HT203384: iCloud: Troubleshooting the Find My iPhone app

Learn about iCloud: Troubleshooting the Find My iPhone app
Donnacit
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Every time I try to back up my iCloud on my iPhone 4S it keeps telling me it can't back up because their is not enough storage. I have just purchased more storage so I know that is not the problem.  Don't know what it can be.

Every time I try to ack up my iPhone it keeps telling me it can't back up because their is not enough storage. I recently just purchased more storage so I know that can't be the problem. Any suggestions?

iPhone 4S

Posted on Jul 15, 2013 8:00 PM

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Donnacit

Q: Every time I try to back up my iCloud on my iPhone 4S it keeps telling me it can't back up because their is not enough storage. I ... more

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  • by mario49,

    mario49 mario49 Jul 18, 2013 7:17 AM in response to Donnacit
    Community Specialists
    Jul 18, 2013 7:17 AM in response to Donnacit

    Hello Donnacit,

     

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

     

    "This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available."This message is displayed when there is not enough storage space available in your iCloud Storage to complete your backup. You can either reduce the amount of data you are backing up under Backup Options, or you can buy more storage.

     

     

    For more information on this, take a look at this article:

    iCloud: Troubleshooting creating backups

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3992

     

    iCloud: Backup and restore overview

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4859

     

    Best of luck,

    Mario

  • by pvonk,

    pvonk pvonk Jul 18, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Donnacit
    Level 6 (13,739 points)
    Jul 18, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Donnacit

    The problem could be that you don't have enough storage on the device itself, not on iCloud.  Go to Settings>General>Usage to see how much "Storage" you have available on the device.  Farther down the list is the available storage on iCloud.

     

    Also check:

    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 as well.  Tap Show All Apps to get the complete list of apps and MB used for backup storage.

     

     

    A device needs many MB of storage in order to perform a backup to iCloud.

     

    Also see:  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4847`

  • by Jonas The K,

    Jonas The K Jonas The K Dec 1, 2013 1:14 PM in response to Donnacit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2013 1:14 PM in response to Donnacit

    As pvonk says, probably you don't have enough space on the iPhone itself. I had the same problem. I deleted all backups in iCloud, leaving me with 5.0 Gb free space. The iPhone complained about "not enough storage". I turned off the photo roll (3.6 Gb) and ALL applications data, leaving me with a backup of only 76 mb. STILL, it didn't want to backup.

     

    I looked in the Settings>General>Usage> and could see I had around 5 Gb free disk and 7 Gb used, which seemed pretty good to me, but appearently not. What FINALLY solved the problem was that I deleted some movies from the camera roll, around 1 Gb. Now, suddenly I could do the iCloud backup with the camera roll and all application data.


    (N.B. The total backup is below 4 Gb, so it really wasn't a lack of space in iCloud.)

     

    Apple's crappy error message just couldn't tell where the real lack of space was.

     

    3 hours of my life wasted on bad user experience.

  • by Jonas The K,

    Jonas The K Jonas The K Dec 1, 2013 1:17 PM in response to Jonas The K
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2013 1:17 PM in response to Jonas The K

    So, I come to this horrible conclusion:

     

    Does this mean that you cannot use iCloud if your phone's memory is for example 80% full? (Even though you may have 50 Gb free storage on iCloud.)

     

    Horrible......