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iCloud: Introduction
If you are an Apple product user, you must be familiar with the term “iCloud.” iCloud assists you in keeping your personal and essential information—such as photos, files, and backups—secure, up-to-date, and available across all your devices. It also enables users to share photos, files, and notes more conveniently with friends and family.
iCloud incorporates a free email account and 5 GB of free storage for your data. To get more storage and additional features, you can upgrade to iCloud+.
ICloud storage is complete. Do not worry; we have the solution
Before removing unwanted files, begin with the basics — checking iCloud storage. You can do it on both Apple products, an iPhone and a Mac.
Steps for an iPhone:
Open Settings.
Click on Apple ID > iCloud.
Wait for the colored graph to load.
Steps to check iCloud storage on Mac:
Open System Settings.
Tap on Apple ID > iCloud.
Check the colored graph once it loads
If you synchronize your iPhone and Mac data to iCloud, eventually, storage will fill up again unless you learn how to use it more carefully. So, we’ll go over a few steps you can take to quickly free up iCloud storage now and clean up your iCloud regularly in the future.
Step 1. Delete duplicate photos
With iCloud Photo Library permitted on your iPhone, every image you take is automatically synced to the cloud. Each image doesn’t take much space, but if you take 3 to 4 clicks until you get the desired shot every time, those megabytes promptly add up.
One method to deal with it is to manually hunt through your library and clean out these unwanted images. A quicker way is to download CleanMyPhone. This iPhone app aligns the process by finding and preselecting identical photos, low-quality shots, and screenshots, so you must click “Delete”.
With iCloud Photo Library turned on, the images you delete on your iPhone will also be deleted from the cloud, quickly freeing up some iCloud space. The app is free to download, so go on and try it on your phone.
As a bonus, downloading your photos from iCloud will be much more handy and faster if you ever decide to stop using it. When your photo library isn’t entire because of unwanted duplicates and old screenshots, it becomes easier to move to and from cloud storage.
Step 2. Find old files in your iCloud Drive
Since macOS Sierra, the system automatically stores old files — like movies you’ve already watched on iCloud- which aids you in saving storage on your Mac. However, the issue is that these files still take up space, except now, which is the precious space in your iCloud. To see what you’ve got there and what you can delete, do the steps mentioned below:
Sign in to your account at iCloud.com.
Tap on Drive.
Go through your files and pick the ones you no longer require.
Click the ellipsis and pick Delete Selected. Remember to empty the Recently Deleted folder by clicking Delete All.
Done? If you’re a MacOS High Sierra user, iCloud Drive is also available as a folder in the Finder, so you can do the same on your Mac.
Step 3. Clean up junk files -Mac
The smoothest approach to cleaning up iCloud and freeing up some much-needed space is to exclude junk files. These are cache files, unwanted language files, document versions, temporary files, and downloads. When you use iCloud for backups, these files promptly stock up and become real space takers.
You can try and search these files manually. Still, the process could be better and risky because you can accidentally delete files necessary for the proper functioning of your Mac. Hence, letting a dedicated Mac cleaner do your job is safer and faster.
We suggest CleanMyMac X. It comes with the System Junk module created for quick cleanup and a safe selection of files for removal. It deletes only files that will not reduce your Mac’s performance. Here are the steps to use this intelligent tool:
Open CleanMyMac X
Click System Junk > Scan
You should tap Review Details, select files for deletion, or click Clean immediately.
Step 4. Delete unwanted iCloud emails
If you’re using an iCloud email account (for example, that ends with @icloud.com), all email messages you get are stored in — you guessed it — iCloud. While emails don’t weigh that much, email attachments do. PDFs, photos, and other files people have sent you over the months can add up to a few gigabytes, so go over your old correspondence and do some cleaning.
Once more, sign into your account at iCloud.com.
Click Mail.
Check your Inbox and delete anything you feel is unwanted. Right-click an email and choose Trash Message.
Do the same for Sent and Archive.
