iOS 11.4 messages in the cloud

[fmalloy]

This is not working for me - at all.

It now says my iCloud storage is full, with 2.5GB of Messages. I push down into Messages under iCloud Storage > Manage Storage and there it says I'm only using 393.2MB in "Conversations". I've deleted tons of messages already.

Oh, and now the videos and photos in Messages seem to be gone from the phone but are on the MacBook.

And the Messages on my MacBook still don't match with what's on the phone. Yes, I upgraded MacOS. Yes, I enabled Messages in iCloud. Yes, I clicked the Sync button in the MacBook Messages preferences.

It always takes Apple many releases to get any kind of syncing or any kind of push working correctly.

What a mess.

 

[AbSoluTc]

This is not working for me - at all.

It now says my iCloud storage is full, with 2.5GB of Messages. I push down into Messages under iCloud Storage > Manage Storage and there it says I'm only using 393.2MB in "Conversations". I've deleted tons of messages already.

Oh, and now the videos and photos in Messages seem to be gone from the phone but are on the MacBook.

And the Messages on my MacBook still don't match with what's on the phone. Yes, I upgraded MacOS. Yes, I enabled Messages in iCloud. Yes, I clicked the Sync button in the MacBook Messages preferences.

It always takes Apple many releases to get any kind of syncing or any kind of push working correctly.

What a mess.

Same issue for me.

 

[Mac 128]

This is not working for me - at all.

It now says my iCloud storage is full, with 2.5GB of Messages. I push down into Messages under iCloud Storage > Manage Storage and there it says I'm only using 393.2MB in "Conversations". I've deleted tons of messages already.

Oh, and now the videos and photos in Messages seem to be gone from the phone but are on the MacBook.

And the Messages on my MacBook still don't match with what's on the phone. Yes, I upgraded MacOS. Yes, I enabled Messages in iCloud. Yes, I clicked the Sync button in the MacBook Messages preferences.

It always takes Apple many releases to get any kind of syncing or any kind of push working correctly.

What a mess.

Good to know.

Shades of MobileMe all over again. I will definitely NOT be using iCloud Messages until this has all been worked out int the field.

It too big a loss, it’s been a year since he feature was announced, and so far, no compelling reason to try and use it over the old way, such as an iCloud app that allows me to access Messages from any device anywhere just by logging into my iCloud account.

I suppose one important aspect this addresses, is that when traveling and a person loses or damages a phone, the replacement will sync with the cloud and all of the messages will download into the new phone. But I suppose one can merely use the feature with that one device when traveling too, without worrying about the headache of syncing all the other devices they own.

 

[ufsj]

I'm having the opposite problem as most people. When I activated Messages in iCloud, the Messages usage in my iCloud went DOWN. iCloud shows Messages only using 57.9MB, but when I click on Messages under Manage Storage, it shows the entire 1.44GB under "Conversations". The 1.44GB isn't shown in iCloud Storage usage which I’m guessing means that is has not been uploaded to iCloud? I’m not sure what to make of this. I have an iPhone X, iPad Pro 10.5 and a MacBook Pro all running the latest OS versions.

 

[Irishappletech]

So, this whole messages in the cloud thing seems to be half baked.

On my iPhone X, some of my messages are going through as SMS. Those same messages show as iMessage on my computer. As well as, attachments going to my computer but not going to my phone. Really aggravated about that. Phone is not syncing them up and constantly keeps saying "DOWNLOADING FROM ICLOUD"

I now have a conversation that won't update on my phone anymore but only on my computer.

Yeah I’ve noticed little glitches here and there but I feel it works very well overall. I’m confused about that too

 

[Frankfurt]

I don’t store messages any longer than a few days. I like this iCloud feature because supposedly it deletes messages on all devices once deleted on one. Unfortunately, watchOS is not included and the most cumbersome process in the apple universe is deleting messages on Apple Watch.

Further more, so far the feature has not been working reliable on iPhone 7 and IPP.

Not stage ready yet.

