How do i delete old backups from icloud

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Step-by-step guide to clear old iPhone backups from iTunes and iCloud

We always advise to make a backup of the contents of our iPhone when we are going to do the Jailbreak , update or restore the operating system. This is important because the software can be corrupted at any time, either by updating or by interacting with a malicious application. To make backups we have two options, one is through iTunes and another is through  iCloud , whatever your choice, we can find the need to eliminate older backups of the iPhone . You can also retrieve deleted icloud backups. Do this on your Mac or windows computer.

Apple is always trying to improve the experience that their users have with their products. One of these tries is the iCloud service, a cloud storage service that allows you to backup your files and data, to use things like Apple Calendar, iWork, and also as an application distribution service. In order to eliminate the need of having to create backups in our computer, Apple incorporates this functionality into the new versions of its products and operating systems.

It is very common that the content of our iPhone increases quickly, including the photos and videos we have taken with our phone. Many of these files will be left over time so they occupy space in iCloud or iTunes. However, not all of these files are needed, in which case it would be nice to be able to eliminate them without worrying that something important is vanishing. That’s why today we offer different ways to delete old backups from iCloud and iTunes

Regardless of the method we use to make backups to iPhone, iTunes or iCloud , then we will see how to delete these copies, it is important to keep in mind that this procedure is the same for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch . How do i delete old backups from icloud

Delete an iTunes backup

It is not necessary to have the device connected to the computer to perform this operation. We will only have to be clear which copy or backups we want to delete, keep in mind that this deletion is definitive and can not be recovered. It is best to delete the oldest ones. For this we have to: How do i delete old backups from icloud Do this on your Mac or windows computer.

  1. Open  iTunes .
  2. Access iTunes > Preferences ( in Windows Edit> Preferences ) and tap Devices
  3. This screen displays a list of the devices backing up to this iTunes account (Apple ID) and the dates on which they are made. To delete one, we will only have to select it and click on ” Delete backup “, if we want to delete more than one, we will only have to hold down the command key while we select them.
  4. A popup will prompt you to confirm the deletion and you are done.

Delete or delete an iCloud backup

To remove the backups stored in iCloud we can use iPhone or Mac . Let’s see how to erase an iCloud backup directly from our iOS device (iPhone, iPad). How do i delete old backups from icloud

  1. Follow the path Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage storage .
  2. Below, in the COPIES section  we will have a list of the available copies.
  3. Select the copy you want to delete and click on it.
  4. Then scroll down until you see the ” Delete Copy ” option .
  5. At this point a window will appear informing you that deleting this copy will disable the backup service, click on ” Disable and delete ” .

If you want to keep backing up automatically in iCloud through the iPhone you have to go back to Settings> iCloud and re-activate the backups.

To remove the copies of iCloud through the Mac we will have to:

  1. Access System Preferences using Spotlight or > System Preferences .
  2. Go to iCloud and click on the ” Manage … ” button that appears at the bottom right.
  3. Select Copies on the left, here we can see on the Mac the iPhone backups that you currently have in iCloud .
  4. Select the one you want to delete and press Delete .
  5. A verification window will appear, Confirm  the deletion and you are done.

You can also retrieve deleted icloud Contacts. Do this on your Mac or windows computer.

How to save space on iCloud by deleting old backups you no longer need

The 5 Gb of iCloud should be enough if you have one or two Apple devices connected to the account. But from time to time we renew our terminal and we sell the old one, or we just leave it parked in a drawer, if when you activated the new iPhone or iPad you configured it as new device you will still have in your iCloud account the backup of the old one and you will add The new, because for Apple are two separate and separate devices. 

As an example I put my own case, after buying my iPhone 6 I configured it as new iPhone and did not apply backup, now I have in my iCloud account three devices, two iPhone and an iPad, one of the iPhone should not be because it is The old, but having configured the iPhone 6 as a new iPhone for iCloud is still active. So I’m taking up a precious space in iCloud that I could use for something else, so let’s delete it. 

You can also retrieve deleted icloud Photos. Do this on your Mac or windows computer.

How to delete old iCloud backups

Deleting the old backup copies of iCloud is very simple, follow these steps:

Step 1- Open Settings on the iPhone

Step 2- Do a little scroll down, look for the iCloud tab and touch it.

Step 3-  Touch Storage

Step 4 –  How do you see I have 3 Gb. Occupied right now, when we finish we will have saved a few megs. Now touch Manage Storage .

Step 5-  In my case I have 3 backups saved in iCloud, the same iPhone will indicate which is the device you are using, in my case I am interested in eliminating the second copy that is the old iPhone and occupies no less than 606 , 8 Mb. Tap on the backup you want to delete.

