iCloud Storage Is Full: A Guide on How to Free up Space

There are 850 million iCloud users, and 170 million people pay for more storage.

However, if your iCloud storage is full, you might want to clear out some of your files rather than upgrading to more space.

But how do you clear out your iCloud storage when it’s full? Keep reading and we’ll help you out!

Find Out What’s Taking Up Storage

First, you should figure out what kind of files are taking up space in your iCloud. To do this, you can go to Settings, and then go to your Apple ID.

From there, you can go to iCloud and then Manage Storage. This is where you’ll see a breakdown of all the data that’s in your iCloud. This includes things like photos, backups, email messages, videos, and photos. If you have books, music, apps, or movies that you bought in iTunes, those don’t count towards the iCloud storage.

Also keep in mind that if you upload any photos that are also in your Photostream, they don’t take up space in your iCloud because they’re stored on your device.

Get Rid of Older iMessage

If you go into your backup and see that you have a lot of iMessage there, then you can start deleting old messages. They may only take up a few kilobytes, but if you’re sending large attachments, it’ll take up more space.

Depending on how much you message and how old your account is, you may have gigabytes worth of messages.

To delete them, go to the Messages app on your phone. You can then delete individual text messages or even an entire conversation. Once you delete a message from your device, it’ll be removed from all of your other Apple devices and your iCloud account.

If you only want to delete attachments, you can tap on the contact’s name and then hit the info button. From there, you can select the photos or videos you want to delete.

Clean Out Photos

If you have duplicate photos you need to go now to your photo app and start deleting them.

Because when you have iCloud Photos activated, any photo you take will automatically get uploaded to the cloud. Even if the picture is a duplicate, was blurry, or was an accidental screenshot, it’ll get saved into that cloud.

You can actually use different apps that will go through your photo library and remove any pictures that are poor or were duplicated. However, make sure that you check your iCloud to ensure it cleans the photos up there as well.

If your iCloud is still full even after you delete photos, you’ll have to delete them from the recently deleted section as well. This is a safety feature to make sure that any deleted photo can still be recovered for thirty days after.

To remove the pictures from that folder, go to your photo app and go to albums. From there, you’ll find recently deleted. You can then select all and delete them.

Get Rid of Backups

Backups can be great for saving your device and information, but they can take up a lot of space.

Apple devices will regularly back itself up and send the data to the iCloud. However, these backups can pile up and sit there taking up space even though you’ll never use them.

To get rid of these backups, open the iCloud storage breakdown and click Backups. There, you’ll be able to see a list of all the backups and delete all the older ones.

To save from having to do that in the future, you can even stay on that screen and customize when you want backups to be uploaded.

Delete iCloud Files

If iCloud Storage is full, it might be holding all kinds of files can be saved in your iCloud Drive, especially if it’s connected to your Mac.

To delete these files, go to the same Manage Storage area we talked about earlier. From there, go to your iCloud Drive. You’ll be able to see all kinds of files that are stored there. Just swipe left and tap on the garbage can to delete anything.

You can also use different software to help manage your documents. You may want ot transfer them to be saved locally on the computer or device.

You may even want to take time and go through the files because it might be information you don’t need anymore. You can sort by the oldest or largest file and go from there.

Delete Unused Apps

If your iCloud storage is full, you may have data from apps you’re not using anymore.

When you download a third-party app form the app store, the data goes into iCloud so that it can sync the data across all of your devices so that you can have a seamless transition.

However, if you’re not using it anymore, you can delete it.

To do that, go to the Settings app and manage storage again. Scroll down until you see your apps. Then, you can click on each one and select “Delete Data.”