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Good Morning! How do I transfer my phone items to iCloud?

Good Morning! How do I transfer my phone items to iCloud? I have purchased additional storage, but I keep getting a message that my phone storage is full. How do I marry the two?

iPhone 8, iOS 11

Posted on Jun 24, 2023 5:33 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 24, 2023 5:59 AM

To clear storage on your iPhone, you can follow these steps:


  1. Go to "Settings" on your iPhone and tap on "General" > "iPhone Storage." This will show you a breakdown of the storage used by different apps and data on your device.
  2. Scroll down to the list of installed apps and review which ones you don't use frequently. Tap on an app and select "Offload App." This will remove the app from your device while keeping its data intact. You can always reinstall the app later if needed.
  3. Go through the list of apps and delete the ones you no longer need. To delete an app, tap on it and select "Delete App." Additionally, you can delete other types of data such as photos, videos, messages, and unused files to free up space.
  4. If your Photos app takes up a significant amount of space, you can enable iCloud Photos to store your photos and videos in the cloud and keep optimized versions on your device. Go to "Settings" > "[Your Name]" > "iCloud" > "Photos" and enable "iCloud Photos." --> Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
  5. If you use Safari as your web browser, you can clear its cache to free up storage. Go to "Settings" > "Safari" > "Clear History and Website Data." Please see the pic below which is self-explanatory
  6. Messages and attachments can take up a substantial amount of storage. Open the Messages app and delete unnecessary conversations or individual messages. You can also enable the option to automatically delete messages after a certain period. Go to "Settings" > "Messages" > "Keep Messages" and select an appropriate duration. Deleting attachments to messages may also help
  7. If you have music, movies, or TV shows downloaded on your device that you no longer need offline access to, you can remove them to save space. Open the respective app (e.g., Music or TV), find the content, and delete it.
  8. Consider reviewing other apps and data that may be taking up storage space, such as documents, downloads, and podcasts. Delete unnecessary files or manage them accordingly.
  9. After performing the above steps, it's good practice to restart


6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 24, 2023 5:59 AM in response to tedrea96

To clear storage on your iPhone, you can follow these steps:


  1. Go to "Settings" on your iPhone and tap on "General" > "iPhone Storage." This will show you a breakdown of the storage used by different apps and data on your device.
  2. Scroll down to the list of installed apps and review which ones you don't use frequently. Tap on an app and select "Offload App." This will remove the app from your device while keeping its data intact. You can always reinstall the app later if needed.
  3. Go through the list of apps and delete the ones you no longer need. To delete an app, tap on it and select "Delete App." Additionally, you can delete other types of data such as photos, videos, messages, and unused files to free up space.
  4. If your Photos app takes up a significant amount of space, you can enable iCloud Photos to store your photos and videos in the cloud and keep optimized versions on your device. Go to "Settings" > "[Your Name]" > "iCloud" > "Photos" and enable "iCloud Photos." --> Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
  5. If you use Safari as your web browser, you can clear its cache to free up storage. Go to "Settings" > "Safari" > "Clear History and Website Data." Please see the pic below which is self-explanatory
  6. Messages and attachments can take up a substantial amount of storage. Open the Messages app and delete unnecessary conversations or individual messages. You can also enable the option to automatically delete messages after a certain period. Go to "Settings" > "Messages" > "Keep Messages" and select an appropriate duration. Deleting attachments to messages may also help
  7. If you have music, movies, or TV shows downloaded on your device that you no longer need offline access to, you can remove them to save space. Open the respective app (e.g., Music or TV), find the content, and delete it.
  8. Consider reviewing other apps and data that may be taking up storage space, such as documents, downloads, and podcasts. Delete unnecessary files or manage them accordingly.
  9. After performing the above steps, it's good practice to restart


Jun 24, 2023 6:00 AM in response to tedrea96

Tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Tap Sync this iPhone. In iOS 15 or earlier, tap to turn on iCloud Photos. Select Optimize iPhone Storage to save space on your device.


Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support (IN)



Enabling iCloud for Photos, Notes, Videos, Reminders, Messages, and more, as depicted in the provided picture, means that if you delete any or all data from one device, it will also be removed from iCloud and all other devices linked to the same Apple ID. Likewise, the reverse is true as well.


Jul 2, 2024 9:40 AM in response to RedErik1

RedErik1 wrote:

What I keep seeing asked and the answers given do no good! My IPad storage is FULL! With SYSTEM FILES and other.. no way to free up space. Only 2 apps on the IPad if I delete those.. I may as well throw the IPad away!

Back up your iPad and restore it from the backup. That should clear up the issue.


Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support


Ideally, you would do this using a computer and not iCloud.

Jun 24, 2023 6:07 AM in response to tedrea96

I think you're a bit confused. iCloud Storage does NOT give you more space on your iPhone. And iCloud Storage simply gives you more space to sync data with iCloud, NOT move data off your phone to iCloud. Once purchased, your iPhone storage can't be increased. iCloud is a syncing service, NOT an archive. You really only need to buy additional iCloud storage when you get to the point you have exceeded the free 5GB of iCloud storage, which would prevent you from backing up your iPhone. If you are using less than 5GB of storage in the cloud, buying more iCloud storage really didn't help you.


If your iPhone doesn't have enough space, the next time you buy an iPhone, you should buy one with more memory.


The advice from SravanKrA is great to help you learn how to clear storage on your iPhone.

Good Morning! How do I transfer my phone items to iCloud?

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