 

[jpn]

three questions.

anyway to join two conversations into one?
same contact, but with two different verified iMessage contact mail addresses (conversations started in each using a different verified email address).

even after both recent iOS and macOS updates, on a mac its still possible to either completely delete the conversation or just close a conversation.
after this latest update, on a mac, if you just close the conversation, will all messages in the conversation reappear again the next time the you iMessage that person or you get an iMessage from that person?

on iOS, sweeping left deletes the conversation from all devices completely, correct?
on iOS no way to just temporary close a conversation?

 

[Easttime]

I’ve given up trying to figure it all out. Spent weeks trying to resolve forked conversations too. I just periodically delete all my conversations and start over. Like someone in this long thread, I treat Messages conversations like verbal ones: ephemeral, save important information bits elsewhere as I go. I use email for important conversations that need to be archived.

 

[brilliantthings]

I've deactivated messages in iCloud. It makes no sense and isn't useful in its implementation. Amazing we had to wait a year for this.

 

[mas90guru]

Perhaps this is just me. I deleted a large number of iMessages on my iPad using EDIT then delete. It doesn't appear to sync bulk deleted messages. Also, once I get out of sync the party seems to be over. I have different lists of messages on each computer. It's almost as if iMessage sync via iCloud was never turned on (it was - on both iOS and MAC OS).

 

[garethjs]

SMS and MMS are synced. This is the most common error people make. It's called "Messages in iCloud" (as in ALL messages and even attachments as well), not "iMessage in the cloud". You have the "i" in front of the wrong word

So no, Text Message Forward is not required for SMS to appear on other devices. It is however required if you wish to reply to those SMS on those other devices.

SMS are not synced. Delete a sms n see if it deletes it from other devices

 

[Tanax]

SMS are not synced. Delete a sms n see if it deletes it from other devices

Yes it is. And I just did. Works great. Synced within 2 seconds.

Works both when deleting an entire SMS conversation as well as an individual SMS within a conversation. Pretty instantaneous as well!

 

[Skb3735]

SMS are not synced. Delete a sms n see if it deletes it from other devices

Works for me too.....

 

[fmalloy]

Now some (not all) photos appear in iPhone messages as just "IMG_7624" with no photo. If I click on the "i" it shows me a list of downloaded photos and I can open the photo that way, but the thumbnails don't appear inline.

My MacBook Messages still is stuck on the "Uploading messages to iCloud" with a progress bar at 90%. Been that way for a day now.

On top of that, the messages and attachments - of course - suck up precious iCloud space. Now I know why Apple is touting this - a great way to increase iCloud storage fee revenue. Brilliant.

Turning this off. I can delete messages manually on my MacBook, thank you.

 

[Morac]

Perhaps this is just me. I deleted a large number of iMessages on my iPad using EDIT then delete. It doesn't appear to sync bulk deleted messages. Also, once I get out of sync the party seems to be over. I have different lists of messages on each computer. It's almost as if iMessage sync via iCloud was never turned on (it was - on both iOS and MAC OS).

It does sync bulk deletes. It worked when I did it. It doesn’t show a confirmation popup before doing so though so be careful since there’s no undo-delete if you wipe out a ton of messages.

 

[kiranmk2]

Very odd - I cleared out all the messages on my Mac and then turned on Messages in iCloud. It seems to have only pulled down a few conversations that are on my phone. It's had about 2 days. The conversations that have been pulled down from the cloud do go back to 2009 when I first got an iPhone.

On my iPhone which was synced to Messages in iCloud first I have 64 converasations. Only 16 have downloaded onto the Mac.

 

[bookemdano]

Quite frankly amazing that this feature still seems so "not ready for prime time" after a year+ development and testing. I wonder if it speaks to underlying issues in how they built the Messages subsystem that they're having so many problems cloudifying it.

It probably works great if you're starting from scratch, but at this point there aren't that many people doing that. Maybe kids getting their first phone, Android switchers, some grandmas/grandpas. But most of the rest of us have this hodgepodge of iMessages and SMS, where some devices have some messages and some have others. I don't know why Apple's having such a hard time merging them. But since they are that tells me it must be super complex on the back end.

