Ask Adrian: How can I free up some of my iCloud storage?

Question: I have an iPhone 6 which is perfectly adequate for my needs and is functioning well. I’m getting a message that the phone can’t be backed up as there’s not enough iCloud storage available. I’ve tried deleting a lot of photos and WhatsApp videos but it didn’t make any difference. Do I really need iCloud back-up? If yes, is there anything else I can do to free up storage? — Catherine Doherty

Answer

You get a small allocation — 5GB — of iCloud space for free with your ‘Apple ID’ account (the login you use when you want to download an app or pay for something).

This is important as it can help restore things to your iPhone if you lose or break your iPhone.

After that, you’re offered varying amounts at a monthly cost — €1 for 50GB, €3 for 200GB or €10 for 2,000GB (2TB).

Personally, I pay the €10 per month because I have a huge amount of photos and videos over many years, some of which I use for work. But I fully admit that it also encourages bad habits, such as never deleting shots or videos, even when I take 20 random ones and only ‘use’ one of them.

There are no longer any absolutely ‘free’ online storage options to store a great many files, photos or videos. In times past, you had Flickr, Google Photos and a few others. Now, the closest you’ll get — and one I use — is Amazon Photos, which provides free, unlimited storage only if you’re also an Amazon Prime subscriber.

But let’s say you don’t actually take many photos and videos and you’re just wondering why you’re suddenly over you’re 5GB limit and don’t really want to start paying Apple an extra monthly fee. You can prune your iCloud account, as much of it is likely clogged up with unnecessary files, photos and content from email or messages.

First, check what’s actually putting you over the limit. Go into ‘settings’ and then ‘iCloud’ and then ‘manage storage’. You should see graphs and tables of what’s taking up most space. It could be obsolete backups; go back into ‘settings’ and ‘iCloud’ and then tap ‘manage backups’. You can eliminate all but the most recent one and that should immediately free up some space.

It’s a similar story for messages with photos and email attachments; you can delete these manually or, in email, by attachment size.

Email your questions to ­[email protected]

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