Level 1

104 points

iCloud Drive is 'FULL' but really it's EMPTY!

Like the title says, my icloud drive folder is completely empty. Yet I can't save any documents there.

I deleted everything in there, because recently I haven't been able to save anything in icloud drive.

I mainly use it for pages, and I had 2.3GB of free storage but still weren't able to save anything in icloud drive (pages in macbook air/ or ioS pages iphone).

Nothing worked!

I noticed that the iCloud Drive App (iOS 9.3.2 latest at the time) status down on the bottom of the app said "-5.11 GB available on iCloud".

I couldn't believe my eyes!!! 5.11GB Where???

That's when I decided to delete everything in the iCloud Drive Folder (of course, after backing it up first).

Everything in there deleted, but the storage remained the same at "-5.11GB"

I tried deleting and resetting the Network in the iPhone, didn't affect anything.

Turned everything related to iCloud Drive, and disconnected (signed out) from iCloud... NOTHING!😢

As I'm writing right now, my iCloud Drive app in the iphone just changed status to "-4.59 GB". Remember my iCloud Preferences says I have 2.3 GB available of storage... 😮

I don't know why??? It's been a couple of hours since I deleted everything, and now am about to reinstall my macbook air.

That is what the "genius" in the Apple consumer contact told me to do.

He said they never heard of this problem...

Please, tell me somebody has had a similar problem???

What could be the problem? Is it related with Apple server? Is it a corrupted folder??? .... 😕

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), iPhone 6 64GB iOS 9.3.2

Posted on Jun 20, 2016 5:57 AM

Top-ranking reply

myselfandi

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Sep 21, 2017 4:45 AM

I have a similar problem and I have already deleted, backups from my phone, photos and literally everything. the space used up does not show in colours on my MacBook Air in the bar when managing storage. as a matter of fact when I go to manage my storage there are about 8mb worth of files (calendar and mail) that are visible. On my phone I can see that the used up space is greyed out in the bar. I have called apple service 2 weeks ago and they confirmed that something was wrong, so my case would go to an apple's technician. They told me that they were going to call me latest on Tuesday 2 weeks ago. I have received no call, nor was anything solved.

I am 100% positive that I cannot delete any more files on my cloud drive, except for those 8mb in calendar and mail, which I do not want to delete, since those are essential.

EDIT: I could solve this problem myself now. What I did is going to iCloud.com -> settings, -> recover files -> selected all recoverable files and deleted them. Now my iCloud Drive is completely empty and the standard 5gb are available!

View in context

57 replies

Jan 25, 2017 4:53 AM in response to hananias

Try emptying the Trash.

Dave5287

Level 1

9 points

Jan 26, 2017 4:47 PM in response to Sififraser

I can't believe that emptying the trash is the solution, but it is. Doing that freed up 27GB of documents and data, go figure.

roelbego

Level 1

12 points

Jan 6, 2018 3:38 AM in response to dnhrdr

Probably not, I've had storage issues too.. My fix was to secure everything outside iCloud Drive and then via my iPhone I cleared the drive.

I must say it's a weird way of doing it, the customer service rep also didn't know about this fix. But it did the trick for me.

Apr 23, 2017 9:23 PM in response to arratee

Try emptying the trash on your mac, I can't freaking believe it actually worked!!! I was blown away!

Apr 23, 2017 9:25 PM in response to hananias

Try emptying the trash on mac 🙂

NWS

Level 1

14 points

Apr 24, 2017 10:14 AM in response to Eric Root

That's what it took. Had to push to convince them that there was no way to account for the "used" storage.

Apr 28, 2017 4:50 PM in response to Nuage6

Try emptying the trash on your mac😉 It works for me.

jamiesun

Level 1

4 points

May 15, 2017 11:41 PM in response to Dave5287

May i know how to empty trash in IOS?

Jun 15, 2017 5:08 AM in response to Sififraser

Emptying the trash also worked for me as well - free up over 30 GB

Jul 5, 2017 5:13 AM in response to hananias

Yup, empty your trash. Worked for me.

Jul 5, 2017 5:30 PM in response to ScooterCanada

Have you emptied your trash on your desktop?

Aug 6, 2017 8:12 PM in response to Bashar Zaim

This is the EXACT problem I am having and noting I have tried has EVER worked. Did you find a way?

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iCloud Drive is 'FULL' but really it's EMPTY!