I waited until last night to switch this feature on. I did it on my iPhone first, which had the largest and oldest message history (going back almost 8 years). To my surprise, as soon as I switched it on, my iCloud storage bar chart showed Messages taking up 5.9GB of my iCloud storage (nothing had yet been uploaded). Then a short time later (once I put it on the charger) I saw the progress bar in the Messages app (although I find it interesting they weren't able to make it an actual progress bar. Just a colored bar that animates--sort of dumb and hokey IMHO).

After leaving it overnight, it must have finished because the status bar in Messages went away. The iCloud Storage bar still showed 5.9GB for Messages, yet Conversations showed Zero KB (and drilling down on it showed a blank list). Not sure what that's about.

Next I turned on iCloud Message on a MacBook Air I set up about a month ago (so it had only the last month's worth of messages on it). It showed "Downloading Messages from Cloud" for a little while (maybe an hour or less) and then that went away. That added about another month's worth of message history, but also some random SMS messages from years ago. I have no idea what the rhyme or reason is (or if there even is any rhyme or reason there). There was plenty of free space (about 100GB) so I would have expected it to download the entire message history.

I've now enabled it on my iMac, but it has pretty much the same database as my iPhone (a while back I extracted my iPhone's Messages database from an iTunes backup and used it as the Messages data file for this iMac). It still shows the Downloading screen, but I don't expect much of anything to be added to it because it already has the entire history that my phone has.

My main reason for doing this was to save iCloud space (because all of my iCloud backups were storing Messages separately) and to sync deletes, etc. But I'm a little concerned that we have no way to know whether or not the Cloud-stored database actually has our entire message history. The way to prove it would be to set up a new Mac or iOS device and let it restore Messages from the cloud, but from my experience and others' it's not actually restoring ALL messages to devices that don't have them.

Apple needs to be more forthcoming about how this feature works or is supposed to work. Right now it's a muddled mess, and if you really care about your message history I would hold off for now (or if you do take the plunge, get a separate backup of your Messages database first).

 

[netdudeuk]

Now I know why Apple is touting this - a great way to increase iCloud storage fee revenue. Brilliant.

I completely agree. I'm surprised that I've not seen anyone else mention this. Isn't Apple meant to be extra interested in services these days ?
[doublepost=1528056631][/doublepost]I'm pleased that I didn't enabled Messages in the cloud. If I didn't want most of my messages, I would have deleted them myself.

 

[bookemdano]

I completely agree. I'm surprised that I've not seen anyone else mention this. Isn't Apple meant to be extra interested in services these days ?
[doublepost=1528056631][/doublepost]I'm pleased that I didn't enabled Messages in the cloud. If I didn't want most of my messages, I would have deleted them myself.

If this feature worked properly then it is a benefit, even if it does have the synergistic effect of boosting Apple's cloud revenue. If you have multiple iOS devices and you do iCloud backups of all of them, then this actually saves you iCloud storage space (and potentially money) because if they are stored directly in the cloud then they will no longer be stored within iCloud device backups (like pictures when Apple introduced iCloud Photo Library). That moves from multiple copies of the same messages down to one master copy, which is how it should be.

If you only have one iOS device (which you also backed up via iCloud) then the storage space issue is moot (the amount of iCloud space taken up is the same whether or not you turn on Messages in iCloud.

Only if you don't use iCloud backup (or use only Macs) will turning on this feature cost you additional iCloud space. But I would imagine that isn't who Apple is targeting here (many of them don't back up at all out of ignorance or because they don't care about losing their stuff... at least not enough to pay the 99c per month for enough storage space.)

Setting aside the possible savings in iCloud storage space, the other benefit comes later when you get a new Mac or iOS device. Without having to resort to hacks, you can have your full Messages history available on that device from the get-go.

Now, it doesn't appear to be working properly right now, but I assume Apple knows this and is working on trying to fix that as we speak. But that is how it's supposed to work, and one can assume it will eventually work that way. So for some people it will be a win-win because they gain back iCloud storage space and have a consistent Messages history on all their Macs and iOS devices. One can envision eventually the Apple Watch will be brought into the fold, and maybe even HomePod and AppleTV.

Messages was pretty much the last core element of user data that was orphaned on each individual device. Not sure why it took Apple so long to roll it out and why it's still so buggy but it must have been a really heavy lift on the back end.

