Ultimate Guide: How to Manage & Free Up iCloud Storage

Are you tired of seeing that “iCloud Storage Full” notification on your iPhone? It’s frustrating when your phone storage gets full, leaving no room for your pictures, apps, and important files.

But don’t worry! In this article, we are going to show you how to manage iCloud storage. Whether you are an iPhone photographer or a busy professional juggling with documents, we have you covered. 

Say goodbye to the days of unwillingly deleting cherished memories or buying iCloud storage. We will walk you through effective tips on how to free up iCloud storage while keeping your important stuff. Let’s get started!

Further Reading: How to Transfer Data from iCloud to iCloud >>

What Is iCloud Storage?

If you’re an Apple user, then you probably know that every iOS user gets about 5GB of free iCloud storage. iCloud storage is like a virtual storage space for all your digital stuff. It’s where you can keep your photos, videos, documents, and other important files. Think of it as a giant cloud attic for your digital belongings. 

The amazing part is that you can access your stuff from any of your Apple devices, like your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It’s like having your own personal locker in the sky!

But like a real attic, your iCloud storage can fill up over time. When that happens, you might get annoying notifications telling you you’re running out of space. Not fun, right? 

There are ways to manage and free up your iCloud storage. We’ll show you simple tips to clear the clutter and make room for new memories and files. Let’s see how! 

How to Manage iCloud Storage?

You can start by looking at what’s taking up your memory when managing your iCloud storage

See What’s Taking Space in iCloud

How to see iCloud storage? Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage to see your iCloud storage on your iPhone.

Managing your iCloud storage doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Just by following a few straightforward steps, you can take control of your storage space and keep things running smoothly. Here’s how to do it:

Manage iCloud Storage

Follow the instructions given below to manage iCloud storage on your iPhone effectively:

• Assess your storage usage

Start by understanding what is taking up the most space in your iCloud storage. Go to your iCloud storage, as shown earlier, to see a breakdown of your storage usage. You will see and get to know where most of your space is being used.

• Clean up your phone library

Photos and videos often occupy a major amount of iCloud storage. Review your gallery and delete any duplicates, blurry, or unwanted images. You can also export your media to your computer or an external hard drive.

• Manage app data

Some apps can use up a major amount of iCloud storage. Check the apps using iCloud and consider disabling those not crucial to your daily use. Go to the iCloud Storage menu. From there, tap on an app to see the data it’s storing and choose whether to delete or disable iCloud backup for that app. 

• Manage iCloud storage

iCloud automatically creates backups of your device’s data. However, these backups can take up a significant amount of storage. Regularly review your backups and delete any old or unnecessary ones. You can manage your backups through the iCloud settings on your device. 

We saw how to manage iCloud storage on iPhone. Now, let’s move towards freeing up the space.

How to Free Up iCloud Storage Space?

If your iCloud storage is running low, it’s time to free up some space by removing things you don’t need. There are different ways to do that. Let’s explore some effective ways to clean up your iCloud storage.

Way 1. Clean Your Mailbox to Free Up iCloud Storage

While clearing the iCloud storage space, the mailbox is one of the first areas to tackle. An average person can receive a lot of promotional emails every day. Over time these emails can start to pile up and occupy a significant amount of storage in iCloud.

Steps to free up iCloud Mail storage

1. Go through your inbox and identify emails that you no longer need. Delete all promotional emails, newsletters, and other messages that have served the purpose. 
2. The deleted emails go into the trash folder. Take a moment and delete all the emails from there too.
3. Large attachments can take a hefty amount of storage. Identify those emails, and save the attachments on your computer if needed. Then delete the emails.

Following the above steps, you can clean up your mailbox and free up iCloud storage. Or you can try the next way.

Way 2. Transfer & Backup iCloud Data to PC to Clear iCloud Storage Directly [Recommended]

Another way to clear iCloud storage is by transferring your data to a PC. You must think of it as a hassle, but let us introduce AnyTrans – iPhone Data Manager, which will make the job easier for you. With AnyTrans, you can back up all your iPhone data to your PC in just a few simple steps.

