Q: Can't delete iCloud backup, storage full
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Sep 19, 2015 12:13 PMby JosephWit,Turning back up off on the iPhone goes with deleting the backup - that is what doesn't work.
If I switch in iTunes from "backup to iCloud" to "back up to this computer", and then back to iCloud, it still shows the phantom 19GB of space occupied. If I click "back up now", it goes through the process, but still shows last iCloud backup is from 9/16, before the iOS 9 upgrade - it does not update.o
Looks like the folder directory on Apple's server is corrupted. Last backup shows 0k, but is taking up 19GB, and it can't be deleted or updated.
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Sep 19, 2015 1:04 PMby JosephWit,on the phone: Settings- General- Storage & iCloud Usage, or Settings- iCloud- Storage- Manage Storage (either one) shows Backups: Joe's iPhone (ThisiPhone) 0KB. Click on the backup, it shows Latest Backup- Never (since I tried to delete it- before it showed 9/16 which was the last backup before iOS 9 upgrade), backup size 0 bytes. Option to DELETE BACKUP brings up "Do you want to TURN OFF BACKUP and delete all backup data for this iPhone from iCloud?" Clicking "Turn Off and Delete" shows "deleting....."and it stops. But the iPhone backup 0KB is still listed, and there are still only 5GB of space available - the 0KB backup is taking up its usual 19GB, and has NOT been deleted. The option to delete is gone until I restart the phone.
There is no other way on the iPhone to turn off iCloud backup, is there?
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Sep 19, 2015 1:34 PMby JosephWit,I was looking for that setting. Turned backup off, restarted the phone. iPhone backup no longer listed under "manage storage", but still only 5GB available - the phantom backup up is still taking up room in the directory. Turned it back on, said "backup now", starts to back up, then popup "cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available. Apple server file allocation table is corrupted...
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Sep 19, 2015 1:52 PMby milypan,I also have a bunch of "phantom space" in my backup set, though in my case it's only about 3 GB. It's still very frustrating though, because I can see on iCloud.com that 9.5 GB are devoted to backups, but on any of my devices it only lists 6.9 GB of backups (i.e., it's impossible to delete more than 6.9 GB). I'd be perfectly willing to nuke all the backups and start fresh in order to reclaim the space, but they don't even give us that option.
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Sep 19, 2015 1:57 PMby JosephWit,I know; not a good situation. I'm getting a new iPhone 6S Plus next week. What do I restore it from? Obviously not an iCloud backup unless Apple fixes this quickly. iTunes 12.3 still has issues with Windows 10, though backup to computer SEEMS to work... scary though.
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Sep 19, 2015 1:58 PMby Winston Churchill,That's close to what happened for me except that the back up then proceeded and completed, but then again I had oodles of room. I wonder if for the sake of getting the first backup to complete, if turning everything that's backed up off (or most of it) so it's only a small back up will do it.
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Sep 19, 2015 2:38 PMby gail from maine,If you go to Settings>iCloud>Storage>Manage Storage> and click on the device in question, you will then see a list of items below the backup info that are turned on (or off). What is turned on is what is backing up. What is turned off is not included in any backups that are being made.
Cheers,
GB
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Sep 19, 2015 3:52 PMby JosephWit,well... there is clearly a directory corruption somewhere at their end - I would rather Apple fix it than get too extreme. I don't want to jeopardize my contacts and calendars... I have tried deleting the backup from iPhone, OSX and Windows - its not at my end, and it looks like a file table error.