 

[Mac 128]

I completely agree. I'm surprised that I've not seen anyone else mention this. Isn't Apple meant to be extra interested in services these days ?
[doublepost=1528056631][/doublepost]I'm pleased that I didn't enabled Messages in the cloud. If I didn't want most of my messages, I would have deleted them myself.

I thought Messages in iCloud worked like the iCloud Photo Stream. They don’t charge for that, but it only stores the last 1,000 or so pics. What happens for people who switch on Messages in iCloud if they don’t currently pay for any extra storage and have huge databases going back years with more than just text in it? Are they being asked to upgrade their iCloud plan?

I will not enable Messages in iCloud until they sort this out, and even then it’s not likely unless I can clearly see it works the way I want it to, which is to sync all messages on my Mac, retained as an archive, no matter what I do with them in the iPhone and iPad.

Frankly, as long as I don’t have a portal in iCloud.com, then it’s kind of pointless to me. The only possible benefit I can see is that it’s more reliable than it seems to be at the moment, as sometimes messages sent and received on my phone, don’t get pushed to the Mac or iPad for some reason, and vice-versa. I have no idea why.

 

[bookemdano]

No, Messages in iCloud doesn't work like PhotoStream. It works like iCloud Photo Library in that it would become the master location of your Messages and your various devices can access and sync to it. The way Messages has worked since the beginning is that there is no master location (or rather, each device was its own master).

Given Apple's history and how important Cloud sync is for just about everything going forward, I have no doubt they will get this working right eventually--it's too important not to. Sort of boggles the mind though that they released it in its current state. I think it would be wise to leave it turned off for the time being.

 

[Apple_Robert]

No, Messages in iCloud doesn't work like PhotoStream. It works like iCloud Photo Library in that it would become the master location of your Messages and your various devices can access and sync to it. The way Messages has worked since the beginning is that there is no master location (or rather, each device was its own master).

Given Apple's history and how important Cloud sync is for just about everything going forward, I have no doubt they will get this working right eventually--it's too important not to. Sort of boggles the mind though that they released it in its current state. I think it would be wise to leave it turned off for the time being.

Hopefully, Apple will use this experience to not announce features a year in advance, especially when the rollout features are so vague and for many, problematic.

 

[Mac 128]

No, Messages in iCloud doesn't work like PhotoStream. It works like iCloud Photo Library in that it would become the master location of your Messages and your various devices can access and sync to it. The way Messages has worked since the beginning is that there is no master location (or rather, each device was its own master).

Given Apple's history and how important Cloud sync is for just about everything going forward, I have no doubt they will get this working right eventually--it's too important not to. Sort of boggles the mind though that they released it in its current state. I think it would be wise to leave it turned off for the time being.

So if I turn it on, I will get a message that I don’t have enough storage to use it, and a prompt to buy more?

 

[nchamow]

Yeah I’ve noticed that too. I had some missing messages on some devices but they appeared after a while. But yeah your right it seems to copy the missing ones when all are downloaded. I know new messages are stored locally on the devices and older ones are in the cloud how do the older ones get onto the devices is it by scrolling down and they appear

I was wondering this too. How do I add all my old messages to my Mac that I reformatted a month ago? I turned on massages in the cloud but it doesn’t download the older massages.

 

[bookemdano]

So if I turn it on, I will get a message that I don’t have enough storage to use it, and a prompt to buy more?

That's a good question actually, I don't know. I freed up enough space (by deleting some iCloud Backups) before turning it on. I would hope though that if you try to turn it on without enough iCloud space it would first warn you that you don't have enough storage, rather than begin transferring your Messages until it ran out of space and then warn you.

It does seem to be smart enough to know how much space your messages will take on iCloud at the very beginning. Because as soon as I turned on Messages in iCloud on my phone the little storage bar chart immediately changed to show 5.9GB taken up by Messages (this was before it actually uploaded any of them). So I suspect it checks the size of your Messages database, then checks your available iCloud space, and would prompt if you needed to free up or buy space.

Hopefully someone can test that hypothesis and report back.