This powerful tool is not just limited to data transferring. It has many other features as well. If you are an iOS user and need an app to manage, transfer, and back up your data easily and quickly, just getting AnyTrans will be enough! Let’s check what it can do for you:

Key Features

• With AnyTrans, you can transfer contacts, photos, videos, messages, ringtones, music, and other iPhone data from your old iPhone to your new iPhone 15.
• 1-click to scan, analyze, and backup data without compromising the quality. 
• Unlike restoring from iTunes or iCloud backup, the transfer will not overwrite any existing data on your iPhone.
• Supports freely choosing what you want to transfer, so you can selectively transfer data more conveniently.
• And if you are an Android user, AnyTrans is able to switch from Android to the new iPhone.

Free get AnyTrans and follow the steps to transfer & backup iCloud data to PC:

Step 1. Download and launch AnyTrans on your computer > Select the iCloud Manager option, and then sign in to your iCloud account.

Step 2. Click Connect to PC option on the right. Now Anytrans will load all the files on your iCloud storage. 

Step 3. Select the files or categories you want to export to your PC and click Next. Your iCloud data will start to export to your PC. 

Once the export process is completed, you can click view files to locate exported data on the computer.

Way 3. Delete Files from iCloud Drive to Reduce iCloud Storage

One more effective way to free up iCloud storage is deleting files from iCloud Drive. Sometimes plenty of documents you no longer need are saved on iCloud Drive. Deleting them will allow you to get rid of unnecessary files and free up valuable space.

Steps to delete files from iCloud Storage

1. Assess the files stored in your iCloud Drive. Look at each folder and file and determine which ones you no longer need or can safely delete.
2. After identifying the files you want to remove, select them and delete them from iCloud Drive.
3. Deleted files go into the “Recently Deleted” folder. Open the “Recently Deleted” folder in iCloud Drive and delete the files from there.
4. You might have files you don’t often access but still want to keep. You can offload them from iCloud Drive to your local device storage. 

In this way, you can effortlessly reduce your iCloud Storage usage. But if you don’t want to delete your files, go for another method.

Way 4. Save WhatsApp Backups to PC with 1-Click [HOT]

Whatsapp is the most common medium of communication nowadays. No doubt, text messages won’t take up much space, but the media, such as photos, videos, and audio, can. You need to delete them to reduce iCloud Storage. Otherwise, there is an option to back up all of your WhatsApp data to your PC with AnyTrans.

As a professional data management tool, AnyTrans not only provides an easy and safe way to manage your files on iOS devices but also allows you to transfer WhatsApp Messages from your iOS device to your computer.

Steps to backup WhatsApp data to PC:

Step 1. Free get AnyTrans on your computer >  Connect your iPhone via USB cable.

Step 2. Once your iOS device is recognized, you will see the main interface. Select Social Messages Manager and then click Back Up WhatsApp.

Step 3. You must turn on Enable Backup Encryption to keep your backup safe and private. Then click Back Up Now to proceed.

AnyTrans will start the backup process. Once it’s done, you will see the below interface, you can tap on View button to locate the backup on your computer.

Way 5. Restrict Apps to Free Up iCloud Storage

Sometimes, you may notice you don’t have much media on your iPhone, but iCloud Storage is still full. In that case, storage may be occupied by apps. To solve this issue, you need to restrict apps from using iCloud Storage. It will stop them from backing up their data to iCloud, ultimately making storage space.

Steps to delete files from iCloud Storage

1. Identify which apps are utilizing iCloud for data storage. Go to your device’s Settings > Apple ID > iCloud. From there, select Manage Account Storage to view the list of apps using iCloud.
2. Review the list of apps and determine which ones you can do without their data being backed up to iCloud. 
3. After identifying the apps, return to the list of apps using iCloud. Tap on each app and look for an option to turn off iCloud backup or storage. 

You can save significant storage space by restricting apps from using iCloud for backup.

How to Increase iCloud Storage

You can easily increase the storage capacity if you run out of iCloud storage. Go to your device’s Settings, tap your name, and select iCloud > Manage Account Storage.

Choose “Upgrade to iCloud+” and pick the plan that suits your needs and budget. It’s a hassle-free way to get more space for your files, backups, and everything else you want to store in iCloud. 

The Bottom Line

We hope the methods explained in this article have helped you find out how to free up iCloud storage on your iPhone. Now you don’t have to take it on your nerves if your storage gets full; you can follow any suitable way and free your iCloud storage. 

However, AnyTrans is an all-in-one manager for your iPod, iPad, iPhone, iTunes, and iCloud content. If you find it daunting to back up the data to your computer, download AnyTrans. This tool will help you manage your iCloud storage hassle-free.