{"source_url": "https://www.macworld.com", "url": "https://www.macworld.com/article/2010911/how-to-free-up-icloud-storage-space.html#tk.rss_all", "title": "How to free up iCloud storage space", "top_image": "https://www.macworld.com/www.mw/favicon.ico", "meta_img": "https://www.macworld.com/www.mw/favicon.ico", "images": ["http://zapt2.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/iphone5camer-100006741-medium.jpg", "http://forums.techhive.com/public/style_images/master/profile/default_large.png", "http://zapt3.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/secondscreenroundu-100006624-medium.jpg", "http://zapt2.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/_dsc8629_flattened_116-100006860-medium.jpg", "http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.macworld.us/article/software-system;pos=336showcase;c=3104;c=3144;c=3027;c=3028;aid=2010911;t=howto;mf=apple;sz=#sz#;tile=3;ord=13493936", "http://zapt3.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/09/ios-100004725-medium.png", "http://zapt4.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/icloud-backup-list-thum-100006811-gallery.png", "http://images.macworld.com/images/article/2011/06/icloud-icon-thumb-240740.jpg", "http://pcworldcommunication.122.2o7.net/b/ss/pcwmw-macworld/1/H.25--NS/0", "http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2012/10/manage20backup-100006508-medium.png", "http://zapt4.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/09/premiereelements11heroimageja-100006102-medium.jpg", "http://zapt3.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/quicklookfullscree-100006617-medium.jpg", "http://zapt2.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/iphone5startecvr_1200x160-100006798-carousel.png", "https://www.macworld.com/www.mw/favicon.ico", "http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.macworld.us/article/software-system;pos=leaderboard;c=3104;c=3144;c=3027;c=3028;aid=2010911;t=howto;mf=apple;sz=#sz#;tile=2;ord=13493936", "http://zapt4.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/ipadandipadmin-100006691-medium.png", "http://images.techhive.com/images/modules/mw/SuperguideModule-TotalLion.png", "http://zapt4.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/09/annotatio-100005539-medium.png", "http://zapt5.staticworld.net/images/furniture/macworld/footer-subscribe-mag-mw.png", "http://images.techhive.com/images/editors/lexfriedman_sq.jpg", "http://zapt3.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/googlestreetview-100007151-carousel.png", "http://zapt3.staticworld.net/images/article/2012/10/camptune-100006667-medium.png", "http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.macworld.us/article/software-system;pos=leaderboard2;c=3104;c=3144;c=3027;c=3028;aid=2010911;t=howto;mf=apple;sz=#sz#;tile=4;ord=13493936", "http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2012/10/icloud20setting-100006512-medium.png", "http://zapp0.staticworld.net/images/shared/icons/ad_choices_icon.png", "http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2012/10/turn20off20and20delet-100006510-medium.png", "http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2012/10/documents20and20mai-100006507-medium.png"], "movies": [], "text": "Lex uses a MacBook Pro, an iPhone 4S, a third-generation iPad, a Kindle 3, a TiVo HD, and a treadmill desk, and loves them all. His latest book, a children's book parody for adults, is called \"The Kid in the Crib.\" Lex lives in New Jersey with his wife and three young kids. More by Lex Friedman\n\nWhen Apple introduced iCloud in 2011, it announced that every customer with an Apple ID would receive 5GB of iCloud storage space for free. You can add more storage at a rate of $2 per gigabyte per year, in 10GB, 20GB, or 50GB increments. But if you\u2019re not interested in ponying up extra cash for iCloud storage, that 5GB can quickly get tight.\n\nThat\u2019s especially true if you use your iCloud storage allotment to back up your iOS devices. Some Apple customers find that they\u2019re unable to back up both an iPad and iPhone to iCloud, because they don't have enough room. Does that mean you need to either pay for more storage or revert to old-fashioned iTunes backups?\n\nNot necessarily. Instead, it means you need to exercise a little extra manual control over how you send items\u2014and more specifically, what you send\u2014to iCloud for safekeeping.\n\nOnce more unto the Settings app\n\nTo start, open the Settings app on one of your iOS devices, and then tap iCloud. Scroll down and tap Storage & Backup. On the screen that appears, you\u2019ll see the total amount of storage space you have on iCloud (5GB, if you haven\u2019t upgraded), along with the amount of space that's still unused. Beneath that is a Manage Storage button. Tap it.\n\nAt the top of the subsequent Manage Storage screen, you\u2019ll see a list of all the iOS devices that you\u2019re backing up to iCloud, including the current device. Examine the list closely. If it claims that you\u2019re still backing up, say, the old iPhone 3GS that you haven\u2019t used since before House was cancelled, you\u2019ll want to delete its backup so that it stops gobbling up your precious storage space. Tap the unneeded device\u2019s name, and then tap the red Delete Backup button that appears.\n\nIf you instead tap the name of the device you\u2019re currently using, you reach a screen offering fine control over the precise items you\u2019re backing up for that device.\n\nThe role of the Camera Roll\n\nOn that screen, you\u2019ll see the current size of your device\u2019s backup, along with an estimate of how large your next backup will be. Below that, you'll see a list of apps that can back up their data to iCloud. With one exception, the list appears in descending order according to the amount of space each app requires to back up its data in iCloud. The one exception: Camera Roll is always first. It isn't always the biggest item on the list, but it often is; for example, my own iPhone\u2019s Camera Roll accounts for 1.1GB of the phone\u2019s 1.7GB backup.\n\nTapping to turn off the Camera Roll brings up an intimidating question: 'Do you want to turn off Camera Roll backups and delete the backup data from iCloud?' You can choose Turn Off & Delete or Cancel. That first option is scary. If you think it means you'll lose your precious photos and videos, don't worry: You won't\u2014or, rather, you probably won't.