Apple并没有为我们提供太多免费的iCloud存储空间，即使你为更大的分配媒体付费，备份和应用程序数据也会很快消耗数百 GB。如果您的 iCloud Drive 已满，以下是一些释放或清除 iCloud 存储空间的方法。
警告！
如果您从 iCloud 存储中删除了某些内容并且没有本地备份，则该数据将会消失。仔细检查以确保您没有删除文件的唯一副本。您有 30 天的时间来恢复从 iCloud 存储中删除的文件，之后这些文件将无法恢复。
如果您选择永久删除文件，它将立即消失，并且无法恢复。对于您按照以下说明永久丢失的任何数据，我们概不负责。
确定什么在吞噬你的空间
在开始“打扫房间”之前，您需要知道所有 iCloud 存储都去了哪里。您可以通过多种方式查看 iCloud 存储使用情况的细分。
1. 如果您使用的是 iPhone 或 iPad，请打开Settings > Your Name > iCloud.
2. 在 Mac 上，选择Apple Menu > System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud.
3. 如果您只能访问网络浏览器，请访问 iCloud.com，登录并选择帐户设置(Account Settings)。
使用这个简单的细分，您可以快速判断哪种类型的内容是最大的罪魁祸首，并首先瞄准它以获得最大的潜在收益。
禁用应用程序备份
一些应用程序会对其数据进行备份，然后将这些备份存储到您的 iCloud 驱动器中。这当然是一件好事，但是某些应用程序可能会进行太多备份或备份过大。
您可以在 iPhone 或 iPad 上手动删除应用程序备份：
- 打开Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Manage Storage。
- 选择备份(Backups)。
- 选择您要管理的设备。
- 禁用您不想备份的任何应用程序。
默认情况下，您只会看到备份最多的五个应用程序，但如果您选择显示所有应用程序(Show All Apps)，您可以禁用任何应用程序作为 iCloud 备份的一部分。如果最大的应用程序备份实际上至关重要，这将很有用。许多较小的应用程序备份可以快速添加，您可能不需要备份设备上的每个应用程序。
管理和删除备份
iCloud 设备备份可能是 iCloud 驱动器中最大的空间占用者。特别是如果您拥有多台Apple设备或有备份的旧设备仍然无缘无故地闲逛！
- 打开设置(Settings )>你的名字( Your Name )> iCloud >管理存储( Manage Storage)。
- 选择备份(Backups)。
- 选择您要管理的设备。
- 选择删除备份(Delete Backup)，然后选择关闭并删除(Turn off & Delete)。
此选项具有双重效果。它会从您的 iCloud 存储中删除备份，但也会阻止为该设备创建新备份。如果您有一个仍在使用的设备，但不需要备份，那么这就是您要走的路。
删除您的(Delete Your)iMessage 附件和语音备忘录(Voice Memos)
由于许多小文件的堆积，一些Apple应用程序可能会在一段时间后占用大量 iCloud 存储空间。Apple iMessage是这里的罪魁祸首，一些用户拥有大量的聊天记录日志。
短信占用的空间可以忽略不计，所以如果你只想节省空间，那么删除它们是不值得的。iMessage 中占用大量空间的是照片等媒体项目。幸运的是，可以轻松快速查看和删除图像附件，让您删除不再需要的附件。
- 在 iPhone 或 iPad 上打开消息应用程序。(Messages app)
- 打开有问题的对话。
- 选择联系人姓名(contact’s name)。
- 选择信息图标(Info icon)。
- 选择查看全部(See All)。
- 点击选择按钮(Select button)。
- 选择(Choose)您要删除的所有照片，然后使用“删除”按钮(Delete button)将其删除。
值得记住的是，您可以将 iMessage 设置为在一定时间后自动删除消息及其附件。如果您查看“设置”(Settings ) > “消息( Messages )” > “消息历史记录”( Message History ) > “保留消息( Keep Messages)” ，则可以选择仅将消息保留 30 天或一年，而不是无限期保留。
删除 iCloud 照片
如果您选择使用iCloud 照片(iCloud Photos)功能，您拍摄的所有照片和视频（例如，您的 iPhone）都会上传并存储在 iCloud 中。这是保存本地设备存储的好方法，因为您的媒体的完整质量版本被卸载到 iCloud，并且仅在您尝试查看或编辑它们时下载。
删除本地设备上的照片也会将其从 iCloud照片(Photos)以及所有其他使用您的Apple ID登录的设备中删除，并打开iCloud照片。(Photos)这是释放 iCloud 空间的最简单方法，只需删除本地Apple设备上不需要的照片和视频。
您还可以访问 iCloud.com，然后在“照片(Photos)”部分下选择和删除视频和照片。
当您删除照片或视频时， Apple(Apple)会提供 30 天的安全网。您可以在“照片”的“(Photos)最近删除(Recently Deleted)”部分下找到已删除的项目。您可以在此处恢复错误删除的内容，但您也可以在此屏幕的 30 天窗口之前永久删除它们。
(Delete Folders)从(Files From)iCloud 存储中删除文件夹和文件
