I have the most basic of backups and I’m constantly getting messages saying that my 5GB of storage is almost used up. I only have my iPhone backup which doesn’t include photos. I’ve tried clearing out text messages to ensure those don’t get included with large attachments.

Nothing seems to work and I almost feel like it’s worth the $12 a year to get rid of the annoying message or to try and micromanage my backup.

EDIT: wow thanks for all the responses everyone. Everyone has made a lot of good points. I did look into Apple One as well but we just don’t use the services so it looks like for our family best option is to just start off at 50GB and see where we need it from there. We’re a family of 5 with 2 iPhones and 2 iPads (soon to be a 3rd iPad for our youngest) so the storage could definitely help as our kids get older.

EDIT2: turns out I don’t pay attention to our credit card bill that closely. Wife already has the 50GB for iCloud+ so I had her add me to the family sharing. Problem solved!

iCloud storage (200gig) is full and the next option up is 2tb, 10x as much. Pretty disappointing…

I’ve used their $2.99/200GB plan for years now. My data is creeping over 200GB, so now my only option is to spend more than triple that for way more data than I need: $9.99/2TB.

It’s just so annoying that they won’t at least let you stack them: e.g. 200GB x 2…

My current iCloud plan is the 6TB plan. I have my iPhone, an iPad Pro, a MacBook Air, an iMac, an Apple Watch, and my mom’s iPad A16 and MacBook Pro all on the “family plan”. For the longest time I had the 2TB storage plan which is $9.99 a month. That’s reasonable. However, my storage is now at 2.4TB. The next tier is the 6TB option which is $29.99 a month. Why they don’t have a 4TB level seems silly. I’m not sure if I should try to figure out how to reduce enough space off the cloud to get back on the lower plan or if I just should suck it up. My thought is that even if I can get back down to the lower tier, I’m ultimately going to have to subscribe to a second service. I do have Dropbox Plus (all my work stuff and pre-iPhone photos, and other documents live here), but that is also a 2TB plan and already has 1.61GB of storage used. I also don’t want dozens of apps storing my data and then trying to figure out where things are. Curious how other people have handled this or if they have any tips or tricks? Thanks!

I’m currently out of iCloud storage space so the next available option is 2TB of storage which costs 9.99 a month. I feel like this is too much space and too much money. Is iCloud space necessary? Or is there another option? Thank you!

I do take pictures a lot and not so much on videos. I don't really want to spend too much on storage that I may not all use.

Hi all, I’m a bit confused about iCloud storage. My spouse set up a 2TB family plan ($9.99/month), but we ran out of space due to my 4k 60fps videos. iOS suggested I add another 2TB, which I did, so now we’re paying an extra $9.99/month.

I assumed this would give us 4TB total, but I only see 2TB for myself, with 1.8TB used and 200GB left, while my wife still has her 2TB. Despite family photo sharing working fine, the storage doesn’t seem to be combined.

Is there a way to pool the storage, or is this how it's supposed to work?

EDIT: I don't think I want to go the NAS route, just appreciate having low res of all photos / videos on hand at all times even though it's a bit irrational. Also definitely don't need to shoot everything on this but it's kinda funky how you get used to the quality and now even 4k 30fps looks less "alive".

I have a 2TB storage plan from iCloud and it is almost running full. It took my quite some years. And in those years I over paid (obviously not all storage was full). I have 2 other family members (good for 600 GB of data I guess).

I am investigating my options.

* Upgrading to 6 TB. I will pay years and years 20 euros per month until filled.

* Ditch my shared 2 TB and let my Family members take they own 1 TB (possible?)

* Move away from iCloud and store my stuff somewhere else.

Are there any more options?

Seriously, why can I not pay per 100 GB, in different storage tiers? Like until 1 TB, each 100 GB =93,132 GiB 2 euro, between 1 and 2 TB each 100GB costs 1,25 euro and between 2 and 4 TB each GB will cost 1 euro. Paid when used.

Family of 5: 4 iPads, 4 iPhones, 1 MacBook Pro.

I want to move away from the subscription. It costs over $50 a month where I live and it’s just become too expensive. I can do without all the features, except cloud storage. For example my wife uses around 560 gb primarily photos, which we don’t want to lose. Anybody know of any solutions where I can navigate away from iCloud? Im willing to pay just not the current price.

Edit: sorry guys, yes the subscription is Apple one. In Canada costs ~$51-52 tax in.

