Deeply frustrated by recent storage issues that appeared out of nowhere.
I have a phone with 256GB and subscribe to 2TB of iCloud storage. iCloud is automatically set up for Photos and Messages with automatic daily backups, and I have continued to have 50-60Gb available on my iPhone at all times. I checked to ensure that my phone has the latest software update, and its backups are current.
In just the last month, Messages on my phone have begun to take up 135GB of storage on my phone. This has never been an issue before until a few weeks ago. Photos is taking up 35 GB, but nothing else on my phone surpasses 5GB. The storage space is completely overtaken by Messages.
When I first noticed the full storage issue:
- I went through and deleted over 20 GB of large photo and video attachments one by one, as well as about 200 old message threads which temporarily freed up about 30 GB of space. I deleted all items from the Recently Deleted album.
- I did the same thing in Photos and removed about 4,000 items. I deleted all items from the Recently Deleted album.
- I made sure there were no Downloads or Files on my iPhone taking up extra space.
- I checked that any "top conversation" in Messages did not surpass 5GB total. There are only 3 group chats that are taking up multiple GBs, and I fully deleted this one from all devices.
Every morning, my storage will show up as full again. Messages and Photos does not change, even though I have deleted probably close to 90 GBs of files. My iPhone says it is completely full, and will not let me take new photos or videos, download apps, or send audio messages. I need a permanent fix; there is no reason why Messages should suddenly be taking up 135 GB of space). Can anyone recommend a solution that has worked for them?
