Apple gives 5GB of free storage to all iCloud users. To most users, this is nowhere near enough.
Even if you upgrade to 200GB or even 2 TB, though, you still might encounter storage issues. We’ll help you figure out how to reduce your iCloud storage so you can save money and not have to upgrade again. If you’re lucky, you might even be able to downgrade back to a free account!
Ready to learn how to clear iCloud storage? Let’s begin!
What’s Taking Up iCloud Storage Space?
iCloud has two goals. The first is to save space on your iPhone or other Apple device. The other is to make your data accessible from anywhere. Before you begin clearing things up, it’s important to know what’s already taking up the most space.
To find out, navigate on your iPhone to Settings> Apple ID> iCloud> Manage Storage. You can also find this directly under Settings in iCloud. Generally, these types of data take up to the most iCloud storage space:
- Photos and videos
- iCloud backups
- Documents
- Email messages with attachments
- WhatsApp backups
- Notes
Anything bought from the iTunes Store, like movies, apps, books, or music, will not affect your iCloud storage. It’s the same with any photos uploaded to Photo Stream because they don’t use any iCloud space.
1) Manage Photos and Videos
Photos and videos are usually the biggest culprits when you’re looking at what’s taking up your iCloud space. There are many ways you can rectify this issue. If you’re really low on storage, you can exclude photos from iCloud backups.
To do this, go to Settings> Apple ID> iCloud> Manage Storage> Photos> Disable and Delete. Before you do this, make sure you download all photos and videos from iCloud to your computer or external storage devices.
Remember, once photos are deleted from the cloud, they will no longer be accessible. Also, if your phone is lost or stolen, new photos won’t be backed up automatically.
After clearing out your photos and videos, you can then transfer any you want back to your iPhone so you can have access to them.
A Better Option:
Take some time to go through your photos, deleting all of them that are blurry, distorted, or unnecessary. You’ll be surprised how many you have that you won’t feel are worth keeping. You can also change the default photo sizes, saving space that way.
Google Photos is another great option. You can automatically upload your pictures there using your free 15GB account with Google. That will save you more iCloud space.
2) iCloud Drive
Files in iCloud Drive can use a lot of space. Go to Settings> Apple ID> iCloud> Manage Storage> iCloud Drive.
All the files you’ve stored in the iCloud Drive will pop up. Swipe left and tap the trash icon to delete any unwanted files.
There are tons of both free and paid storage options. Dropbox offers only free 2GB, so it’s not a great option.
Google has 15GB free and is convenient since it syncs to your Google account. Windows users can also take advantage of Microsoft OneDrive.
3) Emails
If you use an iCloud address for emails, all your emails will back up to iCloud. This means your 5GB can be taken up pretty quickly.
Delete any unnecessary emails, especially those with big attachments. You’ll see several gigabytes disappear quickly when you do.
- Open the Mail app.
- Swipe left over an email and select the trash button.
- Go to the Trash folder. Select Edit, and then click Delete. Make sure to do this step, as the emails aren’t really gone until you do.
4) iCloud Backups
This is another great way to free up space in just a few seconds. Photos and iCloud backups are the biggest culprits when it comes to taking up space in iCloud.
Go to Settings> Apple ID> iCloud> Manage Storage> Backup.
You can do an iCloud of your backups to give you more flexibility. You can also delete all of your old ones, particularly for devices you don’t have anymore.
Tap where it says Backup. Then, hit Delete Backup> Disable & Delete.
You can get rid of all iCloud backups and just use iTunes on your computer if you want to completely eliminate these from taking up space.
For a less drastic option that still clears iCloud storage, you can choose to exclude apps from iCloud backups. Visit iCloud backup settings again.
You’ll see which apps are included on the iCloud backup. Remove any non-essential ones to clear some space. Once again, any app data will no longer be there once you execute another back up.
5) WhatsApp
Many Apple device users have extensive WhatsApp histories. Those might include videos, photos, and all kinds of multimedia. When you enable iCloud backup for WhatsApp, this can take up a lot of space.
You can exclude WhatsApp from your iCloud backup. If you still want to retain your chat histories, you can transfer them and save them on your computer or storage device.
You can also switch over to other apps that store data on their cloud servers. Messenger or Google Hangouts are two possible options if you want to go this route.
Other Options
iCloud stores additional data, such as calendars, contacts, notes, and reminders. However, these take up very little space, so deleting them won’t make much difference.
You can still clear them, but don’t expect a large amount of free space to suddenly appear.
How to Clear iCloud Storage
Clearing out your iCloud storage is easy. All you have to do is check your iCloud settings on your iPhone or in your browser.
Remember that you won’t be able to access anything once you’ve cleared it out of there. Also, if you’ve changed any settings so apps no longer sync with iCloud, that means data will only be stored locally.
You have plenty of other options, such as using Google Drive, Dropbox, and Messenger. You can also manually sync your phone with iTunes. These strategies will help you minimize your iCloud storage.
You can also consider upgrading your iPhone. The newest iPhones come with a maximum of 512 GB storage, so you can keep everything on your device.
You might also get more storage via a relatively affordable plan. iCloud offers plans where you’ll pay $0.99 for 50GB or $2.99 for 200GB.
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