Why Is iCloud Storage Almost Full? My Backup Size Is Only 2.2 GB.

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Level 3

736 points

Why Is iCloud Storage Almost Full? My Backup Size Is Only 2.2 GB.

In the last two weeks I have received emails from noreply@email.apple.com saying:

"Your iCloud storage is almost full. You have 440.1 MB remaining of 5 GB total storage."

Yet, as shown in the pic below, my iPhone backup size is only 2.2 GB. I use iOS 9.3.2 and have only one iPhone 6 64 GB, which is not jail broken, on the iCloud account. I have iCloud Drive turned ON, however I use it for only four apps and the total size of their files is only 14.2 MB. I do not use iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream or iCloud Photo Sharing.

What can be using the other 2.7+ GB of iCloud storage?

iPhone 6, Windows 10, iOS 9.3.2, Apple TV 3genRevA, QTpro

Posted on Jul 3, 2016 3:53 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

LACAllen

Level 8

43,410 points

Jul 3, 2016 4:15 PM in response to cyberbiker

Do you have other devices using the same Apple ID?

They may be using some of your iCloud space.

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Answer 2

cyberbiker Author

Level 3

736 points

Jul 3, 2016 6:14 PM in response to LACAllen

No. As I said in the original post, I have only one device on the iCloud account (synonymously with Apple ID).

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Answer 3

LACAllen

Level 8

43,410 points

Jul 4, 2016 1:22 AM in response to cyberbiker

Snippy answer to a fair question.

Good luck.

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Answer 4

cyberbiker Author

Level 3

736 points

Jul 5, 2016 1:42 AM in response to cyberbiker

After several months some iOS users who backup to iCloud instead of iTunes on a computer begin getting warning notifications stating ""Your iCloud storage is almost full". It is due to a flaw in the iOS backup method. To save time, Apple does incremental backups of files that have been added or changed, however, the older files are not necessarily deleted from storage. Then, when your storage is around 90% full, you begin getting the Storage Almost Full notifications.

The only way to get rid of the outdated files and reclaim storage space is to do the following:

1) turn off Settings>iCloud>Backup,

2) delete the existing backup at the bottom of Settings>iCloud>Storage>Manage Storage>[device name],

3) turn the device off, then back on,

4) turn on Settings>iCloud>Backup,

5) reselect the app data you wish to backup and check that your iCloud space has been recovered at Settings>iCloud>Storage>Manage Storage>[device name],

6) select Backup Now at Settings>iCloud>Backup,

When I did this I went from 440.1 MB remaining of my 5 GB to 3.4 GB available.

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Answer 5

mitorez

Level 1

8 points

Jul 11, 2016 7:03 PM in response to cyberbiker

i wouldn't consider this solved. iCloud backups shouldn't do this. I have the same issue and perform the same "workaround" to continue backing up to iCloud, but deleting my backup and starting over every few weeks isn't a solution. I've only had this problem since iOS 9.3 ish.

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Answer 6

cyberbiker Author

Level 3

736 points

Jul 11, 2016 7:20 PM in response to mitorez

You correctly label it a "work around" that temporarily solved the overload problem. The Backup routine obviously has programming glitches to be fixed because I, too, didn't get the warnings of super high storage usage until iOS 9.3. However, I was running at around 3.3GB used before iOS 9.3 and 4.4 GB after. Yet, now that I deleted the backup and started with a fresh backup, I am only using 1.6 to 1.9 GB.

Hopefully, the work-around will provide a bridge until the Backup routine is corrected.

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