iCloud says not enough storage but there is 1.2 out of 5G used

Why don’t you just pay 99¢ a month for 50 GB of iCloud storage?

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 the iCloud backups.

This is finally startng to make sense. We're not sharing the same Apple Account,

When I went to Settings / my name / Storage says 3.1 of 5 GB. If I touch the word Storage. It opens a new screen and if I touch Backups / My iPhone at bottom, another window opens. Next backup size on my phone is 131.9 MB and the last backup was 15 hours ago 1.29 GB. So on my phone, it doesn't have much to back up since it's backed up recently.

When I did the same thing on my wife's phone it said next backup size is 5.2 GB out of 5 GB. So from what I see she needs to delete some photos from her phone since they're already backed up on her computer. Once she does that is she going to have to wait 60 days before she can back up her phone to iCloud?

Thanks for your enormous patience with this confusing issue.

I'm happy to help, but for BOTH of you, you're going to be constantly struggling with the measly 5GB of free iCloud storage you have. You'd make your lives ever so much simpler if you just upgraded your storage plans.

GMPETERS wrote:

This is finally startng to make sense. We're not sharing the same Apple Account,

When I went to Settings / my name / Storage says 3.1 of 5 GB. If I touch the word Storage. It opens a new screen and if I touch Backups / My iPhone at bottom, another window opens. Next backup size on my phone is 131.9 MB and the last backup was 15 hours ago 1.29 GB. So on my phone, it doesn't have much to back up since it's backed up recently.

When I did the same thing on my wife's phone it said next backup size is 5.2 GB out of 5 GB. So from what I see she needs to delete some photos from her phone since they're already backed up on her computer. Once she does that is she going to have to wait 60 days before she can back up her phone to iCloud?

Thanks for your enormous patience with this confusing issue.

Surely it is worth 99¢ a month to save all the hassle.

GMPETERS wrote:

This is finally startng to make sense. We're not sharing the same Apple Account,

When I went to Settings / my name / Storage says 3.1 of 5 GB. If I touch the word Storage. It opens a new screen and if I touch Backups / My iPhone at bottom, another window opens. Next backup size on my phone is 131.9 MB and the last backup was 15 hours ago 1.29 GB. So on my phone, it doesn't have much to back up since it's backed up recently.

When I did the same thing on my wife's phone it said next backup size is 5.2 GB out of 5 GB. So from what I see she needs to delete some photos from her phone since they're already backed up on her computer. Once she does that is she going to have to wait 60 days before she can back up her phone to iCloud?

Thanks for your enormous patience with this confusing issue.

You're welcome. But I did reply to this same post you made yesterday. And the solution is the same. You both need to upgrade your iCloud Storage.

Yes I agree, the free 5GB is intended for Calendar, Contacts, Notes, minor email, it really is not intended for photos or backups. You need to pay for space enough to do that.

Don't do the subtraction math, believe me it is not enough

I've seen this issue also reported for those with 50 gigs. So this has nothing to do with 5 gigs. I save my pics to my computer and share them with friends on my google photos which is free. I have no reason to get more than 5 gigs. All I want is to backup my phone. I don't back up photos. That's why you see in my post that only 1.2 gigs are used. My phone was being backed up every night, until this glitch happened.

The original post was my wife's iPhone. We both have the exact same iPhone 13 Pro Max and I've never had any trouble doing the nightly auto-backup on my phone. I currently have 3.1 out of 5 gigs and have Photo backup off. My wife's phone has only had this problem for a few months. It was doing fine backing up every night. She now has Photo backup off and we both leave our photos on the phone, but don't backup unless it's to our computers or Google Photos.

Can you explain what you mean by - deleting them from the phone, then sync back?

When I save my photos to my computer, I don't make any changes on the iPhone. It's already set to not backup photos

There are three ways to deal with photos:

• iCloud Photos
• iCloud backups that include photos
• No backup (no iCloud Photos + no iCloud Backup, or iCloud Backup with photos explicitly excluded)

The third option ("keeping all of your eggs in one basket") is a good way to lose all of your photos, unless you are in the habit of regularly importing new ones to a computer, and backing up the copies on the computer.

>>Settings > Your Name at the top > iCloud > are you saying you have Photos turned off? >>

yes, so doesn't that mean the photos won't be part of the nightly backup?

>>If yes, when you attempt to backup to iCloud, you are actually backing up your photos as part of your backup.<<

how can that be if I have Photos - off?

>> If you DO sync photos with iCloud there, your backup will NOT include photos.<<

this is interesting, please explain

her iCloud.com is 1.2 out of 5G used, same as what it says on her phone

I appreciate you educating us on this

This is finally startng to make sense. We're not sharing the same Apple Account,

When I went to Settings / my name / Storage says 3.1 of 5 GB. If I touch the word Storage. It opens a new screen and if I touch Backups / My iPhone at bottom, another window opens. Next backup size on my phone is 131.9 MB and the last backup was 15 hours ago 1.29 GB. So on my phone, it doesn't have much to back up since it's backed up recently.

When I did the same thing on my wife's phone it said next backup size is 5.2 GB out of 5 GB. So from what I see she needs to delete some photos from her phone since they're already backed up on her computer. Once she does that is she going to have to wait 60 days before she can back up her phone to iCloud?

Thanks for your enormous patience with this confusing issue.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

lobsterghost1 wrote:

You're welcome. But I did reply to this same post you made yesterday.

Most likely a result of the thread sort order.

In my feed, it appears twice. Once posted yesterday and then again today.

lobsterghost1 wrote:

You're welcome. But I did reply to this same post you made yesterday.

Most likely a result of the thread sort order.

Lawrence Finch

Most likely a result of the thread sort order.

Which we seem to be stuck with. I'll have another go in the Spring.

So do you import all your photos to the computer whilst deleting them from the phone, then sync back?

If not then the photos will still try to back up.

But like say don't try to use iCloud backup with the free 5GB