Q: Bought a used iPhone 4S about six months ago. Did not set up iCloud for any huuuuge files. Only mail (which I prune regularly), but no photos. Why am I getting messages that my storage is full? Why do I have to pay Apple for storage?

Here's what I see on the iPhone under iCloud:

Total storage             5.0 GB

Available                    816 MB

Manage storage:        

   Everything is listed in MB except "Health" which is 280 KB and iBooks which is 96.6 KB. I have Audible books on my phone, but since it is impossible to

   delete anything from the iCloud, I have no way to get rid of the books I have already read.

Does that give you enough information to see what the problem is? I think the iCloud is storing stuff from the iPad, too, right?

I have a "Backups" under "Manage Storage." Is that what you mean? Under that is listed "Owner's iPad 2.5 GB" and "Owner's iPhone 1.6 GB."

When I open the iPhone, it shows me the last date of backup and backup size (1.6 GB). There is a section called "Backup Options" that lists every app. I have 11 pictures and 5 videos, the longest of which is 1:53. There are a lot of MB and KB, but the photos are 1.3 GB.

The iCloud storage is in a different place on my iPad. iCloud  Drive is on as is Photos. Then all of the same apps that are on my phone are turned on. On another screen, it shows that iCloud Backup is turned on.

I do not use my email account on my phone. I use it only for texting, talking, and Audible. If I have to look something up on Google, I will use it for that as well, but that is rare. I keep my mail, etc. on the iPad and my PC.

Can I separate my iPhone from my iPad? I

Well, you guys have been the best. I had no idea that getting an iPhone was going to rock my storage world! I've studied all of your replies, and I guess I'll just have to pony up another twelve bucks a year by using the 99-cent option. It sounds like too big of a hassle to separate the two devices. I can't believe they are made to be lumped into one device when they are actually two separate items that I use for different purposes. I might have gotten an Android if I'd known that.

Two final questions: Why am I not allowed to delete things from the iCloud in order to free up some space? I know that it's possible, but it's so convoluted that people generally don't even try to delete stuff from the cloud.

And what if I just turn the cloud off entirely? I am using a external hard drive that has terrabytes of storage. Aren't I just duplicating the backup procedure?

That's just the thing, though. I can't delete those Audible titles off of my phone. A savvy friend told me that Audible doesn't use data, but I bet it uses storage. All of those books are in the cloud. Pages and pages of them!

Thanks for those tutorials and discussions, ManShina. (Curiously, the "rationale" link didn't work.) I will have to ponder this situation to see what I should do. The Mac lady who came over to my house to set the phone up for me said I really should be using the cloud, and she obviously knows more than I do. It just seems unnecessary with the external hard drive (which has a scheduled back-up time, weekly), but as you said, that could potentially fail. I often wonder about it every time we have a storm and the power is off for a few hours...

The simplest solution is just to buy the 99-cents-a-month plan. Then do I toss the external hard drive?

Thank you, LAC Allen. If, indeed, iCloud is not designed to provide off-device storage, then I am still having trouble understanding why it won't let me help it out by removing my pages and pages Audible books which are burdening down it's cyber-bookshelves. (I don't re-read books.)

I am sold on iCloud, so I am now stuck with an external hard drive I don't need. I also got talked into the Microsoft Cloud because I use my PC more than anything else. So I have backups that are backed up. I am trying to figure out how to quit duplicating my services.