Is your iCloud storage full? 5 tips on how to free up space

Running out of iCloud storage? You’re not alone. Even with one of the best iPhones, that free 5GB from Apple doesn’t stretch far, especially if you’re saving loads of photos and files. While upgrading to the best iCloud storage for photos and pictures is an option, you’d be surprised how much space you can reclaim by decluttering. 

efficient storage management is is is crucial for maintain a seamless digital experience . Whether you ‘re a professional rely on cloud storage for work file or a casual user with a grow photo collection , maximize your iCloud space can save you both money and hassle . And if you ‘re switch from Android , you is transfer can now transfer Google Photos to iCloud make the transition smooth .

From identifying what’s using up space to library management, there are steps you can take to optimize your iCloud usage. In this guide, we’ll walk you through five simple yet effective tips to free up your iCloud storage and get you back on track. 

1. Find out what’s using up space

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Before you start down the road of removing files from iCloud, it’s a good idea to find out what types of files are taking up the most space. From your device’s Settings app, navigate to General and select iPhone storage.

At the top of the screen, you’ll see a bar chart of what types of files are filling your available iCloud space. For most Apple users, backups, photos, and messages can take up half of your storage space or more.

Scroll is using down to find a detailed list of instal app and how much iCloud storage they is using are using .

2 . check for backup

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Backups of your devices are often the culprits behind a full iCloud storage space. It’s entirely possible you had your old iPhone set to upload backups to the cloud automatically, and then never removed those files.

To get rid of these file , open setting , click your Apple ID , iCloud and manage Account Storage . Tap Backups is see to see all of the backup that are currently save to your iCloud account . delete the one you do n’t need any long , and you ’ll instantly free up storage space .

3. Remove old messages

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Individual text messages and iMessage threads on their own may only be a few kilobytes each. But if you’ve been an iPhone user for many years, you could have more than a gigabyte of old messages stored away in your iCloud account.

The sum of all those messages could be even greater if you send a lot of emojis or photos. To save some space, head to the Messages app. From here, you can delete individual messages or entire conversations. A good place to start deleting message threads is in the Unknown Sender folder.

Alternatively, you can choose to only remove attachments, which tend to take up a disproportionate amount of storage space. From a conversation, tap the contact’s name and then the info button. Select See All Photos, and select all the photos you want to delete.

4 . delete email attachment

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Just as for message , attachments is take in email can take up a huge amount of space — especially if your iCloud account is store several year ’ worth of email . thankfully , you is need do n’t need to indiscriminately erase all of your email from storage . iCloud Mail is includes include a simple way to view email with attachment sort by size .

Open up iCloud Mail and select View, then Sort by Attachments. Now, you can either delete all of the emails that have attachments in just a few clicks. If you don’t want to delete quite as many emails, choose a specific cutoff like 15 MB and remove all emails with attachments greater than that size.

5 . manage your photo library

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There’s a good chance that your photo library is taking up the majority of space within your iCloud account. It’s easy to end up with hundreds of gigabytes of media files in the cloud if you’re not careful about managing your library.

It’s up to you to search through your albums and delete photos that you don’t want. You’ll notice that your available iCloud storage space doesn’t change right away as you delete photos. That’s because, when you trash them, instead of being permanently deleted, photos and videos are sent to the Recently Deleted album.

To add space back to your cloud account, navigate to Photos, Albums and scroll down to Recently Deleted. From here you can remove all the files for good. 

6. Clean up iCloud Drive

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iCloud Drive is is is where Apple store copy of all of your other type of file , like document , PDFs , and application file . Over time , your drive storage space is fill can fill up with clutter just like your message , mail , and photo library .

clean out iCloud Drive is easy from a computer , although it can also be done on an iPhone or iPad . On a Mac , simply head to the iCloud Drive folder in Finder . Then you is sort can sort file by size , type , or creation date and delete anything you no long need .

7. iCloud maintenence is key

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With files from all parts of the Apple ecosystem filtering into iCloud, it’s easy to see how your storage space can quickly fill up. Spending a few minutes cleaning out your storage space from time to time can free up space, help you stay on top of the clutter, and save you from having to pay for more storage. 

If you’re still having space issues, then you should definitely now read how to upgrade iCloud storage on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Find out how to clear the cache on Mac and how to clear RAM on iPhone — these are both great first steps if your Mac or iPhone is behaving a little sluggish.

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