How much unused storage space is needed for iPhone 14 Pro Max backups?

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How much unused storage space is needed for iPhone 14 Pro Max backups?

Exactly how much unused storage space is required on a 1TB iphone (14 Pro Max) for both a full local and icloud backup? What is the formula? There seems to be a difference in requirements. See below.

I've had 890 GB of 1TB phone data (mostly photos, videos and documents/files) for the past few years. I'm getting tired of the guess work about how much unused storage space is required on the phone for a successful backup. Anyone know? I run into serious backup problems when I exceed 900GBs. Also, I've found icloud useless for backups, recovery and restore and am stuck using local backups because I can never get a successful full backup onto icloud. (I have 2 TB icloud storage.) My question is that it seems to me the icloud backup requires more unused storage space than the local backup. Is this true? If so, what is the formula? Can someone ask the itunes and icloud developers what the general rules are for unused storage space on a device to complete a successful full backup?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Jun 28, 2024 4:30 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 28, 2024 5:17 PM in response to 33leilani

There is no limit for backups on the phone, but there may be on the device (or iCloud) you are backing up to.

Are you backing up photos, or syncing them to iCloud? That makes a significant difference. iCloud+ has 2 independent functions. iCloud backups, and iCloud sync. It’s confusing because they both have the same name prefix. But they have no connection with each other. Go to Settings/[your name]/iCloud. You will see a bunch of switches (with iOS 16 or later also tap Show All). When you turn on a switch that data type will sync to iCloud. If you do this on multiple devices that share an Apple ID the selected data will sync to all of those devices.

You can also turn on iCloud Backups. This will back up your phone every night if the phone is plugged in, connected to Wi-Fi and locked.

But note that these are independent functions; anything that you sync by the first method will be excluded from iCloud or computer backups.

Further, backups (to your computer or iCloud) do not include apps or iOS, because they can be reinstalled or redownloaded from the App Store. Thus, a back will generally be smaller than the amount of content being backed up.

The general rule on free space is it should be 10% of the total capacity of the iPhone, or 1 GB, whichever is larger.

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Answer 2

33leilani Author

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Jun 29, 2024 8:08 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thanks for the 10% rule; the issue is about failed backups, not syncs. I will get messages about not having enough storage space on the device to complete a backup. This makes me think that in the background, itunes and icloud are using the device's storage space for temp files or something when doing a backup. BTW, I do full local backups & the apps are always included on a restore. It has saved me much hassle when upgrading. I have too many apps to be fussing with redownloading each one from the app store. The bulk of my data though is videos, photos, notes and files.

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How much unused storage space is needed for iPhone 14 Pro Max backups?

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