Best Ways to Free up Space on Your ICloud Drive
It’s easy to run out of iCloud storage space. Whether you’re using the 5GB that comes free with your iPhone or gradually upgrading to 50GB or even 200GB, many of us still run out of space. But if you want to avoid downgrading to yet another level of iCloud, you might be surprised how much junk in your iCloud account can be cleaned up. And if you don’t need to remove a lot of junk, you can move large files like photos and videos to cheaper cloud storage .
First, figure out what’s taking up all that storage space.
Start by figuring out what’s taking up so much space in your iCloud account so you can delete what you don’t need. Go to Settings > iCloud > Manage Storage . At the top you’ll see a chart and then a breakdown of what’s taking up your storage space. You’ll mostly see photos, messages, and backups at the top, but it could be iCloud Drive.
Delete backups you don’t need
Your iPhone automatically backs up to iCloud, and while most backups are useful, you may have backup files from older devices that you don’t use and no longer need. Select Backups under iCloud and then select your device backup (you can have multiple devices here too). Your iPhone will show you the total backup size and a list of apps that are backing up data to your iCloud account. Disabling apps you don’t want on iCloud can help you save space. And if you’d rather save space by backing up your iPhone to Mac, you can click Turn Off and Remove from iCloud to get rid of your entire iCloud backup. However, only do this if you already have another backup plan.
Remove unnecessary media and attachments from iMessage.
The Messages app tends to rank high on the storage list because all the photos, videos, and GIFs you share with friends are stored in your iCloud account. You can clear them in two ways: either by deleting all conversations or by deleting the media. On iPhone, go to Settings > General > Messages and scroll down to the Documents section. If you want to delete entire conversations, go to Top Conversations , click Edit , select the conversations, and click Delete to instantly get rid of all the data. This will also remove them from iCloud storage. You can also do the same for photos, videos, GIFs, and stickers on the same Messages screen.
Get rid of large videos and clean up unnecessary photos.
For most of us, the Photos app will show up at the top of your iCloud storage list, but for every good photo in your camera roll, there are probably nine unnecessary photos just taking up space. Spend some time deleting unwanted photos in the Photos app, and try to do this at least once a month. Senior Tech Editor Jake Peterson also shared his favorite way to gradually free up space in your camera roll .
You can also try the Gemini app to find duplicates or similar photos that you don’t need – it will show you a batch of photos and the best option to save. You can try the app for free for three days, which should be enough to clear your camera roll once, but then the paid plan costs $19.99 per year.
Videos obviously take up even more space. Go to Albums > Videos and delete unnecessary videos. Once complete, go to Albums > Recently Deleted and delete everything again to regain space on your iPhone and iCloud account.
Consider turning off iCloud Photo Library.
If deleting photos and videos isn’t enough, consider not using iCloud Photo Library as your photo backup solution. iCloud Photo Library is simple and built-in, but there are better and cheaper options. Both Google Photos and Microsoft OneDrive do a good job of uploading your iPhone’s photos to the cloud, and a Microsoft 365 Family subscription will get you six different accounts, each with 1 TB of storage, for $9.99 per month. You can move your entire photo library to another service and then disable iCloud Photo Library completely. Go to Settings > Photos and select Download and keep originals . This will ensure that all photos from iCloud are available on your iPhone (hopefully you have enough storage space). Then download the Microsoft OneDrive app, for example, sign in to your account, go to the Photos tab, and turn on the photo sync feature. Wait for the download to complete. OneDrive also has a bedtime feature that dims the screen, keeps the app active, and continues to download photos while you sleep. Once you’re sure all your photos are safe, go to Settings > Photos and turn off iCloud Photos to prevent new photos from being uploaded to your drive. You can then open the iCloud website on your Mac, go to Photos, and select and delete the files you no longer want stored in iCloud. (Photos will still be stored on your iPhone.)
Check if you are automatically backing up your Mac documents and desktop.
When you set up your Mac, you may have included your Desktop and Downloads folder in iCloud Drive. Apple kind of wants you to turn it on if you pay for an iCloud subscription, but that means it stores all the data in those folders on your iCloud Drive as well, which obviously takes up your paid iCloud storage. Simply disabling this feature can give you back a lot of storage space (in my case, this alone removed 20GB). On a Mac, go to System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud and under Apps that use iCloud, select iCloud Drive . Disable the Desktop and Documents folders . When you do this, your Mac will create a new folder for your desktop and documents in your Home folder, but all the original files will still be present in iCloud Drive. I suggest using simple drag and drop to move folder contents from iCloud Drive to new folders in your home directory. This will instantly free up space on your iCloud Drive.
Delete and transfer large files from iCloud Drive
Finally, check if you are storing large files and folders on iCloud Drive. The easiest way to check is on a Mac: open the Finder app and select the iCloud Drive folder in the sidebar. Go through the folders and sort the files by size. You can move large files to a local folder on your Mac with a drag-and-drop gesture, and as with photos, you can use something like Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive to back up the same files for less money.