Fairly new to Apple - iCloud Storage

I’m getting emails to say my iCloud storage is almost full and was wondering if there’s anything I can do as I don’t see much on my iPad file system taking up the 4.7GB that it says it being taken up. Is this backups, email, etc? I’ve photo backup turned off as I use Google Photos.
I presume I need it for system backups so is there any way of accessing what’s there and emptying it of everything else? I don’t want to use it at all if possible as I have 300GB of Google Drive storage. Thanks.

Nevermindnow

Make sure it's not a phishing email

Nevermindnow

Nevermindnow wrote: »

Make sure it's not a phishing email

Hadn’t thought of that, it says it’s from no reply@email.apple.com, is that legit?

Nevermindnow

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Nevermindnow wrote: »

Make sure it's not a phishing email

Hadn’t thought of that, it says it’s from no reply@email.apple.com, is that legit?

Unfortunately that's not enough to know if it's phishing. I'd recommend checking the space yourself (don't click any links in the email) and if you have loads of space just ignore it.

Nevermindnow

Nevermindnow wrote: »

Unfortunately that's not enough to know if it's phishing. I'd recommend checking the space yourself (don't click any links in the email) and if you have loads of space just ignore it.

Where can I check it? The file browser on the iPad doesn’t seem to show everything that’s on it.

Found it there now on icloud.com. It is all backup (4.48GB backup, 35.29MB photos, 138.62MB Documents) so I may have no other option but to buy storage from Apple if the backup keeps growing. I don’t want to end up with no device backup.

Gumbo

You may have older back ups from previous phones on there.
Check them through the phone and delete.

murpho999

Nevermindnow wrote: »

Unfortunately that's not enough to know if it's phishing. I'd recommend checking the space yourself (don't click any links in the email) and if you have loads of space just ignore it.

Sorry but why are you scaremongering?

It's a legit apple email as it's used for all emails send out by Apple for stuff like iCloud, app purchases, receipts, updates etc?

As for OP, just go to settings and then click your profile name at the top and then iCloud and manage storage and see what's being backed up.

You can also buy more storage, 50gb for €0.99 per month or 200gb for €2.99 per month and that can be shared with other family members , so it's pretty cheap.

28064212

murpho999 wrote: »

Sorry but why are you scaremongering?

It's a legit apple email as it's used for all emails send out by Apple for stuff like iCloud, app purchases, receipts, updates etc?

It's not scaremongering, it's extremely easy to spoof the "from" address of an email

murpho999

28064212 wrote: »

It's not scaremongering, it's extremely easy to spoof the "from" address of an email

OP said they are new to Apple so who else would be emailing therm about their iCloud acccount with a legitimate email address?

Phising would be asking for log in or card details not just telling you your service is almost full.

28064212

murpho999 wrote: »

so who else would be emailing therm about their iCloud acccount with a legitimate email address?

Phishers

murpho999 wrote: »

Phising would be asking for log in or card details not just telling you your service is almost full.

It's a very common attack. A "warning" email, with a link to the login page where you can fix the issue. Only the link actually takes you to a page which just looks like the real thing, but is actually controlled by the scammers. Enter your login details, and they have your password

murpho999

28064212 wrote: »

Phishers

It's a very common attack. A "warning" email, with a link to the login page where you can fix the issue. Only the link actually takes you to a page which just looks like the real thing, but is actually controlled by the scammers. Enter your login details, and they have your password

Yes, I know what phising is but you didn't say that to the OP.

You said the email could be fake and didn't ask if there were any links in the email which would not have been in the email from Apple.

It's highly unlikely that you just sign up to a service like the OP did and then start getting phishing emails.

kceire

kceire wrote: »

You may have older back ups from previous phones on there.
Check them through the phone and delete.

This is my first Apple device and I’d wrongly just made the assumption that device backups don’t use up the allowance of cloud storage.

murpho999

murpho999 wrote: »

Sorry but why are you scaremongering?

It's a legit apple email as it's used for all emails send out by Apple for stuff like iCloud, app purchases, receipts, updates etc?

As for OP, just go to settings and then click your profile name at the top and then iCloud and manage storage and see what's being backed up.

You can also buy more storage, 50gb for €0.99 per month or 200gb for €2.99 per month and that can be shared with other family members , so it's pretty cheap.

Yeah I’ll probably have to. It’s a bit of a pain as I already pay 29.99 annually for 200GB of Google Drive and a tenner a month for 1TB of OneDrive storage already. iCloud is far too clunky to use as actual cloud storage (it’s non existent with Windows unlike the other two) but 99c a month isn’t awful if it means I can keep the iPad backed up.

Gumbo

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Yeah I’ll probably have to. It’s a bit of a pain as I already pay 29.99 annually for 200GB of Google Drive and a tenner a month for 1TB of OneDrive storage already. iCloud is far too clunky to use as actual cloud storage (it’s non existent with Windows unlike the other two) but 99c a month isn’t awful if it means I can keep the iPad backed up.

I use the basic free 5gb iCloud and have been since the iPhone 3GS.
I have google photos on my phone that auto backs up all photos.
I have Dropbox for cross sharing of files.
I use the basic iCloud to back up iOS settings, contacts etc.
I also use the file folder to sync photos and drawings on my windows pc. It’s a simple drag and drop when your working on your pc and then that file is available on your phone iPad etc

kceire

kceire wrote: »

I use the basic free 5gb iCloud and have been since the iPhone 3GS.
I have google photos on my phone that auto backs up all photos.
I have Dropbox for cross sharing of files.
I use the basic iCloud to back up iOS settings, contacts etc.
I also use the file folder to sync photos and drawings on my windows pc. It’s a simple drag and drop when your working on your pc and then that file is available on your phone iPad etc

You can’t add icloud as a proper folder on Windows like you can with GD, DB, and OD can you though?

Anyway I think that’s my problem, my backup seems to be growing and it’s only been a few months. Does the Apple email app use that storage as I’m using it for work email so there’s a fair bit of content there. If so I’ll switch to Outlook.

krissovo

Goto settings and click on your user ID, you can then select iCloud where you will be presented with a list of apps that used the iCloud backup. You can deselect mail and every other app

Ah yes that’s handy. Mail wasn’t using it but I turned off Safari and all the games and pencil apps, etc. I probably wouldn’t have any need for them cloud syncing when I only have the one iOS device.

Gumbo

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

You can’t add icloud as a proper folder on Windows like you can with GD, DB, and OD can you though?

Anyway I think that’s my problem, my backup seems to be growing and it’s only been a few months. Does the Apple email app use that storage as I’m using it for work email so there’s a fair bit of content there. If so I’ll switch to Outlook.

I added the apple files to my windows and it’s there in the side bar. I can open it as I would Dropbox, one drive etc. I can copy, cut paste and then those files will be on my phone also.

It shows up as iCloud Drive in the same column as my Dropbox and One Drive.

Gumbo

There’s also no need to back up your third party email also.
If your using yahoo, no point using iCloud to back that up as yahoo itself is the backup.

If you loose your phone you just sign back in and your mails are sync’d again.

kceire

kceire wrote: »

I added the apple files to my windows and it’s there in the side bar. I can open it as I would Dropbox, one drive etc. I can copy, cut paste and then those files will be on my phone also.

It shows up as iCloud Drive in the same column as my Dropbox and One Drive.

Thanks for that, I was under the misconception that couldn’t be done. Added it today and signed up for the 50GB plan to allow me to keep the device backed up.