How to Delete Messages on Mac (Sequoia/Sonoma) - 5 Ways

Looking for time-saving and effort-saving ways to delete messages on Mac? This post will teach you some smart skills to delete messages efficiently. Keep reading!

How to Delete Multiple Messages on Mac

To delete multiple messages or conversations, click on a message or conversation in the Messages app. Then hold down the Command key until you have selected all the messages or conversations you want to delete. Finally, right-click ＞Delete.

How to Delete All Messages on Mac via Finder

If you have a lot of messages and conversations, it can be very tedious to delete them manually via the Messages app.

Using Finder can be a time-saving and effort-saving way to avoid tedious steps. You can also delete attachments with Finder.

Here is how to use Finder to delete messages:

1. Open Finder.
2. Click Go in the drop-down menu of Finder＞Go to Folder.
3. Enter ~/Library/Messages.
4. Move the following files to the bin:

• chat.db

• chat.db-wal

• chat.db-shm

  

5. Empty Trash.

Here is how to delete attachments:

1. Open Finder.
2. Click Go in the drop-down menu of Finder ＞Go to Folder.
3. Enter ~/Library/Messages/Attachments.
4. Move the included files to the trash.
5. Empty Trash.

Also, you can delete attachments by following this: About This Mac＞Storage＞Manage＞Messages＞Right-click unwanted attachments＞click Delete.

How to Delete All Messages on Mac via Terminal

In addition, there is a quicker way for you to delete all messages. However, it's worth noting that the -rm command is dangerous.

Misuse may lead to data loss. If you are used to and know well about Terminal, you can follow the detailed steps below:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Paste the following command: rm –r ~/Library/Messages/chat

To delete attachments, just paste this command: rm –r ~/Library/Messages/chat

How to Delete a Specific Message on Mac

You can use the Messages app to delete a specific message or conversation.

Here is how to delete a specific message:

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Click on the conversation that contains the specific message you want to delete.
3. Find the message you want to delete and right-click＞Delete.

Here is how to delete a specific conversation:

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Right-click on a conversation you want to delete and click Delete. / Or move your mouse directly over the conversation, and click x. / Or click on a conversation you want to delete＞find Files in the horizontal menu of the Messages app＞Click Delete Conversation.

How to Automatically Delete Old Messages on Mac

Besides deleting messages manually, you can also set Messages to delete old messages after a certain period automatically. After you set it, the messages will be automatically deleted after the time range you specified.

Here is how to set automatic delete:

1. Open Messages.
2. Click Preferences＞General.
3. Keep Messages: Forever/ One Year/ 30 Days.

Besides the Messages app, there are many other chat apps nowadays, like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.

Bonus: How to Free Up More Mac Space with BuhoCleaner

If you delete messages mainly to free up space, you can also pick a professional cleaning software to clean your Mac.

BuhoCleaner is one of the best Mac cleaners. Flash clean, app uninstall, large files cleaning, duplicate cleaning, etc. are all available in it. Do a big cleaning for your Mac with it!

Here is how to use BuhoCleaner:

1. Free download, install, and launch BuhoCleaner.
2. Click Flash Clean on the left sidebar＞ Scan.

   

3. Click Remove.

Conclusion

In this post, we introduce how to delete messages on Mac in detail. Just practice them out and do a big cleaning for your Mac.

FAQs

1. How to delete messages on Mac without deleting them from iPhone?

   If you want to delete messages on your Mac only, follow the steps below:

   1. Open the Messages app.
   2. Click Settings in the Messages menu.
   3. Click iMessage＞uncheck Enable Messages in iCloud.

2. How to permanently delete iMessage?

   Messages you delete will go to the Recently Deleted folder. To permanently delete iMessage, you have to delete them in Recently Deleted.

   1. Open the Messages app.
   2. Click Recently Deleted in the View menu.
   3. Select all unwanted messages and click Delete.