How to Automatically Delete Old Messages on Your iPad

  Matt Cone       September 29, 2021      Tutorials iPad


iMessage allows you to send and receive free SMS and text messages to your friends and family. But those old text messages can start piling up! After a while, all of the old text messages can start cluttering your iPad, making it difficult to find the text message threads you’re really interested in.

iMessage icon

Thankfully, your iPad contains a feature that can automatically delete old text messages after a certain period of time. This is handy when you don’t care about old text messages and would rather have your iPad automatically do the dirty work of deleting them after a period of time.

Here’s how to set your iPad to automatically delete old text messages:

  1. From the home screen, tap the Settings icon.

  2. Tap Messages.

  3. Scroll down and tap Keep Messages, as shown below.

    Set iPad to automatically delete old text messages

  4. Tap a time interval, as shown below. Your iPad can automatically delete messages after 30 days or one year. Or you have your iPad save your text messages forever.

    Set iPad to automatically delete old text messages

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set your iPad to automatically delete old text messages.

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