments? Repeating this operation a hundred times may be very tedious. So, here's what you need to do to fully remove iMessage attachments and conversations:

  1. Go to Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.
  2. Enter the command rm –r ~Library/Messages/chat to delete messages.
  3. Enter the command rm –r ~/Library/Messages/Attachments/ to delete attachments.

If you are not comfortable using the Terminal, then you can accomplish the same via Finder:

  1. Open Finder and select Go -> Go to Folder.
  2. Enter ~/Library/Messages.
  3. Delete the files chat.db, chatdb-wal, chat.db-shm.

This will only delete messages. If you wish to remove attachments, then here's what you need to do:

  1. Open the Apple Menu -> About This Mac section.
  2. Go to Storage -> Manage -> Messages.
  3. This will show you a full list of message attachments on the device. Select the first one, hold down the Shift button and click on the last one – this will select all attachments.
  4. Press Delete to finalize the deletion of the attachments.
May 17, 2021
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