iCloud Storage is one of the most misused and misunderstood features of the iPhone. I love Apple products, but there’s no other way to put this: In most cases, buying iCloud Storage is unnecessary and you should never pay for it. In 99% of cases, you don’t have to pay any extra money to fully back up your iPhone and iPad. I’ll explain the real reason why your iCloud Storage is full, why your iPhone hasn’t backed up to iCloud for weeks, and how to fix iCloud Backup for good.
Most people don’t believe it’s possible, but let me be clear: After you read this article, you’ll understand how to back up your iPhone, iPad, and photos to iCloud without paying for iCloud Storage.
If you’ve seen messages like “This iPhone hasn’t been backed up in weeks”, “iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available”, or “Not Enough Storage”, don’t worry. They’ll be gone by the time you finish reading this article.
I originally wrote this post after a lot of people asked for help with iCloud after they read my viral post about iPhone battery life. Over the 18 months since I published it, Apple has renamed and relocated every feature I discussed in that article, so I’m rewriting it from the ground up.
iCloud Storage and iCloud Drive and iCloud Backup and iCloud Photo Library, Oh My! (Yes, it’s one too many)
There’s no understanding the solution to this problem without understanding the players in the game, so we need to start there. If you’re confused, you’re right where you’re supposed to be. Let’s take them one by one:
iCloud Storage
iCloud Storage is the total amount of storage space available on iCloud. It’s what you pay for. Everybody gets 5GB (gigabytes) for free. You can upgrade your storage to 50GB, 200GB, or 1TB (1 terabyte is 1000 gigabytes), and the monthly fees aren’t too bad – but it’s not necessary. We’re solving a problem now that will become more and more expensive with time.
Once your iCloud Storage is full, your iPhone will stop backing up to iCloud until you purchase additional storage space or free up storage space in iCloud.
iCloud Backup
iCloud Backup is a feature on iPhones, iPads and iPods that backs up your entire device to iCloud, just in case something unfortunate happens. You should definitely use iCloud backup. Whether it’s a toilet phone or you leave it on the roof of your car, iPhones live dangerous lives and you should always have a backup.
iCloud Backups count against your available iCloud Storage. (You’ll see why I’m saying this in a minute.)
iCloud Drive
iCloud Drive is a newer feature that allows apps on Macs, iPhones, and iPads to synchronize files using iCloud. It’s like Dropbox or Google Drive, but it’s more integrated into Apple software because Apple made it. iCloud Drive shares files like documents and user preferences that aren’t that big to begin with, so in most cases it doesn’t have much of an effect on your total iCloud Storage.
Files in iCloud Drive count against your available iCloud Storage.
iCloud Photo Library
iCloud Photo Library uploads and stores all of your photos and videos in iCloud so you can access them from all your devices. There are some important differences between iCloud Photo Library and iCloud backup that you should understand before we move on.
All your devices can access and view individual photos that are stored in iCloud Photo Library. iCloud Backup is different: You can’t see individual files or photos in your iCloud Backup, even if photos are part of the backup. iCloud Backups are one big file that restores your entire iPhone – there’s no way to access individual files.
If you’re using iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Backup, you could be paying to back up the same photos twice: Once in your iCloud Photo Library, once in your iCloud Backup.
Photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library count against your available iCloud Storage.
My Photo Stream (Yes, we’re adding another one)
My Photo Stream uploads all your new photos and sends them to all your devices. Sounds kind of like iCloud Photo Library, right? But there’s a little difference:
Photos in My Photo Stream do not count against your available iCloud Storage.
You’re on your way to the solution, but it’s important to understand the key differences between iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream before you dive into the actual fix. I’ll explain why your iCloud Storage is always full on the next page.
100 Comments
does your Windows PC need to have icloud installed in order to preform any of the steps 1 thru 5 above
I have a question about this. I followed all the steps you described. I’m showing 4.8GB left of 50GB. What I’m curious about is: Settings> iCloud> Storage> Manage Storage> iCloud Photo Library> It says “You have 1,787 photos and 141 videos stored in iCloud. You’re photos and videos are using 36.7GB.” “To free up space, manage your photo library in the Photos app.” Then there is a button for “Disable and Delete.” This wasn’t listed in the instructions as far as I could tell. Is this a new feature since your article was written? Do I doable this or leave it alone?
Thank you.
After doing all that, I’m still only left with <500MB on my phone.
Thank you so much for this write up!! What a life saver it is!!
My photo storage on iCloud is only 20mb. 4.8gb of my iCloud storage is iPad backup.
you talked about adding more storage on I cloud how can I get more storage without paying for it ?
Hi David, can you help me out here? My sister’s iPhone 5 has NEVER been connected to iTunes and NEVER had any backups whatsoever. I got her to plug the phone into her laptop to sync to iTunes and it said “restore from backup or set up as a new device” (which she can’t do either of these, as she has no backup, and set up as new device would erase everything on her phone!) Will the steps outlined in your article still work in this case? i’m trying to do tech support for her from the other side of the country, and I have never owned an iPhone in my life LOL. In this case however, my sister’s “techie” (ME) is utterly stumped. We are both terrified of losing her photos. She is having issues uploading via Wi-Fi to any online storage services (we tried Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud is full).
I moved all my photos from my old laptop to my new imac and it seems they are all also on the cloud now, and I am out of storage. I didnt want them on the cloud, just wanted them on the new computer. If I turn off the icloud photo storage, will it delete the photos (like it says it will), even though I moved them directly to a folder on the imac? I dont want to shut that off and lose years of photos. thanks!!!