How to Delete Documents and Data from Your iPhone on iOS 11

Want to delete Documents and Data from your iPhone messages and free up space, without deleting the whole text conversations? Well, many of us want to. And, now when iOS 11 is officially out there, we finally have good news for you text lovers. If you like to text, send documents and data through text messages, and save storage space at the same time, you can do that with simple steps explained in this article.

Other than that, we use our iPhones for sending all kinds of sensitive messages. Some data (documents, pictures, voices, videos) you have sent through iMessage might be private and secret. And, you would probably like to protect your privacy from leaks and delete these messages while it is not too late. However, here you can learn how to delete only the documents and data you want, without wiping out the whole conversations from your iPhone messages.

iOS 11 comes with a useful feature to individually erase attachments from your iPhone messages. So, let’s use it.

Small iOS 11 Features With a BIG Impact on iPhone’s Usability

If you have updated your iDevices to Apple’s newest iOS 11 and you have not noticed some significant visual changes, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. But, if you still haven’t hit the update button yet, I highly recommend doing so, because you would miss a lot of features with a big impact on your iPhone’s usability. One of these features that should get the highest rewards is the updated iOS 11 Messages App. Now it provides you an ability to manage your message documents and data. Maybe you didn’t notice it until now, but once you use it, it will become a huge game changer for you. This is especially handy for those of you who have a small-storage-capacity iPhones. This iOS update is capable of saving some serious storage space.

iOS 11 Storage Saving Features

iOS 11 includes various tricks for managing your iDevice’s storage. You can use the new space-saving image and video file formats as well as intelligent memory management tools. These features we’ve wanted for a long time. Now finally they are here, and we can enjoy them.

If you are still using some of the older versions of iOS (iOS 9 or iOS 10) and you want to free up space on your iPhone or iPad, do not doubt to update to iOS 11, if your device supports it. You will get amazing results.

Do You Have Huge Documents and Data on Your iPhone?

With iOS 11 you can simply delete your Messages App’s Documents and Data. It is an overlooked but fantastic feature. Furthermore, you can even choose what goes and what stays in your Messages App’s Documents and Data.

If you are using your iPhone for messaging, and I am sure that you are, you know how fast Message Data can become enormous. Usually, for most iDevice users, Message Data takes from 2GB to 8GB storage on their devices. If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch with a lot of storage, this might not be a big deal for you. However, most of us, including me, own iPhones with 16 or 32GB storage capacity. So, this HUGE FAT Messages App Data needs a proper diet. And, here you can find the recipe.

How to Clear Up Message App Documents and Data

If the message that your iPhone’s memory is full appearing on your screen, you are unable to take photos, or if you are not able to even update your iOS to the latest version because of low memory, it is high time to organize and clean up all that clutter.

Here is what you should do to delete documents and data on your iPhone, without removing the text from your messages.

This is really handy if you are texter who love to send and receive messages with a lot of stickers, pictures, videos, and other bells and whistles. First, you need to go to your Messages App and take a look at the Documents & Data section.

1. Go to Settings, tap on General, and open iPhone Storage. (For iOS versions older than iOS 11 go to Storage & iCloud Usage and then open Manage Storage)
2. Take a look at the total amount of memory that Messages currently consumes.
   

Now you can dig a little deeper into Messages and see your text’s downloaded videos, images, and any other received and sent files. In older versions of iOS, there was no way to delete Message Data and Documents different from going into each conversation and manually cleaning out the attached files.

iOS 11 Changes Things on Better

With iOS 11 you can indeed delete some or all of these Message Attachments. Its new and sophisticated storage management system allows deleting photos, videos, stickers, GIFs, and other from all the conversations at once. Here is how to do that.

Delete Unwanted Message Attachments by Category

1. While you are in Settings > General > iPhone Storage, tap on Messages. Now you can see how much space all your Messages’ media files take. The best thing is that all the media files are divided into categories, such as videos, photos, GIFs, and other.
2. Tap on the group you want to manage.
3. Swipe left on a particular file and tap Delete. You can also click Edit at the top right corner and tap on the checkboxes in front of the files you want to delete. Then tap on the Trash icon.
   

You can do this process for all the media files you want to delete. Just pick the category and do the same steps.

Delete All Unwanted Message Attachments Automatically

Other than manually deleting unwanted documents and data from your messages by categories, you can use Apple Recommendations and clear up your memory automatically. It is another handy feature of Messages Storage Settings which provides you specific recommendations for managing your device’s storage. These recommendations are based on your personal use. There are some options convenient for heavy Messages users like Review Large Attachments and Auto-Deleting Old Conversations.

1. Go to Settings, tap on General then open iPhone Storage.
2. Look for the dedicated “Recommendations” section. (You can also find some recommendations while you are in Messages Settings, above Documents & Data)

This section offers tools that will automatically save storage capacity on your iPhone. One of the features is Offload Unused Apps. That will automatically offload rarely used apps when your device is low on storage.

Wrap Up

Texting with your family and friends is always fun. It makes sharing every content from the internet simple and easy. However, all the videos, photos, stickers, and other files quickly add up. That may take up a significant part of your iPhone’s memory. With iOS 11 you have great storage features, including the ability to delete Documents and Data from your iPhone’s messages. Additionally, iOS 11 offers methods for automatically deleting all those unwanted message and text attachments. All you need to do is following the steps explained above, and that’s it. Now you know how to free up space on your iPhone.