How to Delete Messages on Mac/MacBook (With Tutorial)

Assuming you're signed into your Apple ID on both a Mac laptop or desktop and an iPhone, you can conveniently control texts from the computer, share links, and send movies and photos to contacts on the phone. If you find yourself wanting to delete messages on the Mac without having to switch your attention back and forth between devices, read on.

As you know, your iPhone's Messages app stores both regular text messages and iMessages. One advantage of iMessage is that it can be used across multiple devices, like your Mac, and it also offers secure end-to-end encryption. To enable iMessage on your Mac, follow these steps:

• Open the Applications folder (by pressing Command + Shift + A) and launch the Messages app.
• In the System Preferences, select the iMessage option to access its features.
• Make sure the "Enable this account" and "Enable Messages in iCloud" options are checked.

How to Delete Messages on Mac/MacBook

There are several ways you can go about organizing your Messages app. Once you're sure your settings are in order, you can delete messages. Depending on whether you want to delete a single message, an entire conversation, or all of your messages, the method will vary.

If you want to permanently delete your messages from your Mac while keeping them on your other devices, you should turn off iCloud Messages. In other words, if you want to remove your messages from your Mac but keep them on your other Apple devices, you should turn off iCloud Messages.

1. Open the Messages app. 2. Tap Settings from the navigation bar. 3. Select Preferences. 4. Choose the iMessage tab. 5. Turn off Sync Messages with iCloud.

1. Delete a Single Message on a Mac

To protect the privacy of your messages on a Mac, the iMessage app provides a simple way to delete individual messages. Select the conversation you want to delete from the left panel. Then, you can delete a message using either of these methods:

• Right-click the email, then select "Delete."
• Hold down Command + Click to select the emails you want to get rid of.
• Swipe right-to-left, then tap the trash can-shaped Delete icon.

Right-click on the message and choose “Delete” from the drop-down menu.

Next, please confirm. To delete the conversation, select "Delete." For safety's sake, you might then choose to Empty the Trash.

However, due to some hardware or system issues, you might not be able to empty the Trash on Mac. What could be the exact reason for this problem and how to fix it? Read on to find the answers.

Help! Can't Empty Trash on Mac, What to Do?

Sometimes, when Mac users try to empty the Trash to free up storage space, they may find that the Trash on their Mac won't empty after clicking Empty.

2. Delete Multiple Messages on a Mac

Knowing how to delete texts on a Mac is great for hiding important information, but sometimes you might want to learn how to delete multiple messages on Messenger so that there's barely any record of the conversation at all.

Watch this video before you proceed with deleting multiple messages on your Mac for more details on the process.

• 00:00 - How to delete a message
• 01:56 - What does deleting mean
• 03:02 - How to recall a message

Here's how to delete all your iMessages from a Mac:

Tap the conversation that you want to delete in Messages.

Step 2. Click on the Apple menu in the menu bar and select “File” to delete the conversation.

Another way is to do the following:

Step 1. Right-click on the chat on the left.

2. From the drop-down menu, select “Delete conversation.”

Step 3. Select the discussion and press Command + Delete.

Delete the conversation

If the tutorial was helpful, be sure to share it with your friends on social media so more Mac users can know about it!

## 3. Permanently Delete All iMessages on Your Mac ### Method 1: Use the Empty Trash Feature 1. **Open the Messages app.** Its icon looks like a speech bubble with a dark blue background. 2. **Click and hold the conversation you want to delete.** 3. **Click "Delete Conversation."** It's at the top of the screen, near the upper-right corner. 4. **Click "Move to Trash."** This will remove the conversation from the Messages app and put it in the Trash. 5. **Click the Apple menu.** It's in the top-left corner of the screen. 6. **Click "Finder."** This opens a Finder window. 7. **Click "Trash" in the sidebar.** 8. **Double-click "Messages."** This opens the Messages folder in the Trash. 9. **Select the conversations you want to permanently delete.** 10. **Click the "File" menu.** It's at the top of the screen. 11. **Click "Empty Trash."** This permanently deletes the selected conversations. ### Method 2: Restore from a Time Machine Backup 1. **Make sure you've backed up your Mac with Time Machine.** 2. **Connect your external hard drive.** This is the drive you used for Time Machine backups. 3. **Click the Apple menu.** It's in the top-left corner. 4. **Click "System Preferences."** 5. **Click "Time Machine."** 6. **Click "Restore From Time Machine Backup."** 7. **Choose a backup date.** Make sure to select a backup created before you want to delete the iMessages. 8. **Click "Restore."** 9. **Wait for the restore process to finish.** This can take a few minutes to hours, depending on the size of your backup. 10. **Open the Messages app.** You might find that the deleted iMessage conversations are back. 11. **Delete the conversations again.** Follow the steps from Method 1 to permanently remove them. ### Method 3: Clear All iMessage and FaceTime Data 1. **Click the Apple menu.** It's in the top-left corner. 2. **Click "System Preferences."** 3. **Click "FaceTime."** 4. **Click "Clear History."** It's at the bottom of the window. 5. **Click "Messages."** 6. **Click "Clear All Messages."** It's also at the bottom of the window. 7. **Confirm that you want to clear all messages.** When prompted, click "Clear All." ## Tips - If you don't want people to reach you via iMessage, disable it. Click the Apple menu, choose "System Preferences," then click "FaceTime." Click the "Turn Off FaceTime" button to disable FaceTime and iMessage.

Any of these options will help you preserve your privacy, but if you must ensure that no record of a message remains, you might wonder where iMessages are stored on a Mac.