Step 6  Now you only have to touch Delete Copy to start the process once you confirm it.

And already, as you see in the capture below I have 600 Mb more than before I started and I have also removed the old iCloud device.

How to erase all backups on iCloud from your iPhone or iPad and gain space on it

Although I’m still not getting much out of iCloud , I mainly use it to synchronize the calendar, I’m sure it’s going to be an essential part of managing my devices in the very near future. 

This does not use much iCloud storage, but when I check their capacity is depleted by the backups of my iOS devices , if you want to delete this copy of iCloud you do not need to use the Mac, you can do it from the ipad Or the iPhone.

To remove the backup of your iPhone or iPad in iCloud and get some more space you have to follow this route Settings> iCloud> Storage and copies

You can also retrieve deleted icloud Photos and videos.

Here we enter the section Manage storage , where are the copies of devices stored in iCloud, I only have the iPhone, the iPad removed yesterday, we click on the account to debug.

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We enter the copy that we want to delete , we find a new window.

Now we only have to give the Delete Copy field   , iCloud no longer has your copy, now only have a backup of the contents of your iPad or iPhone in iTunes.

When deleting the copy, you can save a copy of iCloud calendar, reminder, and bookmark data to your iOS device once you delete the copy .

We ran out of space on iCloud, what can we do?

Making an important use of the services offered by iCloud can lead to the initial space, which Apple provides to all its users for free, to be completely used. This would mean that the user could not make full use of the tools that iCloud provides us with this lack of space. So what possibilities do we have to continue using iCloud?

ICloud is Apple’s cloud storage system . From here, we offer a series of services such as email, calendar, calendar, notes, backup and editing and document backup, spreadsheets and presentations from iWork to iCloud among other tools. All this implies the need to have a storage space . First and for free, Apple offers 5 GB, space that may become scarce for most users. In case of occupying this initial storage completely, we bring you some tricks that we can use to reduce this used space.

You can also retrieve deleted icloud messages and Notes. Do this on your Mac or windows computer.

Copy your photos and delete them to gain space

Undoubtedly, we started this series of tips with one of the elements that more space will occupy in our iCloud account and even in our device. We talk about the photos we make from our device .

Nowadays, using the iPhone camera to take snapshots of our best moments has become a normal thing, even making us put aside our compact. For this reason, and due to the weight of the photographs, our space will be depleted by the large number of photographs that we can achieve.

For this, the best way to free this space is to delete the photographs . Of course, we do not want these to be lost forever so we will have to make a copy prior to the removal. I recently told you some ways to save your photos to iOS . With this we will be able to free up space in iCloud and also free space in our device. How do i delete old backups from icloud and multiple devices (iOS)

Cleaning in your email

Another way to free up storage space in our iCloud account is by deleting emails from our iCloud email .

Certain emails come loaded with large attachments that will add and add to our 5 GB of initial storage leaving us trembling when the amount of emails is excessive. So, watch out for chain mail, spam, and keep those that you’re really going to miss. Your iCloud storage space will thank you .

Delete documents and data from iCloud

Another way to get rid of some other ballast is by removing some documents or data from the applications that we use daily and that we may not need.

To do this we doing the next: 

  • We go to Settings , iCloud , Storage and Copy and once inside we click on Manage storage .
  • We will see a section that says Documents and Data . This section will contain the applications and the total size used of each one. Now we have to click on the one we want to diet .
  • Once selected, click in the upper left corner on Edit and we can select the document or data to be deleted or, if we see in the final part, we can click Delete all with the corresponding time saving if what we want is to get rid of everything.

So we can do with all those applications that have been fattening over time that have been used. Usually, the space gained with this option is minimal but, always come a few mega free more. How do i delete old backups from icloud and multiple devices (iOS)

Choose which items will be part of the backup

Many applications that we install on our device, are automatically included in the list to be backed up and safeguard your data . This, coupled with the data of our system makes this reach sizes that will shake the 5 GB that Apple offers us for free.

To change which applications will be part of this backup copy in iCloud and remove the data of the applications of your space from the backup, we will do the following:

  • We go to Settings , iCloud , click on Storage and copy and there we press Manage storage . So far, same steps as the previous trick.
  • In the section Copies of this menu, we will select the device that we want to manage.
  • And now, inside the box that says Backup Options we can select those applications that we want to be part of the copy in iCloud or, we can clear it to prevent this application from backing up your data in your copy in iCloud.

When we back up iCloud storage, it collects system data, photos and videos, and third-party application data.

