I am exceeding my icloud storage limit ?!?

No. It's 5GB per apple Id. All your devices will share 5gb in your case. You can uncheck some of the stuff you want to save on the iCloud or purchase extra space.

Having this same issue. 2 iOS devices, and 4 Macs. The limit should be per device, but Apple is being cheap on this one. Ultimately every loses because I will be forced to create separate iCloud accounts for each device. A headache me in some ways and also for Apple because they'll save no space anyway. Just one of those disappointing situations not getting rectified in time.😟

The common data, like calendars, email, and contacts, don't take up any more storage on icloud regardless how many devices are using the same icloud account. One thing that does make a difference is the backup feature. What you need to do is turn off backup of certain data files, like photos, since they should be sync to the computer anyway for archiving.

Details...

Backups:

Go to Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backups>Manage Storage; there, tap the device you need info on and the resulting screen lists Backup Options with which apps store data on iCloud. Turn off camera roll and any other apps that might have a lot of data. Then delete the backup. That will free up space. Photos should be regularly synced to a computer (like you store photos from a digital camera) using either USB via iTunes (on a mac use iPhoto or Aperture to move them to an album) or using photo stream. Go to Settings>iCloud and turn that feature on. Macs don't back up to icloud, so that is not an issue.

Emails:

Regarding emails, on the computer, move emails from mailboxes in icloud to those on the device. That can also save a lot of space.

Jay Blongz wrote:

Having this same issue. 2 iOS devices, and 4 Macs. The limit should be per device, but Apple is being cheap on this one. 😟

Yeah, real cheap with an entirely free service.

Honestly, it is a free service, why would you expect there to be unlimited storage for any number of devices? You can always purchase additional storage if your backup needs require it, up to 50GB (so 55GB total). No online storage service offers unlimited or very large amounts of storage for free, and why hould they? Massive storage and server farms to support millions of subscribers costs a great deal of money.

You can also always backup in iTunes on your computer, where you presumably have more storage,

I have an ipad and an iphone using icloud and each backs up to icloud as well. I have most things turned on for backup, except for camera roll. I also manage my emails, keeping older emails stored on the local mac. I use Calendar and Contacts a lot. I also have some Pages and other documents stored in the iWork section of icloud and I have quite a number of apps that store their data on icloud, for syncing between devices.

My total usage of icloud is around 2GB. What **are** you storing on icloud that 2 or 3 devices overrun the 5GB limit??? (Macs don't really use up extra storage in icloud that other devices don't have.)

Michael Black wrote:

Honestly, it is a free service, why would you expect there to be unlimited storage for any number of devices?

Mike, I never asked for unlimited storage. I asked for 5GB per device, considering the margins made per device...which more than pays for it. And if it's such an 'expense', I'd like the functionality to use my own private server for backup. That will solve my issue straightaway.

My macs use SSDs, and I'd rather not use that precious space for devices backups or photo archives. Occasionally I do import my photos in to LightRoom, then delete from device. Other than that I dont want any mobile device data on my computers.

My iPad alone is using 7 GB in iCloud. I have only a few photos, but some of my apps are as big as 1GB to their stock content. Having it backed up eases migration to newer iPads. I can work it down to under 5, but I still insist on a minimum of 5 per device. Apple can make it easy or I can go through the loops.

But if 5GB per device, and with some households having many devices, you are basically asking for, effectively, personally unlimited storage.

It's a complimentary service, with millions of people using it, so yes, on a global basis, it is a huge expense for Apple to provide iCloud. What I do not understand is when people exceed the capability of a complimnetary service, they bawk at paying for the available, commercial alternative. Pay the $20 or $40 a year and get the extra 10GB or 20GB you need - why should Apple or any company just give it to you?

Every free online/cloud storage service has hard limits - if your needs exceed those, you pay. Why should iCloud be any different?

I think that one hidden stress on an icloud account is the syncing. Sure, if you have 5 devices with 5 accounts, each using, say, 3 GB of storage, then that adds up to 15 GB of total storage. If one account were allowed to be used, then I'd guess there'd be a bit less than 15 GB used due to some overlap, but probably not much. So it can be argued that it wouldn't cost Apple any more to allow all 5 devices to use one "big" account, instead of 5 smaller accounts.

If you're following my logic so far - now comes the hidden cost to Apple. With 5 devices using one account, that's 5 devices that need to be synced. The more devices added to the account, that requires more syncing. That's overhead that costs. (Processing power at the server farms.)

But I suspect the 5GB is more than plenty for most users (certainly for me, and I use icloud a lot). For those with special needs, Apple provides an upgrade of storage for a fee. Doesn't seem greedy to me considering most users get a great service for free.

I see you guys point, and I don't totally disagree. I just wish I could backup and restore from my own server, that way I can make more use of my already-incurred costs. I have another independent paid cloud storage account, and it would suck to pay for more icloud storage for the ability to seamlessly migrate for my future purchases. Hopefully VPN services can be externded for this purpose.

Jay Blongz wrote:

Having this same issue. 2 iOS devices, and 4 Macs. The limit should be per device, but Apple is being cheap on this one. Ultimately every loses because I will be forced to create separate iCloud accounts for each device. A headache me in some ways and also for Apple because they'll save no space anyway. Just one of those disappointing situations not getting rectified in time.😟

When you create new account on device it will stop sync with other devices, joke is going to be on you.

How much it should be is a good questions, someone gives you something for free - who suppose to decide how much they give you?

Yes I know. But I only need the for backup, so no joke on me. All my other data runs through my exchange server. Guess ill be waiting for the opportunity to back up to my own server. In the mean time, separate accounts for each while sharing itunes store account. Working fine for the past few hours.

And I'm not buying the overhead crap because if these each devices were split among everyone in my house, it would be no issue at the same server capacity.

I digress. What apple needs to do is add an option to deselect all the backup items at once, and manually select items to backup. Currently I'm going through a long list on my ipad.