Fortunately, your Mac makes it easy to access the Library folder and manually delete the Messages files:

Step 1: Go to Messages > Preferences > iMessage.

Step 2. Log out of iMessage and quit the Messages app. You can also force quit an app on your Mac using a keyboard shortcut.

Step 3: From the menu bar, choose Go > Go to Folder, or press Command-Shift-G.

Step 4. Type in ~/Library/Messages, and click “Go.”

Step 5: You can then delete the “Archives and Attachments” folder, along with the chat.db, chat.db-shm, and chat.db-wal files inside it.

Step 6. Restart your MacBook and check whether the information has been removed.

Those messages and files should now be gone, though the “Messages” app may take some time to sync the change the next time you use it.

4. Automatically Delete Mail on a Mac

If you don't want to delete messages manually, you can set the Messages app on your Mac to automatically remove chats after a certain period of time.

To automatically delete Mac Messages:

Step 1: Open the Messages app.

Step 2: Then select “Messages” from the navigation bar.

Step 3: Select “Preferences.”

Step 4: Click the “Keep messages” drop-down menu under the “General” tab.

Step 5: Choose “30 Days,” “1 Year,” or “Lifetime.”

Now, your chat logs will be deleted after a set period of time, eliminating the problem of any information living too long.

How to Recover Deleted Emails on Mac/MacBook

As long as you have enabled Time Machine backups, you can quickly restore deleted text messages, including iMessages, from a Time Machine backup. On the other hand, iCloud's data syncing capabilities also come in handy for recovering lost data across platforms.

However, can deleted iMessages be recovered without a backup? When you delete an iMessage conversation on your Mac, the content of the chat.db file changes, but the file itself remains. Thus, you can use a data recovery software to restore the deleted file. The solution to recover deleted files on macOS is by using the tool Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

Download this Mac data recovery software, and then follow the steps below to retrieve your deleted emails.

Step 1: Search for the Lost Files

Select the disk location where you want to search for lost files (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or an external drive). Click on the “Search for lost files” button.

Note: Before data recovery, it's better to click “Disk Backup” from the left sidebar and create a backup for your HDD/SSD to prevent further data loss. After the backup, the software can recover data from your disk image, and then you can reuse the HDD or SSD.

Step 2: Browse the scan results

The software will immediately scan the volume you've chosen and display images, documents, audio, video, and email on the left.

Step 3: Select the files to recover

Click on Preview Data, then hit the Restore button to get them back.

About deleting messages on a Mac On your Mac, you can delete individual or multiple conversations within the Messages app. Here's how to delete messages: 1. Open the Messages app. 2. In the sidebar on the left, locate the contact or group chat from which you want to delete a conversation. 3. Click on the conversation to open it. 4. Scroll to the top or bottom where the message you want to delete is located. 5. Hover the mouse pointer over the message until the trash can icon appears. 6. Click the trash can icon to delete that specific message. 7. To delete the entire conversation, press `Command` + `Delete`, then click "Remove" in the confirmation prompt. Please note that deleted messages will be removed from your Mac but may still be present on the other person's device. If you need to permanently delete all conversation history with someone, proceed to the next section. ### Clearing entire conversation history 1. Open the Messages app. 2. Click on the "Messages" menu in the top-left corner and select "Preferences." 3. On the "General" tab, click "Clear All Read Messages." 4. In the warning dialog that appears, confirm that you want to delete all read messages. This will remove all read conversations, but unread messages and recent chats will be preserved. If you wish to delete all conversations, including unread ones, you might need to manually delete them one by one or use a third-party cleanup tool.

Before you go hitting Delete repeatedly, there are a few things you should know. First, if you have iMessage set to use the Cloud for messages, anything you delete on your Mac will also be removed from your other Apple devices.

• You can turn off the sync option in Messages > Preferences > iCloud to prevent data loss.
• Remember that if you disable iCloud Messages, future messages on your Mac won't sync with other devices.
• Deleting conversations and messages can be a tedious process.

You can set Messages to automatically delete old text messages after a certain period, lightening the load for future storage.

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The bottom line?

With Apple's Messages app syncing your conversations and attachments across all your devices, it's a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. However, this can mean that your Mac is filled with messages and files taking up valuable storage space. Each of the four methods above can help you delete messages on your Mac, but they suit different scenarios. Choose the one that best fits your needs and get started.

Plus, you don't have to worry about losing any important information on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad anymore. Try the solutions mentioned above – tools Data Recovery Wizard for Mac to get them back.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Delete Messages on a Mac

Here are 4 extra questions about how to delete Messages on Mac. Click here to see the answers.

**Why isn't there an “Messages” option in iCloud on my Mac?**

Before you turn on Sync with iCloud for Messages, make sure that you signed in to the same Apple ID on all devices and that you have turned on iCloud Keychain and use two-factor authentication with your Apple ID.

2. Can I turn on Messages sync on my Mac?

If you use the same Apple ID on all your devices and turn on Messages sync, your entire iMessage and SMS/MMS conversation history — including photos and attachments — stays in sync. That way, you have a consistent messaging experience because everything looks the same on all your devices.

How do I sync my messages from my iPhone to my Mac?

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages. Tap Text Message Forwarding. In the list of devices, turn on your Mac. If two-factor authentication isn't turned on, you'll be prompted for a six-digit activation code on your Mac. Enter the code on your iPhone, then tap Allow.

How do I update information in iCloud on my Mac?

With iCloud Communications enabled, your messages stay up to date automatically. Be sure to go to Settings > Messages > Settings > iMessage > Set Up Now to apply any new changes right away.