这是最直接的建议，但是如果您从 iCloud 驱动器中删除文件夹和文件，那么您将有更多可用空间。尽管在实践中很简单，但许多用户可能不知道如何从 iCloud 中永久删除内容。
最简单的方法是使用浏览器：
- 在您选择的浏览器中导航到iCloud.com。
- (Log)使用您的Apple ID凭据登录。
- 选择iCloud 云盘(iCloud Drive)。
- 选择您现在不再需要的文件夹或文件，然后选择删除图标。
如果您想使用 iPhone 或 iPad 删除文件或文件夹：
- 打开文件应用程序(Files app)。
- 选择浏览(Browse)。
- 在位置下，选择iCloud Drive。
- (Delete)像往常一样删除文件和文件夹。
购买更多存储空间
如果您真的很小心并且只存储非常精选类型的数据，那么您可以使用Apple ID获得的 5GB 免费 iCloud 存储空间进行管理。但是，我们强烈建议您考虑为更大的 iCloud 分配付费。
在美国，基本 50GB 计划的费用为 0.99 美元，这对于单个用户来说通常绰绰有余。200GB 计划非常适合重度单身用户或通过家庭计划共享。
使用Apple 家庭共享(Apple Family Sharing)功能，您可以与家庭共享(Family Sharing)组中的每个人共享 200GB 或 2TB 计划。每个人都有单独的私人帐户，但可用存储池在用户之间动态共享。
通常，我们不会建议简单地将更多的钱作为最佳解决方案来解决问题，但 Apple 的存储计划非常便宜，而且肯定比微管理 iCloud 驱动器的麻烦更有价值。
How to Clear or Free Up iCloud Storage
Apple doesn’t give us much in the way of frеe iCloud storage and even if you do pay for a larger allocation media, backups, and app data can quickly consume hundreds of gigabytes. If your iCloud Drive is full, here are some ways to free up or clear iCloud storage.
WARNING!
If you delete something from your iCloud storage and you don’t have a local backup of it, that data will be gone. Double-check to make sure you’re not removing your only copy of a file. You have 30 days to restore files that you have deleted from your iCloud storage, after which they cannot be recovered.
If you’ve chosen to permanently remove a file it will be gone immediately with no option to restore. We’re not responsible for any data you permanently lose by following the instructions below.
Determine What’s Eating Your Space
Before you can start “cleaning house”, you need to know where all of your iCloud storage has gone. You can see the breakdown of your iCloud storage usage in a number of ways.
1. If you’re using an iPhone or iPad, open Settings > Your Name > iCloud.
2. On a Mac, select Apple Menu > System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud.
3. If you only have access to a web browser, go to iCloud.com, sign in and select Account Settings.
Using this simple breakdown, you can quickly tell which type of content is the biggest culprit and target it first for the biggest potential gains.
Disable App Backups
Some applications make backups of their data and then store those backups to your iCloud drive. This is of course a good thing, but some apps might make too many backups or have ones that are excessively large.
