How to see EXACTLY what is in "iCloud Backup"

julia123 wrote:

My phone will not back up because it says there is not enough room. The only device I currently back up is my iPhone.

1 - When I go to iCloud.com, it says 488.9 mg docs and 4.5 Gb of iCloud Backup. Is there a way to check EXACTLY what is backed up in 'iCloud Backup'?

Not from iCloud.com. You can view what is getting backed up directly on your Devices in Settings ➜ Apple ID ➜ iCloud ➜ iCloud Backup ➜ *Device Name* That lists all apps and content being backed up.

2 - There is a red "Turn Off and Delete from iCloud" on the phone.

How can I tell Exactly what will disappear from what I see on my phone if I select that?

Everything you see listed there above the red "Turn Off and Delete from iCloud" will be removed from the backup and deleted from iCloud. Nothing will be deleted from the iPhone itself.

All I care to back up is my contacts but I don't want to loose what I see on my phone as far as reminders, messages etc.

Contacts cannot be backed up. They are synced to iCloud or to another email account only. If they are turned on in Settings ➜ Apple ID ➜ iCloud ➜ Contacts, then they are being synced to iCloud, as long as they are stored in the iCloud group in the Contacts app. If they are stored in another group, then they are saved to the email account for that group.

These used to be turned on for icloud but I turned them off to see if it would help, which it does not. I regularly back up my photos to my iMac so those are not taking space unless it is old ones that are backed up.

Photos can be backed up if the switch is turned on for them in Settings ➜ Apple ID ➜ iCloud ➜ iCloud Backup ➜ *Device Name* ➜ Photo Library.

I have back-ups turned off for messages but do the messages I see now include those from when I had it turned on to sync with the cloud?

Messages will be backed up if "Messages in iCloud" is turned off. If it is turned on, then messages will not be part of the backup and just sync to iCloud separately.

Would they disappear if I do this delete? How do I know which is on my phone and what is in the cloud?

Deleting the backup will only delete it from iCloud, not from your iPhone.

Everything getting backed up is by definition on your iPhone. There is nothing in the backup that is tied back to the iPhone in any way or that exists solely in the backup unless you manually remove it from the iPhone once the backup has been made Backups are independent of the data on the iPhone once they are made. That is why the are made regularly to update the data from the iPhone onto the backup to keep it current.

It is not recommended to turn off the backup option. There have been many disaster stories of people doing this, then loosing or damaging their device and having no way to get their data back onto another device since the backups where turned off.

If you are having space issues on iCloud, turn off apps and services you don't need to have backed up from

Settings ➜ Apple ID ➜ iCloud ➜ iCloud Backup ➜ *Device Name*.

click here ➜ What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support

julia123 wrote:

Thanks so much for the detailed response, I appreciate it.

1 - As far as: "You can view what is getting backed up directly on your Devices in Settings ➜ Apple ID ➜ iCloud ➜ iCloud Backup ➜ *Device Name* That lists all apps and content being backed up." -----Why is this back up 4.5 GB when those apps listed only add up to less than 1 GB?

The Backup contains other non editable data like system settings, home screen layouts and other data. Apple is not very clear about what else makes up the backup though.

2 - Just to confirm, any old messages or reminders I am seeing on my phone currently, even though I formerly had them syncing or backing up to iCloud, I am seeing because they are on my phone, and not being 'synced' from the cloud? I still wonder why the back-up is 4.5 GB when the listed back ups is much smaller.

Correct. If you see it on your iPhone, its on your iPhone and not coming from iCloud.

I cannot fathom that an average is helpful. My iPhone backup is 129 GB and my iPad is 2.8 GB. I have more data stored in an app on my iPhone. Navigate to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > icloud backup and select your device to see the size of the next backup (it will take some time to calculate). You'll see how much data is included in your backup by app

Your app data, photos, messages, videos, settings are all included in your device backup.

See What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support

Don’t forget, your app data, photos, messages are included in your backup unless you sync using iCloud in which case,nthey are included iCloud but not part of the backup. The net effect is essentially zero. If you have 1GB of photos synced to iCloud it consumes space. If you do not use iCloud Photos the 1GB is in your backup.