How can I reduce iPhone backup file size to under 5GB?

Question

JiiSaa Author

Level 1

0 points

How can I reduce iPhone backup file size to under 5GB?

Hi,

I'm looking for a little help to get understanding on what does the iPhone backup file actually consist of?

iCloud on my iPhone 4 shows me the following data:

This iPhone's backup file size: 5,1GB

Breakdown:

Camera Roll 1,6GB

Largest 20 apps totalling 238,5MB

The rest of the apps are all below 1MB each... all together can't be more than another 200MB tops.

So, I really don't understand how iCloud is claiming that I have over 3GB of "something" eating up my iCloud storage!?!? 😕

Can someone explain this to me, thanks?

Because the largest chunk of backup is the camera roll, I started deleting and importing pics to iPhoto in order to reduce this 1,6GB.

What made things really interesting was that, after I deleted hundreds of pictures from iPhone and imported even more into iPhoto, I then manually backed up from iPhone's iCloud settings. Suprise, suprise, the backup file size INCREASED from 5,0GB to 5,1GB that I now have????

I have tried finding infomation on this throught Apples support forum and others, but no luck...

Have to say, that I have started thinking if this is an upsell "hoax" by Apple to get iCloud customers pay for the iCloud storage upgrade. 👿

Appreciate your advice!

Cheers,

JiiSaa

iPhone 4, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Sep 28, 2013 4:00 AM

Reply

Answer 1

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Sep 28, 2013 4:02 AM in response to JiiSaa

Welcome to Apple Support Communities

iCloud keeps the last three backups made, so that could be the reason why the backup file is taking up 5 GB.

A possible solution would be to delete the actual backup and start a new backup, or remove things from the backup. For example, you can transfer the Camera Roll pictures to a computer instead of backing them up

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Answer 2

JiiSaa Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2013 4:08 AM in response to mende1

Thanks for your quick reply!

iCloud keeps the last three backups made, so that could be the reason why the backup file is taking up 5 GB.

-> How can the earlier two backups be deleted, or can they?

you can transfer the Camera Roll pictures to a computer instead of backing them up

-> This is exactly what I did and the backup file increased by 0,1GB??

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Answer 3

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Sep 28, 2013 4:11 AM in response to JiiSaa

Older backups are deleted automatically when you create a new backup. To remove them, you can remove the backup in Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup, and then, create a new backup. The backup file increased because you removed Camera Roll, but iCloud is backing up the rest of apps

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Answer 4

JiiSaa Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2013 5:11 AM in response to mende1

I did delete the old one and created a new backup.

That helped, thanks!

However, I'm still wondering on the backup file size?

My current camera roll size now is only 37MB, down from 1,6GB, and did not do any other changes.

But, the backup file size is still 3,4GB!?!? I'm puzzled!

Isn't it so that there shouldn't be any earlier backup files left on iCloud now as I only just deleted the old backup file and created a brand new one, which should not have older backup files yet?

I'm just wondering, if my iCloud file size grows over 5GB when there'll be backupfiles 2 and 3 all stored on iCloud at the same time....??

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