iCloud offers a space of 5Gb for free for all users. For heavy users, this space may fill up soon. Now, if you are one of them and deleted photos to clear but still the cloud is full, there may be multiple reasons behind the same. Knowing them, we can look into how to clear up your cloud space. Read through this article to get a good idea of the queries like Why is my iCloud storage full after deleting photos, along with solutions you would like to know.
If you feel your storage is full even after deleting photos, you may need to check out this article to understand the scenario and, thereby, the methods to opt for.
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Reasons for iCloud storage being full after deleting photos
It is not an issue if the device shows the memory is full even after clearing our images. Let us see the two reasons that may lead to this issue. Check out these in detail:
You have deleted photos from your local memory
While photos are synchronized with iCloud automatically on many devices, there may be some pictures that may be yet to be backed up or are stored at a local location. If you have deleted these files, the memory of the iCloud is not affected. This implies nothing is cleared in the drive memory. If this is the case, you may need to check out the photos in iCloud and then delete them to clear space.
iCloud is more than just a photo hub
Note that iCloud stores multiple sorts of documents and not just photos. To be precise, iCloud is a hub for other data that includes videos, documents, email messages, messages, and other backups. Accordingly, if you feel Why is my iCloud storage full after deleting photos, the probable reason is that other data is filling the memory.
How to clear iCloud storage?
While we comprehended multiple files that iCloud backs up if you feel Why is my iCloud storage full after deleting photos, try deleting other sorts of files to clear memory. Here let us see how to clear videos, files, and messages from iCloud.
How to Clear Videos from iCloud?
If you have cleared photos, you may be versed in the process of deleting videos as well. This is because the process for videos is almost the same:
- Step 1: Check the photos app on your phone and tap on it to open it.
- Step 2: Tap on photos on the bottom of the new screen now.
- Step 3: Find and tap on Select and then choose one or all videos that you want to delete.
- Step 4: Go to the Delete button and tap on it to delete.
How To Clear Files from iCloud?
To delete unwanted files and documents from your iOS device, check out the following steps:
- Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Step 2: Tap on your profile and then choose Photos.
- Step 3: Choose Storage and Backup from the list.
- Step 4: Now, tap on Manage Storage.
- Step 5: Now, go to Documents and Data. Now, choose the app whose document you want to delete and then delete it.
How to Clear Messages from iCloud?
Deleting messages may be similar in the initial steps as the previous lines. Let us check how to delete messages from iCloud:
- Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Step 2: Tap on your profile and then choose Photos.
- Step 3: Choose Storage and Backup from the list.
- Step 4: Now, tap on Manage Storage.
- Step 5: From the list that is available on the new screen, choose Messages.
- Step 6: Now choose Disable and delete option.
- Step 7: Tap on the Delete Messages option from the confirmation dialogue box.
Bonus Tips You May Consider
After you have cleared data, you can ensure a few tips to manage space effectively. This way, you can mitigate this situation for a longer time.
Enable Optimize Device memory
There is a dedicated option given on all the latest iOS and macOS devices. Enabling optimized device storage, the device can use its program to manage by deleting duplicates and arranging files to save on space. This option is often handy in the long term.
Here is how you can enable this option on iOS devices:
- Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Step 2: Check the photos in the settings screen.
- Step 3: Check for the Optimize iPhone storage (for phones) and tap on it to enable it.
Turn off iCloud photos temporarily
Most often, there are multiple photos that are often not needed to be backed up. In these cases, one may clear out unwanted images and then back up. For this, you may need to temporarily turn off the iCloud photos, delete them and then enable them later. Here is how you can turn off the iCloud photos:
- Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Step 2: Tap on your profile and then choose Photos.
- Step 3: In the new screen, check out and ensure the toggle button is turned off for iCloud Photos and Upload to my Photo Stream.
Delete your unwanted images from local files now, and then enable the photos from the above steps. This way, only selected pictures are backed up.
Concluding Thoughts
We hope you know Why is my iCloud storage full after deleting photos now. The reason may be simple: either you have deleted local photos, or other files like videos and messages have filled the space instead. Try checking out which of these are unwanted for you and start clearing out to see admirable free space.
Alternatively, if you think that all the files are important and are not eligible to be cleared, you can purchase additional space from iCloud too.