Paul Richards4

Q: iCloud storage problem

I'm getting messages saying my iCloud storage is almost full.

So I went System Prefs > iCloud  and it says I have 208.8 MB of 5 GB available.

But over 2 Gb of what I've used is Mail.

So I opened Mail on my Mac, selected a load of old email messages, (many with big attachments), and moved them to the trash. I then opened trash selected them again and hit the delete key, then I went Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items > In all accounts.

So they should be pretty well deleted!

I then went System Prefs > iCloud, and nothing has changed; I still have 208.8 MB available.

 

I went back into Mail, deleted a load of Sent messages (many with big attachments) and did the same.

Then I deleted some Junk mail (there wasn't much).

Then I opened Safari, went to www.iCloud.com - opened my Mail account and did the same again.

 

SO after all this I still have 208.8MB of storage available.

 

Can someone explain how I free up some space by reducing Mail stoirage please?

 

Thanks,

Paul

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), LaCie and Starck external HDs

Posted on Dec 29, 2013 4:40 AM

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Q: iCloud storage problem

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  • by Paul Richards4,

    Paul Richards4 Paul Richards4 Dec 29, 2013 8:53 AM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 29, 2013 8:53 AM in response to Paul Richards4

    or does anyone know if Chat Support (used to be MobileMe Chat Support) still exists?

  • by Paul Richards4,

    Paul Richards4 Paul Richards4 Dec 29, 2013 1:42 PM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 29, 2013 1:42 PM in response to Paul Richards4

    this just goes on and on.

    and it just doesn't feel like apple are there to help.

    so...

    1     my cloud storage is almost full. i delete mails as instructed, but it's still full. ...  ???

    so i post here. no-one knows.

    2     i try the old apple chat support. can't find chat support. only phone lines, which you book in advance, no good to me. so i post 'does anyone know where chat support has gone?'

    no-one knows. turns out that chat support exists for other problems but not for iCloud. (?!).

    3     so i look at my storage on the cloud again. 2.2 gb of backups (my old iPad, my iPhone 5s and my new iPad). and a load of mail (2.1 gb) and a few bits and pieces...

    so i think, the mail thing isn't working. no-one else can advise, it looks like something that will have to wait til i can get to a genius bar, maybe in a week's time...

    but i need a fix now, otherwise my backups stop working.

    so hey, lets fix it the other way. delete the cloud backup for my old iPad. - i can always turn it back on when everything else is fixed.

    delete old iPad backup from cloud.

    bosh.

    now i have nearly a gig of space on the cloud.

    yippee.

    but...

    i'll just test that i can turn it back on again.

    iTunes Summary for my old iPad says that it will..

    Automatically back up the most important data to iCloud, so i click Back Up Now.

    it backs up to my hard drive.

    do it again. I want it to Back Up to cloud.

    but...

    same. Backs up to hard drive.

    *** apple??

    does anything work???

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 29, 2013 2:01 PM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 9 (50,417 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 29, 2013 2:01 PM in response to Paul Richards4

    Backup your mail and then delete it all, how much space do you recover?

     

    Post the Manage Storage view (from iCloud Preferences) here, this page please.

     

    Screen Shot 2013-12-29 at 4.00.45 PM.png

  • by Paul Richards4,

    Paul Richards4 Paul Richards4 Dec 30, 2013 7:22 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 30, 2013 7:22 AM in response to Csound1

    Hi

    Thanks for getting involved. I've backed up my mail and then deleted everything in the Inbox, Drafts, and Sent. Quit Mail and restarted my Mac.

    But I've gone back into System Prefs > iCloud and it still says almost the same thing... 247.9MB of 5GB available.

    Screen Shot 2013-12-30 at 15.18.03.png

    in the meantime, i've been in to the Apple store - one of the girls there said she thought that my mail cache needed to be deleted, so she suggested i turn my iPhone mail off and do a fresh backup of my iPhone.

    That took a while, but finished now. Seems to have had no effect.

     

    Any thoughts?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 30, 2013 7:29 AM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 9 (50,417 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 30, 2013 7:29 AM in response to Paul Richards4

    Any thoughts?

    Only one, this is not working right!

     

    But it's not a useful thought.

     

    I will seek assistance from others, give it a little time.

     

    (OK, one thought, it is possible that there is a delay before the changed status of the storage appears, hours maybe? I can't imagine that it could be longer than that)

     

    Let me get more eyes on this one.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 30, 2013 7:47 AM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 10 (103,708 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 30, 2013 7:47 AM in response to Paul Richards4

    Might this explain things...