\n\nBy default, iCloud backs up your iOS devices\u2019 Camera Rolls. That way, if your iPhone croaks, chokes, or otherwise gives up the ghost, you can restore from iCloud and get all your photos and videos back. If you do tap Turn Off & Delete, then, you aren't deleting those visual memories from your device; rather, you\u2019re simply freeing up the iCloud backup space they consume, and removing the ability to restore those photos from iCloud should disaster strike your iOS device.\n\nThat isn't necessarily as risky a move as it sounds. Whenever you connect your iOS device to your Mac, you can back up its saved photos and videos to iPhoto. But even if you rarely\u2014or never\u2014sync your iOS devices over USB, you probably don\u2019t need iCloud to back up your photos, thanks to Photo Stream, which keeps up to 1000 of the last photos you snapped over the past 30 days. Since the iCloud Camera Roll backup is really there only in case of emergency, and you\u2019re likely to note a major emergency involving your iOS device in fewer than 30 days, you can generally trust that your photos are safe even if they\u2019re not backed up to iCloud directly. (Photo Stream photos don\u2019t count against your 5GB iCloud quota.)\n\nMerely turning off the Camera Roll backup will shave off a significant chunk of your iOS devices\u2019 backups. That may be enough to allow you to back up all of your iOS devices without busting the 5GB cap. But you can do even more.\n\nTrim the app fat\n\nDepending on how you use your iOS device, you likely will want to continue allowing some apps to back up their data to iCloud. If you frequently create documents in an iOS text editor, create songs in GarageBand, or generate any content at all, and you don\u2019t regularly back it up (or export it in some other fashion), you should use iCloud backup for those apps.\n\nBut you probably don\u2019t need to use iCloud to back up data from many other apps you use. And even if most of those apps account for only a few megabytes per backup per app, they can add up to a significant chunk of storage. For example, you might disable iBooks\u2019 iCloud backup, since you can always restore your iBooks purchases from directly within the iBookstore. You probably don\u2019t need to back up whatever data is stored by games for your kids, or games for yourself in which you don\u2019t care about in-game progress or customizations that you might have made. And for apps that sync and back up their data on the Web\u2014such as Instapaper\u2014backup might be unnecessary, too.\n\nCareful, though: Don\u2019t turn things off willy-nilly. For example, you might think, \u201cHey, I don\u2019t need to back up my data from the Cards app!\u201d And you may well be right. But if you were to learn that, after an iCloud restore, your old photo cards were now but a memory, you'd be crushed.\n\nDocuments, data, and mail\n\nAt long last, let\u2019s back up one level from that device-specific screen in iCloud\u2019s settings. (Remember, though, to configure the settings for Camera Roll and other apps on each iOS device you back up.) On the main Manage Storage screen, past the list of your devices, you\u2019ll see two other sections: Documents & Data and Mail.\n\nThe Documents & Data section refers not to the kind of content iCloud should back up, exactly; instead it refers to all those bits of data that iCloud syncs between your iOS devices (and, in some cases, your computer). This data counts against your iCloud storage allotment.\n\nInterestingly enough, this section of iCloud\u2019s settings can even refer to data that you saved only on your Mac. In my case, it revealed several megabytes' worth of content I\u2019d saved in Preview while exploring; deleting those old, unneeded documents freed up a little extra iCloud space.\n\nIn addition, this section lists synced data from iCloud-leveraging apps and games. On my iPhone, that list includes Pages, Passbook, Keynote, and The Incident. I want my progress in The Incident synced between devices, and the sync data consumes just a single kilobyte, so it survives the cut. But if, for example, you see that Pages is taking up many megs (or more), you can tap it to get a listing of each document saved there, along with the amount of space it\u2019s taking up. If you notice files you no longer need, clean \u2019em out.\n\nIf you use iCloud as your primary email account, you may have your work cut out for you: All that mail counts against your iCloud quota. If you don\u2019t regularly archive email offline, prune attachments, and delete what\u2019s deletable, Mail may gobble up an increasingly large percentage of your iCloud quota. I don\u2019t use iCloud Mail, but I found that it was\u2014at first\u2014claiming about 20MB of storage space. I logged in to iCloud.com and cleared out my initial welcome message and a few other test messages to whittle that number down, though it never hit zero: I do use my iCloud account for syncing Notes between devices, and that data counts against the Mail tally, too.\n\nFreedom can be free\n\nCombine these tricks\u2014disable Camera Roll backups, curate which apps get to back up their data to iCloud, limit what types of data you sync with iCloud, and prune unneeded iCloud mail\u2014and you can dramatically shrink the space required to back up your devices with iCloud.\n\nBut if you just can\u2019t trim enough iCloud-stored data to fit everything you need, Apple is always happy to let you pay for more space.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": ["iCloud", "Apple", "iOS"], "authors": [], "publish_date": null, "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Apple gives you 5GB of iCloud storage space for free, but that can feel cramped rather quickly if you have more than one iOS device to back up. Here's how to make the most of the space you have.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/www.mw/favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "description": "Apple gives you 5GB of iCloud storage space for free, but that can feel cramped rather quickly if you have more than one iOS device to back up. Here's how to make the most of the space you have.", "twitter": {"account_id": 611823}}, "canonical_link": "http://www.macworld.com/article/2010911/how-to-free-up-icloud-storage-space.html"}