icloud storage

[applechick]

I've almost reached my iCloud storage limit and do not want to pay for more. I'm confused on what I can delete to save space. Apps for example, what's the point of having them in the cloud. They are always available under purchased in the app store, right? Or am I missing something?

 

[twerppoet]

Apps not loaded on your iPad do not count against your storage limit. Anything in the Purchased tabs of the iStores (Music, Books, TV Shows, Apps) that are not actually on the iPad do not count against your iCloud storage.

On your iPad, they may be adding to your backup sizes. You can explore that under the General > Usage > Manage Storage settings. Turning this off for apps you don't really care to have backed up can save a fair amount of space.

Some apps also use the Documents and Data storage, which you can see in the same place. I don't' recommend deleting stuff directly from Documents and Storage unless you know exactly what you are doing. In most cases it will delete the content from the app as well. Go to the app instead. If you don't want the content on iCloud, the app should have a setting to turn it off.

Mail and it's attachments (in all folders) do count agains't your storage. Check in the same place. To reduce it, go to those folder in Mail (or at icloud.com on a computer) and clean them out.

There are probably a few other things I am forgetting.

 

[applechick]

I guess my question is what am I missing out in if I don't have apps in the cloud?

 

[twerppoet]

You do have apps in the cloud, sort of. Apple keeps track of all the apps you've purchased. Instead of storing these files again and again for every person who purchased them they let you download it from the App Store again. This is what you see in the Purchased tab of the various iStores.

The content of that app (documents, game scores, whatever) may be stored in iCloud depending on the type of app, it's settings, and your backup settings. This is what you see when you go into your Manage Storage settings (under General > Usage or the iCloud settings)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4859?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[applechick]

You do have apps in the cloud, sort of. Apple keeps track of all the apps you've purchased. Instead of storing these files again and again for every person who purchased them they let you download it from the App Store again. This is what you see in the Purchased tab of the various iStores.

The content of that app (documents, game scores, whatever) may be stored in iCloud depending on the type of app, it's settings, and your backup settings. This is what you see when you go into your Manage Storage settings (under General > Usage or the iCloud settings)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4859?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

So if I don't care if my scores etc are kept I don't really need to keep my apps in the cloud, correct? That would save me alot of storage space.

Thanks I really appreciate all of your help!

 

[twerppoet]

Well, it saves a little storage space for each app. Scores don't take up that much room. If you've made in-app purchases you may loose them if you delete the app, but you should be able to download them again for free when you re-download the app (consumables like coins excluded).

Backups aren't all that helpful when it comes to individual games anyway. Since you have to restore the entire iPad it is seldom worth the bother to recover just one or two apps worth of game scores. Backups only really count when you've got to restore the entire iPad, or you've lost something so important it's worth the hassle of restoring the entire iPad.