Messages attachments taking up space on Mac

Part of: Mac storage full? Find what is using it and free up space safely (Storage full)

Messages keeps every photo, video and file that passes through your conversations. Years of that can reach several gigabytes. You can see how much it uses in one command, and you should reduce it from inside the Messages app.

See how big it is

This command only reads:

du -sh ~/Library/Messages

The result includes the message database and the attachments. Terminal may need Full Disk Access to read this folder. A small number can mean it was not allowed to look.

What is in it

• The message database. Your conversations as text. This is usually small.
• Attachments. Photos, videos, voice messages and files. These make up most of the space, and videos are the largest.

Think about iCloud first

If Messages in iCloud is turned on, your conversations sync across your devices. Deleting an item on your Mac can then delete it on your iPhone and iPad too. If you want to keep something, save it somewhere else first. If it is turned off, your Mac holds its own copy, and removing it here does not affect your phone.

Safe, Risky, Never

• Safe: deleting attachments you have saved elsewhere, and large videos you no longer need.
• Risky: deleting whole conversations. They may hold the only copy of photos, documents or messages you care about.
• Never: deleting files or folders inside ~/Library/Messages by hand. The app keeps a database that points to them, and removing files behind its back can leave broken items and missing history.

What breaks if you get it wrong: messages show blank or broken attachments, history goes missing, and deleted items cannot be recovered after the Trash is emptied.

How to reduce it safely

1. Save what you want to keep. Photos and documents you care about can be saved to a folder of your own. Check that they open.
2. Delete inside the app. Messages lets you delete an individual attachment or a whole conversation. Because the options change between macOS versions, this guide does not give a click path.
3. Start with the biggest. Videos use far more than photos. A few large videos can matter more than hundreds of small pictures.
4. Empty the Trash if the app uses it. Space comes back only when items are really gone. See why moving files to the Trash does not free up space.

Check your progress with du -sh ~/Library/Messages and df -h /System/Volumes/Data.

If Messages is small

If Messages is not your problem, look at the other usual suspects. Mail can be large, and so can your Library folder. Mac keeps running out of space lists the common ones.

Large videos and voice messages

Most of the space in Messages comes from a short list of items. Videos are the biggest, because a short clip can be tens of megabytes and a long one much more. Photos taken at full resolution come next, followed by voice messages and shared files. If you want a fast result, start with the videos you no longer need and ignore the small items.

It can also help to think about who sent what. Group chats often hold many forwarded clips and memes that nobody needs to keep, and these add up quickly. A cleanup of a few busy group chats can be worth more than a review of every conversation. Do it in the app, one chat at a time, so you can see what you are removing and stop when you have enough room.

What to expect afterwards

After you delete items, the folder size may not change at once. Give it a moment, check again with the command above, and remember that deleted items can wait in the Trash or in a recently-deleted area until they are really removed. If the number still does not move, Mac storage full but no files? explains why free space can lag behind.

See the sizes

DiskJoy is our product. It scans the folders you allow and shows large items with sizes and an explanation. A scan only reads file sizes and dates and changes nothing. DiskJoy is pre-alpha and cleanup is not available yet, so you remove things yourself. Download DiskJoy for Mac if you want to see how much your folders hold.

Next step

Back to the complete guide to freeing up space on a Mac.