Now, go to Trash, tap Command + A, and click Delete. You can also right-click any email and choose Delete [x] Messages.
To stop space-hogging in the first place, it’s a good idea to get habitual of trashing any email you know you won’t require in the future.
Step 5. Delete old backups
Having iCloud automatically back up your iPhone occasionally is an excellent way to keep your data unharmed in case something happens to the phone. But the only backup you’ll require in this case is the most current one, so there’s no reason to store backups made months ago.
This is how you acquire all your device backups and delete old ones:
On the Mac, go to System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud.
Tap Manage and then Backups.
Choose a backup you want to exclude and then tap Delete.
It’s significant to know that when you delete a backup, it switches off the backup feature for this device.
Step 6. Remove all messages and email attachments
Outdated messages and attachments also take up a lot of space, so it’s better to remove them. Like with all of the steps mentioned above, there are a variety of tips for iPhone and Mac. We’ll remove email attachments on Mac and then switch to deleting old messages and message attachments on both Mac and iPhone.
In the Mail app on the Mac:
Open Mail.
Pick one or several messages. You can also press Command + A to select all messages.
Tap Message > Delete Attachment(s). Repeat for all mailboxes.
Now, let’s go further with messages. On your Mac:
Open the Messages app.
Right-click the conversation you want to remove and choose Delete. Confirm the deletion.
Now, tap View > Recently Deleted and delete unwanted conversations once and for all.
If you don’t want to delete the conversation but want to remove the attachments, open the dialogue and click i. Beneath Photos, choose what you want to delete, right-click, and select Delete > Delete Attachment(s). Note that it cannot be restored.
Steps for your iPhone:
Open Messages.
Tap Edit > Select Messages.
Select Messages you don’t need and click Delete.
Confirm deletion.
Now, click Edit > Recently Deleted > Delete All > Delete [x] Messages.
The following step is to delete message attachments on the iPhone. Remember that they will be deleted from Messages and cannot be restored, so take this step carefully.
Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
Scroll to Messages.
Click Photos > Edit and choose what to remove.
Click on the Trash icon on the top right.
Do the same for GIFs and Stickers.
On the other hand, you can open Messages, pick a conversation with attachments, and click the contact bubble at the top. Now, tap See All next to Photos and press Select > Delete > Delete Attachment.
Step 7. Empty the bin
It’s easy to forget that files in the Trash still take up space, whether in the cloud or locally. So, after you’re done with steps 1-6, take out the Trash.
For the Photos app on your iPhone:
Open Photos.
Go to the freshly Deleted album.
Click Select > ellipsis.
Now, tap Delete All > Delete From The iPhone.
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For the Mail app on your iPhone:
Open the app.
Click on Trash.
Tap Edit > Select All and then Delete All.
For the Photos app on your Mac:
Open Photos.
Go to Recently Deleted.
Click Delete All > Delete From All Devices.
For the Mail app on your Mac:
Open Mail.
Click Mailbox in the top menu.
Tap on Erase Deleted Items from the dropdown menu.
Choose your iCloud email address and click Erase.
That is all! This should assist you in getting more iCloud storage. Redo these steps every 1-2 weeks to ensure your iCloud doesn’t get bloated again.
Buy more iCloud storage
This is an easy way out if you’re not too short on budget and don’t mind spending money on storage every month.
So, here are the steps for upgrading iCloud storage. Getting more space is easy; you can do it from any device, including your iPhone.
Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage > Change Storage Plan on your Mac.
On iPhone, it’s almost the same; only from Settings > Apple ID > iCloud are you going to Manage Account Storage and then Change Storage Plan.
The next logical question is, what is the cost of iCloud storage? Well, that depends basically on your location and how much storage you’d like to get. There are plans for 50 GB, 200 GB, and even up to 12 TB. The accurate cost is mentioned right in the menu when you open it, next to the plan.
Now you know the choices, and whatever you decide works best for you — clearing up iCloud storage or buying more — the suggestion is to keep your iPhone and Mac free from messing up.