You can manually delete app backups on an iPhone or iPad:
- Open Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Manage Storage.
- Select Backups.
- Select the device you want to manage.
- Disable any apps that you don’t want to back up.
By default, you’ll only see the five apps with the largest backups, but if you select Show All Apps you can disable any applications from being part of your iCloud backup. This is useful if the largest app backups are actually crucial. Many smaller app backups can add up quickly and you probably don’t need every app on your device backed up.
Manage and Delete Backups
iCloud device backups are likely to be the largest space hogs in your iCloud drive. Especially if you own multiple Apple devices or have old devices with backups still hanging around for no reason at all!
- Open Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Manage Storage.
- Select Backups.
- Select the device you want to manage.
- Select Delete Backup and then Turn off & Delete.
This option has a twofold effect. It removes the backup from your iCloud storage, but it also prevents new backups for that device from being created. If you have a device that you still use, but that doesn’t need to be backed up, this is the way to go.
Delete Your iMessage Attachments and Voice Memos
Some Apple applications can take up a large chunk of iCloud storage after a while thanks to the accumulations of many small files. Apple iMessage is a major culprit here and some users have massive chat history logs.
Text messages take up a negligible amount of space, so if you only want to save space it’s not worth the effort to delete them. What can take up plenty of space in iMessage are media items such as photos. Luckily, it’s easy to quickly view and delete image attachments, letting you delete the ones you no longer want.
- Open the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Open the conversation in question.
- Select the contact’s name.
- Select the Info icon.
- Select See All.
- Tap the Select button.
- Choose all the photos you wish to delete and then use the Delete button to remove them.
It’s worth remembering that you can set iMessage to automatically delete messages and their attachments after a certain time. If you look under Settings > Messages > Message History > Keep Messages you can choose to only keep messages for 30 days or a year, instead of indefinitely.
Delete iCloud Photos
If you’ve opted to make use of the iCloud Photos feature, all of the photos and videos that you take with, for example, your iPhone are uploaded and stored in iCloud. This is a great way to save local on-device storage since full quality versions of your media are offloaded to iCloud and only downloaded when you try to view or edit them.
Deleting a photo on your local device will also delete it in iCloud Photos as well as all other devices logged in with your Apple ID, with iCloud Photos switched on. This is the simplest way to free up iCloud space, just delete unwanted photos and videos on the local Apple device.
You can also go to iCloud.com and select and delete videos and photos there under the Photos section.
Apple provides a 30-day safety net when you delete photos or videos. You’ll find items you’ve deleted under the Recently Deleted section of Photos. You can recover ones that you’ve deleted by mistake here, but you can also permanently delete them before the 30-day window from this screen as well.
Delete Folders and Files From iCloud Storage
This is the most straightforward advice, but yes if you delete folders and files from your iCloud drive then you’ll have more space available. Although it’s simple in practice, many users probably have no idea how to permanently delete things from iCloud.
The easiest way to do this is from a browser:
- Navigate to iCloud.com in the browser of your choice.
- Log in using your Apple ID credentials.
- Select iCloud Drive.
- Select the folder or file you now longer want, then select the delete icon.
If you want to delete files or folders using your iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Files app.
- Select Browse.
- Under Locations, select iCloud Drive.
- Delete files and folders as you normally would.
Buy More Storage
If you’re really careful and only store very select types of data, then it’s possible to just manage with the 5GB of free iCloud storage you get with your Apple ID. However, we strongly recommend that you consider paying for a larger iCloud allocation.
The base 50GB plan costs $0.99 in the US and that’s generally more than enough for a single user. The 200GB plan is perfect for heavy single users or for sharing over a family plan.
Using the Apple Family Sharing feature you can share the 200GB or 2TB plans with everyone in your Family Sharing group. Everyone has separate, private accounts, but the pool of available storage is dynamically shared between users.
Usually, we wouldn’t suggest simply throwing more money at a problem as the best solution, but Apple’s storage plans are exceptionally cheap and certainly worth more than the hassle of micromanaging your iCloud drive.
