Purge old messages

[mark-d]

Ok I have a question and lots of searching and googling hasn't as yet come up with the answer.

On my Blackberry there was a setting to delete messages on the phone after x number of days. Mine was set to 60. Having now had an iPhone for over a year my messages storage is taking up a huge amount of space as it seems there is no auto purge for SMS/iMessage.

I know that I can just clear the entire message database by selecting every conversation and deleting but what I want to do is to purge every conversation and delete all messages older than 60 days, leaving the messages newer than that limit, without having to go into every conversation in my messages list and select every message manually that fits my criteria.

My phone is not jailbroken and nor do I really want to jailbreak it to achieve this but I would like to reclaim some of the huge amount of storage that is currently occupied by "other"

 

[Just_Me_D]

To my knowledge, there is no way to do what you're asking.

 

[Laelipoo]

Same here. If there is a jailbreak app/tweak that does this, I want it.

 

[mark-d]

Thanks guys. I am genuinely shocked that such a thing cannot be accomplished!

 

[Alli]

I have every text message conversation since my first iPhone. This is the reason I restore instead of starting new all the time. This is honestly the first I've heard of anyone wanting to purge text messages.

 

[mark-d]

I get what you're saying but I have very nearly 2GB of space on "other". I've cleared out the storage hogging apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but there's still 2GB in other which I therefore assume is messages, contacts, emails etc. I've got 18 months worth of texts on my phone as I thought the phone would remove them automatically but it hasn't. I only want to keep the ones that are current, I have no need for the older ones.

 

[rdiddy_25]

If you're running low on space then deleting old messages will help. All those MMS messages will take up space. But like Alli said, I'd do a backup first before deleting just in case u need it later.

 

[mark-d]

If you're running low on space then deleting old messages will help. All those MMS messages will take up space. But like Alli said, I'd do a backup first before deleting just in case u need it later.

That's exactly what I'm looking to do but I don't want to do it manually.

Such an advanced piece of hardware and the world's best phone OS surely doesn't demand I go through every conversation and manually select all messages older than 60 days just to achieve the deletion I want?

 

[rdiddy_25]

That's exactly what I'm looking to do but I don't want to do it manually.

Such an advanced piece of hardware and the world's best phone OS surely doesn't demand I go through every conversation and manually select all messages older than 60 days just to achieve the deletion I want?

Or u can perform a backup and delete the entire conversation. Quick and simple. I do it all the time. What importance can a 60 day old text message have?

 

[TurboTiger]

I can't delete them soon enough.
Same for my email inbox which I either move to a folder or delete.
Good Luck

 

[rdiddy_25]

I can't delete them soon enough.
Same for my email inbox which I either move to a folder or delete.
Good Luck

Couldn't agree more

 

[Just_Me_D]

I can't delete them soon enough.
Same for my email inbox which I either move to a folder or delete.
Good Luck

I keep email message for 90 days (archived) and then I go in and delete them. iMessages, SMS & mms messages are deleted almost immediately. Some are kept for maybe a day. Other than that, when the conversation is done, the messages are removed.

 

[mark-d]

Or u can perform a backup and delete the entire conversation. Quick and simple. I do it all the time. What importance can a 60 day old text message have?

Again, this defeats the point as I want to do it AUTOMATICALLY, not manually.

I can't delete them soon enough.
Same for my email inbox which I either move to a folder or delete.
Good Luck

Again this involves it happening manually, not automatically.

There are 18 months worth of conversations and messages which will take an eternity to delete manually and it's pretty pants that in 2013 the iPhone can't manage to do something that simple that BB has managed since at least OS4

 

[Just_Me_D]

@mark-d, the more I think about it, the more I agree with you. We should have an option, as in email, to purge/delete messages automatically after a certain amount of time. Mine would more than likely be set to delete daily, however, as I've stated earlier, I'm unaware of a method to do that at this point.

 

[rdiddy_25]

Again, this defeats the point as I want to do it AUTOMATICALLY, not manually.



Again this involves it happening manually, not automatically.

There are 18 months worth of conversations and messages which will take an eternity to delete manually and it's pretty pants that in 2013 the iPhone can't manage to do something that simple that BB has managed since at least OS4

How will it take an eternity to delete 18 months worth of conversation?? It's as simple as swiping left it right over the message and pressing delete. I think u are over thinking the process. Yes it's manually but only takes half a second to achieve

 

[eve6er69]

I am a BlackBerry user also and switching to an iphone soon because the BlackBerry is becoming problematic. I was hoping to find an answer in this thread. I will sure miss the delete prior option on the messages section.

I get about 20-30 roller derby emails a day so that will add up quick.

Sent from my game boy color

 

[mark-d]

How will it take an eternity to delete 18 months worth of conversation?? It's as simple as swiping left it right over the message and pressing delete. I think u are over thinking the process. Yes it's manually but only takes half a second to achieve

View attachment 32605

I know how to do it but even still swiping over each message over 18 months is ridiculous. So many things the iPhone does better than the Blackberry but this is certainly not one of them as a feature that's been native to Blackberry for years and years is not even thought of on the iPhone.

 

[mark-d]

I am a BlackBerry user also and switching to an iphone soon because the BlackBerry is becoming problematic. I was hoping to find an answer in this thread. I will sure miss the delete prior option on the messages section.

I get about 20-30 roller derby emails a day so that will add up quick.

Sent from my game boy color

It's truly amazing that this feature isn't incorporated at all!

Emails as far as I know only holds 100 but messages keeps them all until you manually delete them!

 

[eve6er69]

I'm going to have mine sync so ill get them on the phone but when I read or delete them on a comp it will do the same on the phone.

I guess its something to do other than candy crush if I want to delete them all at a sitting. Lol

Sent from my game boy color

 

[gkl]

I just got my wife an iPhone and we are trying to figure out how to delete all the messages that flooded her inbox on first sync. She is a former BBOS user and me on BB10.

Is there really no way to "Delete Prior" on those old messages? Will she really have to do them one at a time?