{"id":87329,"date":"2023-11-27T23:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=87329"},"modified":"2024-06-17T15:30:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T20:30:33","slug":"your-icloud-storage-is-almost-full-how-to-backup-your-iphone-locally-instead-of-paying-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/87329-your-icloud-storage-is-almost-full-how-to-backup-your-iphone-locally-instead-of-paying-rent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYour iCloud Storage is Almost Full\u201d \u2014 How to Backup Your iPhone to a Mac Instead of Paying Rent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was trundling along with my work late one Saturday night when an email from Apple popped up, indeed, one that looked ominously like a phishing email<\/a>. This is a \u201cworst practice\u201d approach from a security<\/a> standpoint, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Apple email: Your iCloud Storage is Almost Full<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But… it was the real deal: my 50GB of iCloud storage was indeed almost full. And Apple wanted me to pay up for more, but was not exactly helpful as to why<\/em> it was so full. It made no sense given my usage. Checking, I found that I had about 46GB of data from backing-up my two iPhones<\/strong>, 44GB from one phone alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was I not inclined to pay a higher monthly rent for my $2000 iPhone, the last<\/strong> thing I want is a 50GB backup over any<\/em> of my internet connections, and especially not over cellular while traveling<\/strong> (I travel for 2-5 weeks at a time as a photographer<\/a> in my Sprinter van<\/a>, several times a year). That\u2019s a disaster<\/em> in terms of bandwidth usage, interfering in my work<\/em> when bandwidth is often extremely limited, as well as gobbling-up my monthly cell phone bandwidth allocation. A terrible fit for my situation*.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Your situation likely differs; the simplicity of paying $36 a year for 200GB likely outweighs other considerations for most people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making local iPhone backups instead of to iCloud<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is critical to have a backup<\/a><\/strong>, so if declining to pay for more and more iCloud storage (a great<\/em> business for Apple), you\u2019ll need to backup your iPhone to your computer and ensure that the computer itself as a whole is also backed-up<\/strong>, preferably with at least two backups stored away from the computer. Consider, for example, two OWC Elektron SSDs<\/a> for backup drives and be disciplined in making backups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the macOS Finder, select your iPhone or iPad in the sidebar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As shown below, the iPhone DGLY 15 is being backed-up to iCloud<\/strong>. I want to change this to a local-only backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
iPhone “DGLY 15” configured to backup to iCloud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shown below, the backup type has been changed to backup \u201cto this Mac\u201d…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
iPhone “DGLY 15” configured to backup to local computer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And as can be seen, the local backup size is a massive ~44GB. That\u2019s 44GB stored locally now, not<\/strong> stored in iCloud and 44GB of bandwidth not<\/strong> chewed up. Let alone another few hundred gigabytes that could accrue over time (a 1TB iPhone)\u2014a brand-new phone with only 4 weeks of usage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Consider your needs carefully before making this sort of change. IMO, Apple has an ill-conceived approach in that the ideal solution is to backup both to iCloud and locally (when cost and bandwidth are not a concern). But Apple forces it to be one or the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, in System Settings<\/strong>, Apple does a good job of showing where the iCloud storage is going. Note that with local backup, Backups<\/strong> is now 0GB usage in iCloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
System Settings: iCloud storage usage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Think carefully about your own needs; I am not suggesting switching to a local backup strategy just because of a few dollars a month rent. That said, some users are much better served by using a conventional backup strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Need help with a professional or similar backup strategy? Lloyd offers one-on-one consulting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View all posts by Lloyd Chambers\u2026<\/a> Lloyd\u2019s photo web site is diglloyd.com<\/a>, computers is MacPerformanceGuide.<\/a>com, cycling and health are found at WindInMyFace.com<\/a>, software tools including disk testing and data integrity validation<\/a> at diglloydTools.com<\/a>. Patreon page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Water Bed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One way to save your iCloud storage space is to backup your iPhone to your Mac instead of to iCloud. Here’s how to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":87641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-87329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cYour iCloud Storage is Almost Full\u201d \u2014 How to Backup Your iPhone to a Mac Instead of Paying Rent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One way to save your iCloud storage space is to backup your iPhone to your Mac instead of to iCloud. 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