iCloud backup doesn't shrink when I delete stuff from iPhone

emcee510 wrote:

Like everyone, I find that the iCloud backup of my iPhone grows and grows, but since iOS 16 I find that the backup does not shrink when I delete stuff from my iPhone. Almost all of my backup is photos and iMessages, and even after cutting those back to about 1GB on my phone, the size of my iCloud backup doesn't drop at all. I have to delete the iCloud backup, and then do a full backup in order to get down to what should be the actual backup size. For example, I've been stuck at 4.8GB backup for weeks, getting constant messages about "not enough iCloud space to complete backup," and no amount of deleting photos and iMessages has changed it. I just deleted the iCloud backup, and then ran iCloud backup again; it completed successfully with a 3.1GB backup. So there was 1.7GB of stuff in my iCloud backup that didn't belong there, taking up limited space. This is the second time that I've had to do this.

Please don't tell me to just pay extra to Apple for more space. I'm perfectly happy to live within the basic 5GB; I just expect iCloud to reduce the size of backups when I delete data from my phone ... the way it used to, before iOS 16.

And the next time you want to backup again you'll need to delete the backup to gain back more icloud storage, since you're content with the free 5GB of storage.