how to delete messages on mac

One of the beautiful things about your Mac's Messages App is that it stores all your text and message history for you. So if you ever need to find a lost message or accidentally deleted an important text from your iPhone or iPad, you can retrieve that text from your Message App Archive on your Mac!

Eventually, simple text messages (SMS) evolved to incorporate images and audio (MMS). In the meantime, the use of instant messaging (IM) software online, with AIM and Windows Live, was growing rapidly as well. Those two words collided and essentially merged with each other with the release of the iPhone.

Note: The features that keep your Message Archive save for retrieval on your Mac, is a double-edged sword–a positive and a negative. And for folks using work, school, public (like at a library), or shared Macs, having all your Message history stored indefinitely is not desirable or safe! So for us, we need ways to delete all our sensitive text messages and feel comfortable that other people cannot read our messages.

Right now, most of us use at least a few messaging apps: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Skype, Snapchat, etc. Unfortunately, there is currently no option to auto-delete your Message App logs after a certain number of days. So if you're wondering just how to delete texts and iMessages on your Mac, Apple offers a few manual solutions to help us remove all those texts.

Follow These Quick Tips To Delete Texts and iMessages on Your Mac

Enable Messages in iCloud on your Mac
Change your Message App Preferences to Keep Messages for 30 Days or 1 Year
Delete an entire conversation with Command + Delete or using File > Delete Conversation
Delete selections from message threads using a right-click and choosing Delete or Edit > Delete
To keep the conversation open but delete the content, choose Edit > Clear Transcript or Option+Command+K
To prevent your Mac from storing your message history, update your Message App Preferences and untick the box for Save history when conversation are closed
Use Terminal to delete your Messages App chat history permanently

Also read: How to Copy, Cut, and Paste on a Mac

How to clear iMessage transcripts

Surprisingly, iMessage has another function for that called Clear Transcript, which simply deletes all the messages in any given conversation but keeps the window open. To use Clear Transcript:

Open any conversation in the Messages app

Select Edit > Clear Transcript (⌘ + Option + K) from the menu bar

How to close conversations temporarily

Another option that the Messages app on Mac offers is to simply hide or close conversations without deleting any content in them. That way no one would see that conversations ever took place, but you'd also get the full history back once someone in the chat sends a new message.

To close any conversation in Messages:

Go to Preferences and then check or uncheck "Save history when conversations are closed"

How To Enable Messages in iCloud on your Mac

Open Messages
Tap Preferences
Choose Accounts
Tick the box for Enable Messages in iCloud
Tap Sync Now to get the process started Settings and Account Preferences for Messages in iCloud on Mac macOS Mojave

How to Delete Texts and iMessages on Your Mac, including Multiple Messages

Launch the Messages app
Locate the conversation where you want to delete a message(s)
If you enable Messages in iCloud, deleting a conversation or parts of a conversation on your Mac ALSO deletes it from all of your devices where Messages in iCloud is turned on and signed in with the same Apple ID

To delete parts of a conversation

Find and click on the specific text bubble that you wish to remove. Make sure you select the entire message bubble, not just the text within it
Press the Command+Click to add additional text selections
Your selections gray out
Control-Click or Right-Click and select Delete from the drop-down menu
If you don't see the Delete option, you probably selected the text rather than the message bubble
Your Mac asks you to confirm that you want to delete this message(s) and reminds you that this action is undoable
Tap Delete to confirm How to Delete Texts and iMessages on Your Mac
macOS removes those message selections from the Messages app on your Mac

To delete an entire conversation

Select a conversation
Choose File > Delete Conversation, Command+Delete, or right-click and choose Delete Conversation
For trackpads or Magic Mice, swipe left with two fingers on the conversation in the sidebar, then select Delete
At the confirmation pop-up, choose Delete again Mac Message App Delete confirmation message pop up

Also read: How To Fix Camera On Mac Not Working

Want a Quick Way to Delete One, Some, or All of Your Conversations?

Select an entire conversation thread from the left-side of your Message App window. Then, hold down the Option+Command keys and press the delete key. It deletes the conversation that you've currently selected.

If you keep pressing Option+Command and again press the delete key, it removes the next entire conversation. Continue to press delete while holding down Option+Command to remove all the conversations, if desired.

Keep in mind is that these deletions are permanent and so make sure that you really want to delete those messages!

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