iPad and iPhone owners receive messages, which can take up valuable storage on a device. However, customers can set their iPhone and iPad to automatically delete old messages.
Most Android-powered phones allow customers to enhance the storage capacity with a microSD card. However, the iPhone and iPad come with limited memory, which cannot be increased with external media. Owners of iPhones and iPads with only 16 GB memory have to be more cautious about what to save on their device and delete unnecessary items.
Customers can manually delete messages from iPhone and iPad, which can take a lot of time. Here is how iPhone and iPad owners can limit the lifespan of Messages and automatically delete old messages and save previous internal storage.
Step 1 – Go to the iPhone or iPad Settings app and tap on Messages.
Step 2 – In the scroll-down menu, locate "Keep Messages" and tap to open it.
Step 3 – Here, users will have the option to keep the messages for "30 days," "1 year" or "Forever." Selecting Forever means that messages on the device will not be automatically deleted at all. However, selecting 30 days or 1 year means that messages will be deleted after the set time.
Step 4 – Selecting 30 days or 1 year will pop up a message that says "This will permanently delete all messages and message attachments from your device that are older than" the selected time window. Clicking on "Delete" confirms the action.
Customers should note that this is an automatic action, and they will not be able to retrieve messages or message attachments after the iPad or iPhone has deleted a message out with the designated time frame.
Customers can also check the space taken by messages on their iPhone and iPad. Here is how to check the space taken by Messages on an iDevice.
Step 1 – Go to the iPhone or iPad Settings app and tap on the General section.
Step 2 – Locate Storage & iCloud Usage and tap it.
Step 3 – Tapping on "Manage Storage" will show the used and available space of the device, followed by an app list.
Step 4 – Locate and tap on the Messages app to reveal the total space it is using.
Checking the space used by Messages can help iPhone and iPad users to monitor the space it is using and take actions accordingly to free up some storage.
