How to handle iCloud backup

Raise your hand who has not lost important photos or messages because they had to restore without being able to save them previously, either because of forgetfulness, or because iTunes did not allow you to save the backup with some of its famous failures. Since Apple launched its iCloud service, automatic backups are wonderful, some aspects could / should be improved, but that every day, when you connect your iPad or iPhone to the charger and be connected to a WiFi network, a backup is automatically made saves you from more than one upset. The backup is done in your iCloud account, and if you have several devices with the same iCloud account, you will have several backups in the same account, and the 5GB of free space that we have can be very short. How can we manage that space better? That is what we are going to explain in this article.

If we access Settings> iCloud we will have the configuration of our account on that device. Here we can configure what we want to be synchronized with iCloud and what not. But we are going to focus on backups, for which we are going to enter the section «Storage and copying»

On this screen we can activate or deactivate the backup service in iCloud. In our case it is activated, and what we are going to do is manage well the 5GB that Apple gives us for free. Click on «Manage storage».

Here the really interesting begins, on the one hand we have the backup copies of all the devices that use our account, in my case an iPad Mini and an iPhone 5, and on the other, documents and data that are stored in iCloud, whether they are from applications that use this service (KeyNote, Pages ...) or games that store the games in iCloud to synchronize between devices, such as the fabulous GTA Vice City. If we click on any of these applications, we can delete what we think we no longer need, a specific document or a game that we no longer need to save. This alone can free up space for us, but the important thing is in the devices at the top.

You may have previously owned an iPhone 4 that you no longer have, and that you stored backups in iCloud, which are uselessly taking up precious space. Deleting that copy is as simple as clicking on the device in question and then clicking on «Delete copy». Or for example in my case, my copy of the iPad Mini, occupies 1,8GB, a considerable space. The reel is the part that takes the most, but that is essential for me and I want it to be saved, and there is about 500MB more that takes up data from applications that do not interest me. I can deactivate them and your data will not be stored in the next copy, so in the next copy you will have freed up all that space.

In this way we can get the most out of the 5GB of iCloud, and have important data well backed up. Remember that unlike in iTunes, that you can recover the copy whenever you want, the iCloud copy can only be recovered after a complete restoration, which is one of the aspects I was referring to when I said that it was a service that could be improved. If Apple allowed that copy to be recovered at any time, that would be perfect.

Learn more - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for iOS, go back to the 80s