With the recent demise of free iCloud storage for MobileMe users, many people are wondering whether they need to pay for more iCloud storage to keep their iOS devices backed up. A free iCloud account comes with 5 GB storage, and paid upgrades are available. But how much of that 5 GB do you really need? (To be fair, 5 GB is really stingy; Yahoo! is now offering 1 TB of storage for its email; not that you’d ever use anywhere near that amount…)
You can check by looking on your iOS device. Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage. You’ll see how much space is used by your different devices, by different apps (Documents & Data), and by iCloud email.
In the screenshot to the right, you can see my 64 GB iPhone; it’s almost full with music, so why is the backup only 188 MB? This can be confusing; from some emails I’ve gotten recently, people think that iCloud backs up is all or most of the content on your iOS device.
Apple has a support document which explains what gets backed up:
- Purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books
- Photos and videos in your Camera Roll
- Device settings
- App data
- Home screen and app organization
- iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
- Ringtones
- Visual Voicemail
Your iCloud backup includes information about the content you have purchased, but not the purchased content itself. When you restore from an iCloud backup, your purchased content is automatically downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBookstore based on iTunes in the Cloud availability by country. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they have been refunded or are no longer available in the store.
Your iOS device backup only includes data and settings stored on your device. It doesn’t include data already stored in iCloud, for example contacts, calendars, bookmarks, mail messages, notes, shared photo streams, and documents you save in iCloud using iOS apps and Mac apps.
As the above says, iCloud doesn’t actually back up that much; it backs up settings and links to apps and other iTunes Store content, as well as photos and documents. But it doesn’t back up any actual apps, music or videos, so none of these will use any of your iCloud storage.
The main case where your iOS device backup will be large is if you have a lot of photos or videos (that you’ve shot) on your device. If you’ve already moved those photos to your computer, you can turn off photo backups to save space. In the Manage Storage screen, tap on your iOS device, then toggle off Camera Roll. While you’re at it, you can turn off backups for other apps too; just find them in the list, and toggle their backups off. This will not only save space, but make iCloud backups quicker.
You may also have some apps that store large documents; in that case, these documents will get backed up. If you don’t need backups of a specific app’s documents, you can turn that app off in the above settings. (For example, you may have an app you use to view PDFs or photos, that you use for work; if you have copies of the files on your computer, there’s no need to back them up to iCloud.)
Also, if you use Mac apps that store documents in iCloud – notably Apple’s Pages, Keynote or Numbers, but many others can as well – you may need more storage space for them. Also, if you have a lot of iCloud email, that will take up space. (You can always cull your email, moving some of it to your computer.) But if you don’t use iCloud for large documents, and don’t have a lot of email, you may find that 5 GB is enough for a couple of iOS devices.
So check what you need to back up. You might be able to trim your backups and save money on iCloud storage.
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How has your experience been with photo backup? I recently upgraded to a 5s from a 4 and had lots of issues getting photos restored. Thankfully I had turned on dropbox photo uploader and didn’t lose everything. I had been assuming that pretty much every photo I took on my phone was being backed up; what I found was that at some point photos were lost. Apple told me that it backs up the most recent 1,000 photos or all photos in last 30 days, but seeing as I had less than 1,000 photos I don’t think it’s as simple as that.
I’ve always backed up my iOS devices to my Mac before upgrading. So when I got my 5s, I backed up my 5 first, then restored from the local backup. I only use the iCloud backup as emergency protection, in case I have a problem when away from home.
It’s PhotoStream that is limited to the most recent 1,000 photos. And PhotoStream is not a backup, it’s merely a convenience and an always-rolling temporary copy of your last 1,000 photos. It does not save every single photo you take to PhotoStream, anyone who’s ever checked will notice a substantial amount of missing photos. There must be some criteria that have to be met before a photo successfully gets uploaded to PhotoStream…
Your iTunes or iCloud backup however, should have 100% of your Camera Roll backed up, regardless of how big it is, as long as you have enough disk/cloud space for the backup to complete.
BUT if items in your photo stream are older than 30 days (even if you only 500), I think they aren’t kept in the cloud anymore (even if you still see them on your device).
How has your experience been with photo backup? I recently upgraded to a 5s from a 4 and had lots of issues getting photos restored. Thankfully I had turned on dropbox photo uploader and didn’t lose everything. I had been assuming that pretty much every photo I took on my phone was being backed up; what I found was that at some point photos were lost. Apple told me that it backs up the most recent 1,000 photos or all photos in last 30 days, but seeing as I had less than 1,000 photos I don’t think it’s as simple as that.
I’ve always backed up my iOS devices to my Mac before upgrading. So when I got my 5s, I backed up my 5 first, then restored from the local backup. I only use the iCloud backup as emergency protection, in case I have a problem when away from home.
It’s PhotoStream that is limited to the most recent 1,000 photos. And PhotoStream is not a backup, it’s merely a convenience and an always-rolling temporary copy of your last 1,000 photos. It does not save every single photo you take to PhotoStream, anyone who’s ever checked will notice a substantial amount of missing photos. There must be some criteria that have to be met before a photo successfully gets uploaded to PhotoStream…
Your iTunes or iCloud backup however, should have 100% of your Camera Roll backed up, regardless of how big it is, as long as you have enough disk/cloud space for the backup to complete.
