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What to do if you run out of Cloud storage on your phone

Posted at 8:02 AM, Sep 20, 2021
and last updated 2021-09-20 11:02:47-04

It's a question a lot of us ask, especially seniors, when it comes to technology... what to do when we run out of Cloud storage on our phone?

Senior Savvy Tech Guru Abbie Richie is offering three tips, but first, she says it helps to know what the Cloud is.

In simple terms, the Cloud is storage space on the internet, instead of your phone or computer's hard drive.

Apple gives us 5 GB free, but when it's full, you'll notice you can't take photos or store other data.

That leads to the first tip. Abbie says, "Before you just upgrade, investigate, and see what is actually taking up that storage."

Whether it's photos or documents clogging up your Cloud, Abbie says there's an easy way to manage it.

Go into your settings and tap your name. Then tap iCloud and "manage storage."

Tip two: "You choose what to back up," Abbie says.

Again, she says it's easy.

Just go into settings, tap your name and get back into iCloud, and then below in the "Apps Using iCloud" section, toggle off apps you really don't need to back up.

"You really don't need to back-up all of the ones that are supported on the internet, (already) like Gmail," Abbie said.

Tip number three... Manually delete.

Most often this means going through each of your photos and manually deleting duplicates or ones you don't want to save.

But wait! Abbie says because there's one step to take first.

Go back to the "Apps Using iCloud" section and tap the "Photos" icon.

There you can select "Optimize iPhone Storage" instead of "Download and Keep Originals."

"That's going to condense your photos right away," Abbie said, which should free up space on the Cloud.

If you do have to manually delete photos, Abbie suggests doing it from a desktop, as the process is a lot quicker than manually deleting photos from your phone.

For these tips and other great tech advice, you can visit Abbie's website.