[SOLVED] iCloud - backup and removal of saved items / iMessages on iPhone

[Centurian1]

I've an iPhone and an iMac and backup to iCloud each time I'm prompted but recently I've been notified my 5GB storage capacity has reached its limit. I've googled unsuccessfully answers to some questions so can anyone help please (1) is everything saved on my phone & Mac automatically saved to the iCloud at each backup, and if so, does that mean that if I want to save things but not to the iCloud that I have to save them on say an external drive? (2) is it possible to set my phone & Mac so that only certain things are backed up, and if so, how do I do this please? (3) can I save iPhone text threads away from my phone please, and if so, how is this done please? Grateful for some answers in layman's terms please. Thank you

 

[velocityg4]

iPhone

1. Your iCloud space is a mixture of iCloud sync and iCloud backup. Mostly it's your settings, pictures, videos, messages app, voicemail and other app data. Not all app data though like stuff synced from third parties (Onedrive, Chrome data, &c). Stuff synced to iCloud is in iCloud but not really a backup. Photos (if sync is on), music, keychain, files app, contacts, bookmarks, &c. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428

2. You don't really have a choice as to what is backed up. You can go to Settigns > Your Account > iCloud and select what you want and don't want synced by category. Plus have backup on or off. You can also manage which apps are or are not backed up.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204247

3. Not sure what you want. There's software like Syncios which allows you to connect an iPhone to your Mac and give more granular control over syncing. I haven't played around with this sort of software. So, I couldn't say which is best. But there are third party programs which allow more selective backups to a computer.

Mac

1. iCloud isn't a backup for Macs. It's just for syncing. Although you can sync much of your data to iCloud.

2. You can choose which categories you want to sync in System Preferences > Apple ID (or iCloud). You can manage which data is stored by choosing folders used with iCloud drive. Just note any sync category enabled on both your Mac and iPhone will be synced together in their entirety.

 

[Centurian1]

Thanks for the reply. One further questions - is it possible to see a list of things saved to my iCloud so I can deleted things I don't want please?

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks for the reply. One further questions - is it possible to see a list of things saved to my iCloud so I can deleted things I don't want please?

Whatever folders and apps which are actively synced to iCloud are whats in iCloud. Delete it from your Mac or iPhone and it deletes from iCloud. Thus deletes from everything synced. So, if you want to delete a photo, video, file, contact delete it from the device. Then it will delete from iCloud. All else you can do is go to iCloud.com and view what you can there.

As far as backups go. There are apps which claim to scan iCloud backups. I couldn't say which work well, if any.

 

[RamBoy_69]

If it says that you have reached the maximum amount of iCloud storage, go to your iPhone and go to Settings, at the very top it should say your name, click on that, when you click on it, there will be an option named "iCloud", click on it, once it loads, click on the first option which says "Manage Storage", after it loads you'll see how much iCloud you are currently using, below that there will be a tab that says, "Change Storage Plan", click on it, it'll show you your current plan and several upgrades, (50GB, 200GB, and 2TB), you will need to pick a plan that suits you needs and buy it, 1st month is free but after that it will automatically renew every month. I highly recommend the 50GB option, in my opinion its way more than enough and its only $0.99 per month. Hope this helped. If not... please reply to this.