Clean up your iCloud storage before it gets full.
The moment you dreaded is here: your iCloud storage is soon approaching full. Apple only offering 5 GB of space in its free version, the temptation to opt for a larger storage plan is strong, especially since the 50 GB of space is billed for less than one euro per month. However, they are filled very quickly, especially if you have chosen to save your photos and videos there.
Before rushing to upgrade your iCloud plan (200 GB for € 2.99 / month and 2 TB for € 9.99 / month), why not try to review the data stored there, and when possible, to do a little cleaning to free up space.
You can find out how your iCloud storage is occupied by going to iOS Settings, then in the menu dedicated to your Apple ID, by entering the iCloud menu
1. Sort through the wrap
The photos and videos stored in iOS Camera Roll are the most common data in iCloud. Start by auditing your images and videos to remove any unnecessary ones: document photos, blurry videos, screenshots, etc.
You’ll be able to easily navigate by content category in the Photos app, by going to the Albums section, where it’s possible to view items by Media Types. Once in the section to clean, press Select, select the files to delete, and press the trash can icon.
Remember to empty the recycle bin to permanently delete items. To do this, in the Other albums section, enter Delete. Recently, press Select, then Delete all then confirming the deletion of the elements.
Also, don’t forget to turn off the Live Photos feature (directly from the Camera app) when you don’t need it, to avoid generating heavy images.
2. Delete backups from your old devices
If you’ve had your iCloud account for several years, there’s a good chance that your old iOS device backups are still there.
Open iOS Settings, enter your Apple ID menu, and navigate to the iCloud menu. Then go to Manage storage and then to Backups.
Enter the details of each backup to delete and tap on Clear backup
3. Delete conversations in Messages
You might be one of those users who have treasured all of their received SMS, MMS, and iMessages for months or even years. Any conversations kept monopolize iCloud storage if you chose to back up the data.
If the messages themselves don’t have a big impact on the storage occupancy, photos and videos, lost in the middle of your conversations (let’s be honest, you never look at them, otherwise you would have saved them in your camera roll. ), unnecessarily monopolize space in iCloud.
Open Settings, enter your Apple ID menu, and navigate to the iCloud menu. Then go to Manage storage, and locate the line dedicated to your Messages.
Enter the storage details of Messages, and navigate to the Conversations menu. You will directly see the conversations that take up the most space. To make room, you can take the drastic solution of simply deleting the largest conversations.
If you don’t want to delete an entire conversation, it is possible to manually clean up by deleting the received files, photos and videos. To do this, at the top of the conversation, display the options by tapping on the contact’s photo and press Info.
Touch and hold an item to bring up the options bubble and press Options. Select all the items you want to delete and tap the trash can icon to delete them from the conversation
4. Clean up in WhatsApp
Much like Messages, WhatsApp is an app that can prove to be storage hungry in iCloud. Just like you cleaned up in Messages, it will be necessary to sort through your WhatsApp conversations if you are using the app.
You will be able to check the space occupied by the WhatsApp backup in iCloud by going to Settings, then in your Apple ID menu, entering iCloud, then in Manage Storage.
There are several possibilities to delete the data stored in your WhatsApp conversations. The most drastic will be to simply delete them, but as with Messages, it is possible to manually choose which received files to delete.
To do this, enter a conversation, and tap on the contact’s photo to access the Contact Info menu. Then enter the Media, links and documents menu to view all the items received in the conversation.
Tap Select and choose the files (photos and videos) you want to remove from the conversation, then tap the trash can button. Confirm by pressing Delete x for me. Deleted items will only be deleted on your side, your correspondent will still be able to view the files on his device.
5. Delete the files stored in your file manager
If you are using the native iOS file manager or a third-party file manager, the documents in it are probably backed up to iCloud.
You can check it by going to Settings then, in your Apple ID menu, by accessing the iCloud menu and then entering the Manage Storage submenu.
Locate the line dedicated to your file manager and enter in details. You will see a list of documents and the space they occupy on your device.
You will just have to go to your file manager to manually delete all the files that are a little too large and which you no longer need.