How To Clean Up Icloud Storage Without Paying For More

You can clear an iCloud account's storage in several ways to free up space and avoid having to pay for extra storage.
Apple gives you 5 GB of iCloud storage with the purchase of one of its devices, and that can fill up fast.
Most often, your iCloud storage goes towards backing up your photos, files, voice memos, apps, and text messages.
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Unless you pay for an iCloud subscription, Apple gives you 5GB of storage with any device's purchase. That's not a lot of space, and you can quickly find that you don't have enough room for your photos, iCloud Drive files, and other data from your phone or tablet.

You can upgrade your iCloud subscription, but it's cheaper to clear out space in your iCloud account. You can delete files, photos, app backups, voice memos, and more from your iCloud Drive directly on your Apple device or through the iCloud website.

Typically, these things and all their associated data get backed up to iCloud by default. This can be both a blessing and a curse, particularly if the things you want to be backed up take up a lot of storage space. But you can save a substantial amount of space by disabling automatic backups, especially when it comes to your largest apps.

You can also delete text messages and any of the videos or images attached to them. While deleting individual texts won't save much space, you can remove entire conversations and the media associated with them, which can help significantly.

Here's how to clear your iCloud storage and free up more space.

How to clear iCloud storage

Delete photos from iCloud storage

By default, iCloud backs up all your photos and videos to the cloud. Over time, that adds up to a lot of pictures. You can save space by deleting any images you no longer want. It's possible to do this from your iPhone, iPad, or the iCloud website. As long as Google Photos is enabled, any pictures you delete in one location are automatically deleted everywhere. Here's how to delete photos from iCloud.

Delete files and folders from the iCloud website

1. Open iCloud.com in a browser.

2. Log in with your Apple ID.

3. Click "iCloud Drive."

4. To delete a folder, select it and then click the Delete icon.

5. To delete files, double-click a folder.

6. Hold down CTRL while clicking each file.

You can remove a single or multiple iCloud files using the CTRL-key.

7. Select the Delete icon.

Delete unwanted files in iCloud Drive from your iPad or iPhone

1. On your iPhone or iPad, launch the Files app.

2. Tap "Browse" at the bottom of the screen.

3. In the Locations section, select "iCloud Drive."

You can delete files and folders to free up space in iCloud using the Files app on your iPhone or iPad.

4. To delete an entire folder, tap "Select" in the screen's top right.

5. Then, choose the folder and tap the Delete icon.

6. To delete files, open the folder they're contained in.

7. Use "Select" to choose files and delete them.

Select each file you want to delete and then send them to the trash.

Delete app backups from iCloud on your iPhone or iPad

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap your account name at the top of the screen.

3. Select "iCloud."

4. Choose "Manage Storage" on the next screen.

5. Tap "Backups."

6. A list of your Apple devices being backed up to iCloud will appear. Select the name of the device you are currently using.

7. In the Choose Data to Back Up section, you should now see a list of the five apps that take up the most space on iCloud.

8. Turn off the backup feature for any of these apps by swiping the button to the left.

You can save a lot of storage space by not backing up your largest apps.

9. To see more options and disable more apps by tapping "Show All Apps."

10. Repeat this process for any of your other Apple devices from that respective device.

Delete voice memos from iCloud on your iPhone or iPad

1. Start the Voice Memos app on your iPad or iPhone

2. Swipe a voice memo to the left.

3. Tap the Delete icon.

You can delete any voice memo, but you'll need to remove it from the Recently Deleted section to reclaim the space immediately.

4. Select "Recently Deleted."

5. Tap the recording you just deleted.

6. Choose "Delete" to permanently remove the voice memo, which will be erased on its own after 30 days.

Delete text messages and their large attachments on an iPhone or iPad

1. On your iPhone or iPad, start the Messages app.

2. Locate a conversation that has attachments you want to remove.

3. Select the person's name at the top of the screen.

4. Choose "Info."

A contact's info can often be found by tapping the "i" icon.

5. On the Details page, photos should appear in a grid. Scroll and tap the "See All Photos" link below them.

6. Tap "Select" at the top of the screen.

7. Select each photo you want to remove.

8. Tap "Delete."

9. Go to the iMessage app.

10. Select the text thread you want to delete.

11. Swipe it to the left.

This method will delete an entire conversation, including all its photo and video attachments.

12. Tap "Delete."

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

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How to access iCloud Drive on an iPhone with the Files app, so you can work on and save documents across your Apple devices
How to stop iCloud storage alerts on your iPhone in 5 easy ways
How to sign out of iCloud on all of your devices at once to keep your account secure

Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.