Delete message attachments on your phone to free up space

Release the phone space: Easily delete SMS attachments

This article has been updated. Originally published on March 25, 2021.

Mobile SMS applications often hide "killers" that occupy a lot of storage space. Whether you are using the Message app on iOS or the Google Message app on Android, your settings can take up a lot of memory on your device. Changing settings to delete SMS attachments is one way to quickly free up your phone’s space.

How to delete SMS attachments on iOS

Don't be surprised if your messaging app is the second largest app on your phone - any images you send or actively save are saved in both your photo library and Apple's built-in SMS app.

To clear attachments in the Message app, open the app, click a conversation, and then click the information icon under the contact avatar. Scroll down and you will see one or more attachment categories, such as photos, links, and documents. Click in the category you want to clear to view all , click in the upper right corner to select , and then click the attachment you want to delete. After selecting the attachment you want to delete, click Delete in the lower right corner, and click to delete attachment in the pop-up window to confirm.

It should be noted that the photo categories are divided into all, Photo and Screenshot, so if you only want to delete a certain type of picture, you can This way narrows the selection. Additionally, while the information is synced between devices, the deletion is not synced, so if you use the information app on your computer, any attachments deleted from your phone will still be available on your desktop or laptop.

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If you don't want to do it conversationally one by one, you can view large attachments in your iPhone's settings. Open the Settings app, go to iPhone Storage Space, and select Information. Click to view large attachments and you will see a list of files larger than 4MB. Click to edit , then click each file you want to delete, and then click the Trash can icon in the upper right corner to delete it. You can also swipe the individual file left and click Delete to send it to the trash.

On the same screen, you can also enable Automatically delete old conversations to automatically delete all information and attachments sent or received more than a year ago.

How to delete SMS attachments on Android

Android phones will be equipped with different SMS applications depending on the manufacturer, so we will only introduce the options for native Android here.

Unlike the Message app on iOS, Google's Message app does not automatically save images to your device. You can toggle an option to automatically download media information to the Information folder in the Files app, but this will only happen if you use cellular data, and you can disable this option altogether.

[Related: Save storage space on laptops and cloud by compressing files]

To clear your information folder, go to File, Picture (or Video, depending on what you are looking for), and then go to Scroll left to find the information folder. Click to open it, then click an image to activate the selection mode, and then click on everything you want to delete. After you are finished, click the trash can icon in the upper right corner, and click to delete in the pop-up dialog box. You can also select files by date for batch deletion.

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