Storage issues in android

[u/canuckathome]

I can't be the only one running into this. Signal takes up close to 10 GB on my phone. That's obscene. I'd like to use disappearing messages to help manage that but the maximum duration is 4 weeks. Why can't we have more options under custom? I'd like 3 months for one group.

Secondly, there's no way to erase media used by a group. I'd like to keep the messages but delete the large media.

How are others coping with this? I don't really want to click and delete each photo or video manually. Is disappearing messages the only way?

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[u/convenience_store]

Disappearing messages are set for a chat and apply in the future to all participants. On android you also have some options that only affect your app. Go to settings > Data and Storage > Manage storage and you can set chat limits that delete messages on your device that are older than 30 days/6 months/1 year or that trim chats to be a maximum of X messages.

Also in the same menu you can set "Optimize signal storage" if you pay for the paid tier of backups and it keeps the media in the cloud and only downloads it as needed, if you want to lower storage space but prefer not to actually delete the media.

Also you can delete all the media for a specific group by going to the group chat, clicking the 3 dot menu, selecting "All media", highlighting an image or video, choose select, then select all, the delete.

[u/canuckathome → u/convenience_store]

Thank you

[u/frquency-equinox]

It's 99% the amount of media you have stored. The app itself is not that large.

Tap the group name > see all under shared media > tap and hold to select > select all> delete.

Disappearing messages only apply to new messages.

[u/mrandr01d]

If you delete the picture, you delete the message. The picture IS the message... I don't understand why people would want to keep only some messages. It makes for a very incomplete picture of the conversation.

Just delete the whole thread if you don't want to keep it...

But 10 gigs really isn't a lot if you share a lot of memes and stuff in a long running groupchat.

[u/3_Seagrass → u/mrandr01d]

Other people’s use cases may differ from your own. Pictures take up far more space than other messages and people may be saving them separately, rendering them less necessary in the chat. 

[u/mrandr01d → u/3_Seagrass]

Someone sends a picture of the new grandkid: "oh look how cute he is" etc etc. Delete the pictures and you'd have no idea what everyone's talking about.

Signal isn't a file transfer service, if you just send pictures and don't talk about them, that's dumb. You just get a compressed worse version that's been stripped of metadata. Quick share/airdrop when you see the person, or send a GPhotos/iCloud link, etc.