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User profile for user: TommyBoii
TommyBoii Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

iCloud Drive decided to fill up my storage tier by reserving 50 gigs. Why?

Edit: A Senior AppleCare Advisor was able to release the reserved space back to my account.


My 15 Retina MacBook Pro after upgrading to 10.12.4 asked me if I'd like to extend my iCloud Drive to my Desktop and Documents folder. I declined but then it reserved 50 gigs on my account taking me from using 30 gigs to 80. I only pay for the 50 gig tier so this posed a problem. When I tried to manage the space it showed I only had 100mb in documents and when I looked at my documents folder it only contained about a gig of stuff. A Senior AppleCare Advisor was required to release the "reserved" space back to my account.


TL;DR iCloud Drive reserved 50 gigs, AppleCare Advisor fixed it.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12.4)

Posted on Mar 31, 2017 10:57 AM

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User profile for user: j12y
j12y
User level: Level 1
4 points

Posted on Jun 30, 2017 12:32 PM

If you encounter this issue not all Apple Care Advisors are aware of the issue yet but you can help them and save time for yourself by suggesting they "release backup reserve quota".


  1. Call Apple Support or schedule a time for them to contact you.
  2. Advise them that you have space being reserved for documents in your icloud drive. Presumably this is being reserved to recover files but on occasion it may still be reserved even if those files have expired and are no longer recoverable.
  3. The advisor can have you generate a pin from appleid.apple.com which will allow them to click a button in the internal support site that can "release backup reserve quota" and free up the space again.


Engineering is aware of the problem, but this at least helps alleviate the issue until resolved.


Hope that helps.

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User profile for user: j12y
j12y
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jun 30, 2017 12:32 PM in response to TommyBoii

If you encounter this issue not all Apple Care Advisors are aware of the issue yet but you can help them and save time for yourself by suggesting they "release backup reserve quota".


  1. Call Apple Support or schedule a time for them to contact you.
  2. Advise them that you have space being reserved for documents in your icloud drive. Presumably this is being reserved to recover files but on occasion it may still be reserved even if those files have expired and are no longer recoverable.
  3. The advisor can have you generate a pin from appleid.apple.com which will allow them to click a button in the internal support site that can "release backup reserve quota" and free up the space again.


Engineering is aware of the problem, but this at least helps alleviate the issue until resolved.


Hope that helps.

Reply
User profile for user: Nomeelnoj
Nomeelnoj
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jul 13, 2017 10:53 AM in response to j12y

I just called Apple to try and have them free up the 112 GB that are "reserved" out of my 200GB per month that I pay for. He claimed there was no way to do this, and that the "reserved" space is required for iCloud to operate (calculated based on your usage). I have never had more than about 80 GB store in icloud drive, yet my storage is full and I cannot get email.


I normally love Apple products and services, and am an early adopter for most things. Yet, it looks like I will be doing some research as to the best solution to keep my files in sync between my macs, as iCloud has a serious flaw that AppleCare support won't even acknowledge.


Sigh...

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iCloud Drive decided to fill up my storage tier by reserving 50 gigs. Why?

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