BUT if items in your photo stream are older than 30 days (even if you only 500), I think they aren’t kept in the cloud anymore (even if you still see them on your device).
forgot to check the “email me follow up comments” box, adding this comment so I see any responses.
forgot to check the “email me follow up comments” box, adding this comment so I see any responses.
Please help me reconcile:
A) “Apple has a support document which explains what gets backed up:” … “Photos and videos in your Camera Roll”
B) “But it doesn’t back up any actual apps, music or videos, so none of these will use any of your iCloud storage.”
Which way is it on videos specifically?
I swear I just did a restore and it put videos back.
Where else could videos actually be? AFAIK, every time I’ve taken a video with an app, not Apple’s Camera app, they’ve ended up there.
Yes, I’ve corrected the article to include “videos that you’ve shot.” It doesn’t back up videos that you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store, or other videos that you sync via iTunes.
Please help me reconcile:
A) “Apple has a support document which explains what gets backed up:” … “Photos and videos in your Camera Roll”
B) “But it doesn’t back up any actual apps, music or videos, so none of these will use any of your iCloud storage.”
Which way is it on videos specifically?
I swear I just did a restore and it put videos back.
Where else could videos actually be? AFAIK, every time I’ve taken a video with an app, not Apple’s Camera app, they’ve ended up there.
Yes, I’ve corrected the article to include “videos that you’ve shot.” It doesn’t back up videos that you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store, or other videos that you sync via iTunes.
The trick with photos and videos on your cameral roll is to import them into your PC or Mac and then delete them from the device when your computer prompts you to. Then, use iTunes to sync them back into your device. In photos, these will all appear in Library and not be backed up.
You can have thousands of photos on your device and iCloud will still back up whatever is in your camera roll, i.e. the few photos you have taken since the last import.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236
The trick with photos and videos on your cameral roll is to import them into your PC or Mac and then delete them from the device when your computer prompts you to. Then, use iTunes to sync them back into your device. In photos, these will all appear in Library and not be backed up.
You can have thousands of photos on your device and iCloud will still back up whatever is in your camera roll, i.e. the few photos you have taken since the last import.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236
I wish you could have explained why Apple gives us such small storage space compared to the likes of yahoo, google, etc.
Flickr gives users one terabyte of free storage. Their new ios app update allows you to automatically upload photos to your account, in full resolution. This kinda works as a Trojan Horse for yahoo, by pulling users to their ecosystem. Surely, Apple can not want this.
If Apple is serious about icloud, they would give users vast amounts of free (or super cheap) storage. I’m sure they would much prefer I keep my content in their cloud and ecosystem. They have to choose between up front profits from selling additional storage, or the risk of losing users to another cloud ecosystem.
I think the latter is very dangerous for Apple.
I agree, and I wish I knew why they’re so skimpy. They already cut back from the 20 GB iDisk to the total of 5 GB for storage. And, I miss the iDisk, though Dropbox has replaced it for the most part.
But the 20GB iDisk was $100 a year and now the 5GB is free. But I think they should give us 5GB iCloud per each device (including desktops/laptops). PLUS, I think we should get a bonus for buying iDevices with more storage (if I get a 32GB or 64GB iPhone, I want some more iCloud space!), even if it’s just additional storage for a limited time limit (2 years, the length of a phone contract).
I wish you could have explained why Apple gives us such small storage space compared to the likes of yahoo, google, etc.
Flickr gives users one terabyte of free storage. Their new ios app update allows you to automatically upload photos to your account, in full resolution. This kinda works as a Trojan Horse for yahoo, by pulling users to their ecosystem. Surely, Apple can not want this.
If Apple is serious about icloud, they would give users vast amounts of free (or super cheap) storage. I’m sure they would much prefer I keep my content in their cloud and ecosystem. They have to choose between up front profits from selling additional storage, or the risk of losing users to another cloud ecosystem.
I think the latter is very dangerous for Apple.
I agree, and I wish I knew why they’re so skimpy. They already cut back from the 20 GB iDisk to the total of 5 GB for storage. And, I miss the iDisk, though Dropbox has replaced it for the most part.
But the 20GB iDisk was $100 a year and now the 5GB is free. But I think they should give us 5GB iCloud per each device (including desktops/laptops). PLUS, I think we should get a bonus for buying iDevices with more storage (if I get a 32GB or 64GB iPhone, I want some more iCloud space!), even if it’s just additional storage for a limited time limit (2 years, the length of a phone contract).
Maybe they just aren’t ready to support larger amounts of data. You lose 5gb, you aren’t complaining so much. You lose 350gb of precious moments video and pics and your’e pulling out pitchforks.
Maybe they just aren’t ready to support larger amounts of data. You lose 5gb, you aren’t complaining so much. You lose 350gb of precious moments video and pics and your’e pulling out pitchforks.