iCloud Storage – Do you need to pay and upgrade?

Not Enough Storage

Not quite sure what this message means?

Firstly, there are two kinds of storage available on your Apple device. Physical storage and cloud storage.

Physical storage refers to the amount of media and documents that you can store on your device. This includes: photos, music, downloaded applications, notes and much more. There are various models of iPads and iPhones, and the more physical storage it has, the more expensive it is.

Cloud storage – referred to as iCloud, is storage that lives on Apples servers, accessible via your Apple ID and password. iCloud allows you to access your information across all of your devices, and see the latest version of your information—such as documents, photos, notes, and contacts.

What benefits does iCloud offer?

• Information access across devices – The great thing about iCloud is that your information doesn’t live on your device. This means that if you save you contacts and information to iCloud, and purchase a new iPhone, you sign into your Apple account, and all your contacts will be visible on the new device. Or perhaps your downloaded music on your iPhone, you can access this on your Mac
• Protection of information – You can store your documents and information on your device, which may be vulnerable to theft, virus or device malfunction. Storing your information in the cloud will let you access your contents from anywhere and anytime from an online browser
• Find my iPhone – You can rest easy knowing that Find My Phone can track down your lost or stolen phone. You can send a message, lock the device, sound an alarm or erase your iPhone or iPad.
• Apps On All Devices – No longer will you have confusing messages when you try to download an app a second time. All your apps are available to download to your devices without any additional charges.

How much iCloud storage do you get?

Apple provides every user with 5 GB of free iCloud storage.

You can manage what information is backed up from your device to iCloud through your Settings:

1. Tap on Settings

2. Tap on iCloud

3. Tap on the items that you wish to back up to iCloud until the toggle turns green

You can access your iCloud information by visiting icloud.com on a computer, and signing in with your Apple ID and password.

What information can iCloud backup?

Because you get 5GB for free, you may choose which information to back up to iCloud, and which information to back via other means (such as plugging your device into your computer and creating a backup).

Most people consume iCloud storage due to the large amount of photos being backed up, and here is a list of other things that can be backed up to iCloud:

• Purchased music, TV shows, apps and books
• Photos and video in the Photo Roll
• Device settings
• App data
• Home screen and app organization
• Messages (Text, iMessage and MMS)
• Ringtones

When you use up your iCloud storage, you will asked to upgrade your storage amount for a fee.

Should I pay the fee and upgrade my iCloud storage?

This depends on a few things, including asking yourself which information would you like backed up?

If you like all your Apple information to be the same across all devices, then you may decide that paying for iCloud storage is right for you.

If you’re not too fussed, and only want certain information such as photos backed up, there are other back up options available, for free.

What other free methods are there to back up my photos and free up space on my device?

• OneDrive – provided by Microsoft.One Drive offers you 15GB of free storage to back up your photos. Download the OneDrive app onto all your devices, and create a Microsoft account to access your information.
• Dropbox – Offers you 2GB of free storage, and extra storage every time you refer a friend to Dropbox
• Google Drive – provided by Google, offers you 15GB of storage
• Copy your photos to your computer via the USB cable and remove them from your iPad or iPhone (doesn’t need internet connection)

With all of the above mentioned methods, you will need to remove the photos from your device to free up storage.

If you have limited data available on your home internet plan or sim plan, we would recommend that you copy your photos to your computer by syncing it to iTunes.

If you’re not quite sure which back up option is for you, please feel free to get in touch with us for some advice,

It’s perfectly OK to have multiple cloud storage accounts and not pay a cent!