     

    About storage buffering

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 30, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 9 (50,417 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 30, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    It certainly may, thanks Mr Churchill.

  • by Paul Richards4,

    Paul Richards4 Paul Richards4 Dec 30, 2013 9:32 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 30, 2013 9:32 AM in response to Csound1

    Thank you both for your efforts, however I'm afraid I'm not having any luck...

    I read through the Support Note - It says "Go to the appropriate iCloud iWork web app at iCloud.com and locate and delete the files.

    I don't put many documents on iCloud, but I did have one document in Numbers, which I saved back to my iMac and then deleted from the cloud.

    If i go to System Prefs > iCloud > Manage, the list on the left side shows Backups (2.6GB) Mail (still 2.1GB) and a few other very small ones. I don't remember what Pocket Planes was - presumably an App used by my son, anyway I've deleted it.

     

    It seems to me that the paragraph entitled Storage Buffering and Backup does not make sense..? - "from a device that does not have iCloud Backup enabled, ... turn on iCloud Backup" then "Delete the Backup".

    (what backup? it wasn't enabled.??)

    and then "Deleting this backup will also turn on Backup of your iOS device". No, deleting a backup prompts a message saying it will turn off backups.

     

    Anyway, I've now deleted all my iCloud backups - my old iPad1, my new iPad Air and my iPhone5.

    It says I now have 2.92 GB of space available, because my Mail is still taking up 2.1GB.

    It seems to have been stuck at 2.1 GB since yesterday.

     

    Screen Shot 2013-12-30 at 17.11.42.png

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 30, 2013 10:32 AM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 10 (103,708 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 30, 2013 10:32 AM in response to Paul Richards4

    I think the article is basically saying that you might not see the space that was occupied by mail reclaimed until you add some more.

  • by Ozzie1910,

    Ozzie1910 Ozzie1910 Dec 30, 2013 10:36 AM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Dec 30, 2013 10:36 AM in response to Paul Richards4

    paul you must delete old mails and attachmets that make increase the space of ur free icloud storage, make sure you do no have long videos and thousands of pictures get another app to storage videos and pictures i do recomend skydrive app from outlook.com just create an account of hotmail.com live.com or outlook.com or if u have one just download the app there you have more storage space.

  • by Paul Richards4,

    Paul Richards4 Paul Richards4 Dec 30, 2013 11:10 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 30, 2013 11:10 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    yep, got that, so I started making new backups of my iPhone, iPad and iPadAir.

    The iPadAir is done, 530mb, hasn't had any effect.

    The old iPad1 has just finished, so backups now total 1.3 GB, but still no effect.

    I've been using Mail, sending and receiving but no effect.

    I'll add a backup of my iPhone, but my guess is it will tell me there is not enough room..

     

    but..

    since the problem is my stuck Mail backup, I went into Mail prefs, and there are two accounts - one with the name of my iCloud account, and the other just called iCloud. They are both enabled. It doesn't look right to me... or is it?

  • by Ozzie1910,

    Ozzie1910 Ozzie1910 Dec 30, 2013 11:18 AM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Dec 30, 2013 11:18 AM in response to Paul Richards4

    Ok Paul when u create an apple id and if u go to icloud settings and turn on MAIL that will create another email address using the same name of ur apple id but with @icloud.com that boths belongs you so, i do remend you use the one with icloud.com and delete or just turn off the mail account you have set it on the mail app, weird that show u you are almost full of ur free 5 gb, like i said before make sure you do not have long videos and tons of junk mails and music not in the app i mean in the messages app and mail app, because that decrease the icloud storage

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 30, 2013 12:27 PM in response to Paul Richards4
    Level 10 (103,708 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 30, 2013 12:27 PM in response to Paul Richards4

    Are these 2 accounts using the same mail address. What do you see at system preferences > Internet accounts.

  • by Paul Richards4,

    Paul Richards4 Paul Richards4 Dec 31, 2013 2:01 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 31, 2013 2:01 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    It's really confusing!!!

    I've obviously set something up incorrectly in the past...

     

    If I go to System Prefs > Internet Accounts, it shows my Facebook and two other accounts, iCloud (active) and an email address of mine (call it xxx@me.com) as inactive.

     

    But if i gointo Mail > Preferences, it shows the original name of my iCloud account (call it yyy@me.com) as enabled, and iCloud as not enabled.

     

    The email address I use (which is xxx@me.com) is an alias of my yyy account, and it's also the address showing under my (not-enabled) iCloud account in Mail.

     

    I am currently able to send and receive emails with xxx@me.com, so I don't actually have a Mail problem!

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