How To Delete All Messages on an Apple Watch

Apple Watch has become a common companion piece for many iPhone lovers. For many, it’s a worthy purchase because it quickly and conveniently lets you access and respond to your messages when your iPhone or Mac device isn’t nearby. But it can be a hassle trying to delete messages, whether one at a time or all messages at once.

If you’re trying to determine if you can delete all messages on your Apple Watch at once, the answer is no. But keep reading to discover the process to delete all messages on your Apple Watch either one at a time or in bulk.

How to Delete All Messages on Apple Watch

The Apple Watch works perfectly with an iPhone and makes it easy to access phone functions you would otherwise not be able to access on a regular watch. For example, you can view, respond to and react to your text messages even if your iPhone or Mac is not nearby.

You might also want to delete all your messages via the Apple Watch at the same time. Unfortunately, the watch doesn’t incorporate a feature that allows you to delete all messages at once. The only way for you to go about the process is to delete a single conversation at a time. The process can be tedious, but it works. The section below shows you how to delete a single conversation on an Apple Watch.

How to Delete a Single Conversation on Apple Watch

Fortunately, deleting a single conversation on Apple Watch is relatively easy for most people. Here’s how to go about the process:

1. Press and hold down the digital crown on your Apple Watch to reveal the available apps.
   
2. Open the Messages app.
   
3. Scroll down to the conversation you want to delete and swipe left.
   
4. Select the trash icon from the options provided.
   
5. Tap the “Delete” button to confirm the deletion. In some Apple Watch models, this option might be labeled “Trash.”
   
6. Repeat the above steps for all the available conversations in your message box.

Please note that the messages you just deleted on your Apple Watch might still be visible on your iPhone and Mac. Apple Watch messages and iPhone messages are not synchronized. If you want to delete the conversation on your iPhone as well, you’ll have to manually do it on the phone.

Also, a conversation cannot be recovered once it has been deleted. So be careful about conversations that contain sensitive information. But again, that shouldn’t be a cause for concern because your messages are still accessible on your iPhone and Mac.

If you’re using iMessage and not regular text messages, you should always have a backup of your messages on the cloud. That way, you can still access them if you delete them accidentally or lose your devices. Plus, having your message contents backed up on the cloud is an excellent way of saving space on your local device in case your messages contain many images, video, and audio files. Here’s how to back up your messages:

1. Go to your iPhone or iPad, and open the “Settings” app.
   
2. Tap the section that contains the name associated with your Apple ID.
   
3. Open the “iCloud” menu.
   
4. Under the “Apps” section, turn on the toggle switch against the “Messages” option.
   
5. To verify that the backup for your messages is enabled, navigate to “iCloud” and ensure that the “iCloud Backup” option is turned on.
   

To download your backed-up messages so they can be mirrored to your Apple Watch, follow the steps below:

1. Open “Settings.”
   
2. Go to “General.”
   
3. Select the “Reset” option and tap “Erase All Content and Settings.”
   
4. Confirm your choice by tapping on “Erase Now.”
   
5. Your phone should restart, and once that’s done, you should see the “Apps and Data” page.
   
6. From the provided options, select “Restore from iCloud Backup.”
   
7. Choose the most recent backup containing your deleted conversation and follow the onscreen prompts.

Erasing your data and resetting your device can be nerve-wracking for many users. But you have nothing to worry about if you have your iCloud backup. If you’re unsure if you’re logged in, we recommend that you don’t use this method because you could lose your data.

How to Mute Notifications From a Single Conversation

Instead of deleting the entire conversation altogether, you might choose to mute it instead. This way, you won’t get any notifications from that particular conversation, but you can still access it if you want to. This is an excellent solution for busy people who want to reply to the message later. Here’s how to go about the process:

1. Open the messages app on your Apple Watch.
   
2. Go to the conversation you want to mute and swipe left.
   
3. From the provided options, tap the bell icon. It should have a slash through it to indicate the conversation has been muted.
   

How to Delete Message Notifications on an Apple Watch

Having your message displayed on the watch screen can be a privacy concern, especially if you’re sitting or standing very close to other people. Therefore, it would be helpful to know how to stop the notifications that show up every time you get a new message. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Swipe down from the top of your Apple Watch screen to pull down the notification screen.
   
2. Swipe left on the notification you want to delete and press the “X” icon.
   
3. To clear all the notifications, navigate to the upper screen and tap the “Clear All” button.
   

If you don’t want to receive message notifications at all, you can follow these steps instead:

1. Go to your iPhone and open the Apple Watch app.
   
2. Scroll down and expand the “Notifications” option.
   
3. From the menu, select “Messages” and tap the “Notifications Off” option.
   

Additional FAQs

Can I delete a single message on my Apple Watch?

Unfortunately, there’s no option to delete a single message on an Apple Watch. The only choice is to delete the entire conversation that contains the message you want to delete.

Will deleting all the messages free up space on my Apple Watch?

The amount of space you can save by deleting text messages is negligible because text messages don’t occupy a lot of space. However, deleting multiple conversations that contain photos, videos and audio might clear up some significant space. Thus, deleting messages in hopes of gaining more storage space shouldn’t be the main reason for deleting messages on your Apple Watch.

How do you delete messages on an iPhone?

An iPhone and an Apple Watch work well together, but they’re not totally synchronous. If you delete a message from your iPhone, it won’t be reflected on your Apple Watch. So follow these steps to delete all the messages from your iPhone.

1. Open the Messages app.

2. Tap the three dots on the top right side.

3. From the options, choose “Select Messages.”

4. Select all the messages and tap on “Delete.”

5. Tap “Delete” to confirm the action.

The above step might take a while if you have a lot of messages. To avoid such a scenario, it’s best to adjust the settings, so incoming messages are automatically deleted after a predetermined period. Plus, automatically deleting messages can save you some space especially if you regularly receive messages that contain images, videos, and audio files. Even if storage is not a concern, the process can help keep your inbox a bit cleaner. To automatically delete messages after a predetermined period, follow the steps below:

1.  On your iPhone, open the “Settings” app.

2. Scroll down and tap on “Messages.”

3. Open the “Keep Messages” menu.

4. Select the duration after which you would like your messages deleted. Depending on your preference, you can choose messages to be deleted after 30 days or one year. Just don’t select “Forever” because that would mean the messages will never be deleted.

5. Tap “Delete” to confirm the deletion.

How long are messages stored on my Apple Watch before they are deleted?

The messages mirrored on your Apple Watch only stay on the device for 30 days. Once this period has elapsed, they are automatically deleted. As it is, an Apple Watch isn’t meant to act as a primary messaging device. Instead, it is meant to help you reply to messages faster and more conveniently when you are not near your Phone or Mac.

Get Rid of the Unwanted Messages

As you can see, the messaging functionality is limited on the Apple Watch. However, that’s understandable because it lacks adequate storage for holding complex programs and functionality and it is designed to be lightweight and compact. As a result, there’s not enough space for a larger battery and CPU, which are mandatory for maintaining advanced features.

If you want to delete all messages from your Apple Watch, you’ll have to manually delete each message individually or one conversation at a time, which can be quite a time-consuming task.

Have you tried deleting all messages on your Apple Watch? How did you go about the process? Please let us know in the comments section below.