How to Manage your iCloud backups

Delete old backups

On your Mac, go to System Preferences > iCloud, click Manage, then select Backups. Your iOS backups in iCloud will be listed. If you no longer need one, select and delete it to free up space — but make sure you back up the relevant device to iTunes first!

Manage storage

Tap Manage Storage, just under the bar showing your free space. Tap Change Storage Plan if you want to buy more space. Tap the name of an app in the list here and you can opt to delete all the documents and data it has currently saved in iCloud. This cannot be undone.

Control backup

Optionally, tap Show All Apps to view everything that’s being backed up, including apps using much less space. You can tap the switches here to turn iCloud backup on or off for specific apps. You can delete the entire backup of the current device, too, if you really need to.

Back up to iTunes

To do this, connect your device to your Mac using a USB cable (unless you’ve already enabled Wi-Fi syncing) and open iTunes. Click the device icon under the toolbar’s playback controls, select Summary from the sidebar, and then click Back Up Now.

View backups

Tap Backups to see all your devices and how much space each backup uses. Tap the name of another device and you can delete its entire backup if you really need to reclaim the space. Tap the name of the current device to explore its backup in detail.

Stop apps backing up

When you confirm you want to Turn Off & Delete an app, this turns off iCloud backup for that app and removes all of its information from iCloud. (Note that some apps, such as Messages and Voice Memos, are always backed up and you can’t turn them off.)

Apps using iCloud

You can also manage things on your device. In Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, to see the apps using iCloud. Uncheck an app here and it will not sync its data with other devices. Scroll down to enable iCloud Backup, plus iCloud Drive for storing files manually.

View apps

At the top you’ll see the date and size of the last backup. Under “Choose data to back up,” you can see a list of the biggest apps not just syncing but backing up their data in iCloud, in order of size. Displaying this and calculating the Next Backup Size can take a minute or so.

Keep data safe

If you do turn off iCloud backups for some apps, think about ways to keep your data safe in other ways. Import pictures and videos into Photos on your Mac, for example. The File Sharing box in a device’s settings in iTunes may give access to other apps’ files.