You’ve got 210 GB of data on iCloud. Not enough for the 200 GB plan, but definitely too little to justify a full 2 TB. Apple’s response? “Here’s your $120/year for all the cloud storage you didn’t ask for.” It’s like going to a buffet and being told you must eat the entire tray of lasagna or leave hungry. Help us, Apple!

Hi all,

I would like to hear some opinions about Apple's iCloud storage plans pricing.

I own a 256GB phone and yesterday I was "forced" to move from the 200 GB plan to the 2 TB one, with the price spiking from €2.99 to €9.99 monthly.

My first concern is why Apple has made such a big gap in storage plans: 200 to 2000? why not a 500 GB plan? or a 1 TB plan?

I could try to clear my photo gallery a bit, sure, but I would eventually end up in the same situation soon enough, where 200GB is not enough and I'd have to upgrade again, but I am pretty sure I will never use any more than 250 GB, considering that my phne holds 256GB data tops and the other family members don't use that much of storage.

Anyone else feel the same? Do you think Apple's prices for iCloud storage are fair? Should we get bigger free storage plans? (5GB is riddiculous..)

hey guys, how worth it is icloud? i have a macbook and an iphone. is it worth getting 1tb or even 50gb?

For years the 200GB plan was enough for me, but as me and my family take more and more pictures we had to move to the 2TB plan. I’m paying for it as I’m using 90% of it right now.

As time goes on, I see this as a problem, since at some point in the future I will also max out the 2TB storage limit. So I’m wondering if any of you guys have figured out a simple method for backing up pictures off the cloud while still keeping it fairly easy to browse. This way, I could only keep the last 2 years of pictures on my cloud and never exceed 200GB.

I don't like paying for full price for stuff like this, and would like to know. Apple really ought to offer a discount for this. Thanks.

I, my wife, and other family members have 400GB, 1TB, and 400GB photos, respectively, plus some files stored in a family shared 2T iCloud storage. We've been using the 2T plan for many years, and we're satisfied with and get used to iCloud storage, which makes photos and files accessible anytime and on all Apple devices. Because of iCloud, we usually buy iPhones or iPads with a minimum storage (like 64GB iPhone 11) and only keep optimized small versions of photos on the devices.

But recently:

1. I find the joys of using Chromebook/Android/Linux/Windows, which makes me wonder if there is a more general storage plan.

2. As you see, 2T iCloud storage is near full; we don't want to pay more. We found that although we can access photos conveniently on every Apple device, we seldom access them on every device. All the original photos are just lying on iCloud and all the optimized versions on each device.

3. 99%+ of our iCloud storage is photos; I found the free 5G storage is enough for us to sync important files that need to be on the cloud.

4. We have had a 1T Samsung T7 SSD, a 5T Western Digit Passport Ultra HDD, and a 2T HDD, but due to the convenient iCloud, they are just laying on the shelf and seldom used. (Although we should use them as a backup, we're just a little lazy...). I thought I shouldn't waste them.

5. SSDs are cheaper than ever in China due to competition from domestic storage companies. Money from 1-year 2T iCloud storage can buy me a 1T Samsung T7 SSD.

So I'm trying to turn off Photos sync and move all the photos to external SSDs/HDDs. Here are my plans:

1. 1T SSD for me, 2T for my wife as the first backup, and share a 5T HDD as the second backup.

2. 1T SSD for other family members as the first backup, and share a 2T HDD as the second backup.

3. All important files are also saved on laptop's internal storage and on iCloud and Google Drive.(using the free plan)

The moving part is actually pretty easy; I just copy the photos library to an external drive and set it as the primary library, then change to original photos in iCloud settings and wait a long time for the Photos app to download all.

I found one iCloud was just downloading normally, but another with normal "Downloading xxx Originals" but stuck without acutal downloading no matter I restarted Macbook or reopened Photos. So I selected all the photos and chose File > Play Slideshow, which made Photos to download finally and quickly rather than just leaving it alone to download in the background.

After all the downloads, I deleted the library file on Macbook and iOS, turned off Photos iCloud sync.

More unsuccessful attempts and tips:

1. I tried to download all the original photos and export all to ssd, but I found it time-consuming.

2. Opening a folder with a large number of photos on SSD is very slow. I can't find free and better software than Photos on MacOS to manage those TB-sized photos.

3. Apple Data and Privacy is another way to download all your photos. I chose to let Apple divide 25GB per file to download, but I found the download process is unstable, which made me confused about whether all the files are downloaded.

4. Do not unzip large .zip files and manage a large number of photos directly on HDD, which will take a lot of time. HDDs are better as second backup for SSD.