Check all your iOS devices

This is a logical thing and may seem silly, but if you have multiple devices associated with your iCloud account, you need to manage the storage that these devices use .

It is possible that, even though your current device is theoretically only half the storage, the warning message appears that your iCloud storage has been depleted. When this happens, it is mandatory to check the other associated devices to see where this excess data is being shed. How do i delete old backups from icloud and multiple devices (iOS)

Buy more space on iCloud

If, by applying all the above measures, you can not reduce the space enough , you may have to choose to expand your maximum storage available in your iCloud account.

For this, this time if, you must go through the box . The prices of this extra storage vary between the 16 – with an extra capacity of 10 GB – and the 80 euros – with 50 GB to add to the previous 5. There is also an intermediate option , in which our storage would be increased by 20 GB at a price of 32 euros per year.

 
 

If we want to buy this extra space, we go to Settings and look for the iCloud section . Once inside, click on Storage and copy . There, we will find the option to Change the storage plan where we will have to select the plan that best suits our need and economic capacity and buy it.

With the advent of iCloud , Apple users saw a good way to keep all their data, photos and other information securely and in the cloud. But all this takes up space and, if we do not tread carefully, we will soon see the notice that our storage is exhausted. For this, nothing better than these little tricks that will help us keep our iCloud account cleaner as well as avoiding us having to acquire extra space.

ICloud: Remove a backup from an iCloud iOS device

To free iCloud storage space, you can delete the full iCloud backup of an iOS device, for example, from a device you no longer have. If you are restoring a device from an iCloud backup, you must wait for the recovery operation to complete to remove the copy.

WARNING: If you delete the iCloud backup from your iOS device, iCloud will stop performing automatic backups.

Instead of backing up your iOS device on iCloud, you can back it up with iTunes. For information, see the iTunes Help topic Backing up iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad .

Delete a backup using your iOS device

  1. Go to Settings> [ your name ]> iCloud> Storage (or Settings> iCloud> Storage) and touch Manage storage.
  2. Touch the name of a device whose backup you do not need, and then tap Delete backup.

Delete a backup from the Mac

  1. Select Apple menu> System Preferences, click on iCloud and then on Manage.
  2. On the left, click Backup. Then, to the right, select an iOS device for which you do not need a backup, and then click Delete.If you do not see Backups on the left, it means that your iOS devices do not have iCloud backups. For more information, see Back up your iOS device to iCloud .

Delete a backup from a Windows computer

  1. Open iCloud for Windows and click Storage.
  2. On the left, click Backup. Then, to the right, select an iOS device for which you do not need a backup, and then click Delete.If you do not see Backups on the left, it means that your iOS devices do not have iCloud backups. For more information, see Back up your iOS device to iCloud .

How to remove iPhone and iPad backups on iCloud

IPhone, iPad and iPod Touch allow us to automate the task of making backups thanks to iCloud. With this feature we can make every time that every time we put the device to charge and is connected to a WiFi network automatically start the backup. This is very comfortable, but it can also be a headache if the space available on iCloud is full and iDevice continuously displays an error message telling us that we need more storage space to perform the copy. How do i delete old backups from icloud?

At this point we have two possible options:

  • Extend the 5GB of free storage that gives iCloud . That means having to pay a monthly fee.
  • Remove old backups or reduce the size of new backups .

Steps to remove old iCloud backups

The steps we must follow to delete these old backups are as follows:

1.- Enter the Device Settings app .

2.- We play on the iCloud option .

3.- We touch on the option Storage and then on Manage storage .

4.- Now we have to touch on the device from which we want to delete the backup. If, for example, we have a device in the list that we no longer use it is a good idea to delete it.

5.- We move to the end and touch the button Delete copy . In the menu that is displayed we touch on Disable and delete .

In case we do not want to delete the backup completely, we can also choose to disable some of the apps that the device makes copies .

We should get used to backing up our iPhone and iPad on a regular basis. In them we usually have important information for us and any damage could cause us to lose this information in an irremediable way.

Do you already make backups of your devices in the usual way?

With these simple steps you can delete backups of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that are saved in iTunes or iCloud . If you have any questions, you can leave them through the comments. 

As you can see, there are many ways that iCloud can help us to automatically save photos and videos from our device. And as we said before, it is also possible to receive some data that was previously deleted from our iPhone .

And now you know how to get them with the same simplicity. So if by any chance we lose an important file and there are no backups, we have this alternative to recover them with little effort. This allows us not only to recover those files we thought we would never be able to return but also those related videos and photos of great sentimental value.

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