I have over 400 GB of photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos, but I don't pay for iCloud+ every month. I usually resubscribe every six to eight months to upload new ones.

I've read posts here saying Apple may delete your data after 30 days without a subscription, and that's also what their policy seems to suggest. But I've gone months without paying, multiple times, and so far, nothing has been deleted.

I'm wondering how this works in practice. Does Apple actually keep your photos for much longer than the stated policy suggests? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm switching to a newer iPhone, and I'm trying to decide whether to pay extra for more storage on the phone itself or continue relying on iCloud Photos. I'd rather not spend more on storage if I don't have to, but I'm also not comfortable risking 400 GB of photos and videos based on the assumption that Apple will keep them indefinitely.

Would love to hear from people who've actually gone several months without an active iCloud+ subscription.

My iPhone got water damage and it was not longer even turning on(so I thought). I bought a new phone and tried to transfer my iCloud, but because I didn’t have my password, I ended up being locked out of my iCloud. Matters got worse because the phone was on, but the screen was black, and I didn’t know. I have already gone through the 2/3 days waiting process 3 times, called support 3 times, and went to the Apple Store twice. The problem I keep running into is that at the end of the try, the screen always says: “We will be contacting you through said email with instructions.” 😩 I am like… NO! I already clicked in “forgot my password“ when you guys ask for the email password. I only have access to my phone number that was linked to the iCloud. Not sure if that is relevant to the point that I am the organizer of my family Cloud and I do have an Apple card that is about to give due payment, and I don’t know how to pay without logging in. Please, help❗️

The WhatsApp backup starts but stops midway, although it updates the "Last backed up" date and total size. However, when I click "Back Up Now" again, it still shows the same backup size.

I want to transfer chat to my new phone hence doing this. these chats are very important.

The WhatsApp backup starts but stops midway, although it updates the "Last backed up" date and total size. However, when I click "Back Up Now" again, it still shows the same backup size.

Edit: I logged on to my old MacBook Pro which said it had issues signing in to iCloud. I logged in, it sent a request to my phone which resulted in the account seemingly unlocked. iCloud for Windows no longer complains about account being locked and it finally asked for verification on a trusted device.

My Rog Ally handheld PC had a bios update today and upon restarting iCloud for windows said it needed to verify the account (I’d already restored access to it previously after I had cleaned out old devices from my Apple account so I figured it shouldn’t be a problem). Curiously my iCloud passwords windows app remained accessible even though it shouldn’t.

But after entering my password it says “This Apple account has been locked for security reasons. Visit iForgot to reset your account” (I don’t remember if I made a mistake entering the password the first time but for subsequent tries I made sure it’s the correct one by typing it out first verifying it’s correct then pasting it into the password)

I have 2 factor authentication and Advanced Data Protection turned on and my Apple account remains accessible on my iPhone and iPad with no “locked” messages.

Stuff I’ve tried:

Deleting the ADI folder (I believe this fused the issue before but not this time)
Repairing iCloud for Windows
Resetting iCloud for Windows
Uninstalling and reinstalling iCloud for Windows from the Microsoft Store
Installing an older version of iCloud for Windows

I have not removed the device from my Apple account list of devices yet. Should I be doing that?

i wasnt aware that it would and i hate it, i hate having so much photos on my phone now my gallery went to shit and i cant find anything now, same with my ipad, i hate having them mixed and i need to know if theres a way to at the very least erase all the ipad photos from my iphone, i hate it. please help.

Hello everyone. I made an ICloud account in 2013, and stopped using it in around 2018 or 19 when I switched to using Android. I know for a fact what my email and password was, but I can't log in. Does Apple delete inactive accounts? Is there any way to recover it? I know you porbably can't and asking this is a bit of a long shot, but I have stuff with my mom who passed away on there I'd love to be able to look at if possible. Thanks in advance.

I am on a base 16 with 128gb storage. My photos are taking 20gb of my phone with only 15gb free storage left.

I have read the sub and realised that my base iCloud+ plan won’t act as a backup if try to upload images there and delete from my phone.

Is there any way to offload my images without having the risk of losing them ? I don’t want to use google photos since uploading manually is a hassle.

Wanted something that backs up automatically and then stays there even if I clear it from the phone.

I just got the new 18 pro max and set it up yesterday. I chose the option to transfer everything through iCloud, and so far everything else has transferred to my new phone, but none of my photos have. Every time I’ve looked at my camera roll, it’s just said syncing, but nothing has actually loaded. I checked my old phone before transferring, and it said everything was backed up to iCloud. I even left it charging overnight because that was the first thing Apple recommended, but that didn’t help.

Hi everyone!

I'm a bit confused about how WhatsApp backups work on iPhone and hoping someone can clarify.

When I check my WhatsApp backup under iPhone Settings -> iCloud -> Saved to iCloud, it shows a much smaller backup size (around 11.5 GB).

However, when I go to iPhone Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → iCloud Backup, WhatsApp shows a much larger size (around 32 GB).

I'm particularly worried about losing my WhatsApp chat history and media when switching phones.

Has anyone experienced this? How can I make sure everything is properly backed up before transferring to a new iPhone?

Thanks in advance!

A couple of weeks ago I found that my login to one of my devices was failing and I managed to change my Apple ID password.

Just today I found that the new password failed for a login to icloud.com on my PC was failing with rejected password. I set about changing the password again and experienced different failures in their system. One annoyance was being shunted to a new-device setup option. On my second attempt to use that I followed the route via another person's Apple device and account. I passed the phone test only to be presented with a challenge to enter the login code for my iPad. I entered the code but it was rejected. I immediately checked that it was working on the iPad.

I'm wondering if there's a (hidden) OS issue here - not with my PC but with the other devices. My iPhone is an X with iOS 16.7.16, , and my iPad is a 6th Gen with iOS 17.7.1.

This is only happening on my iPhone, where older messages show “No Sender” or “No Recipient” for iCloud. I’ve deleted Mail app, removed and re added the account and nothing. Any ideas?

My gf and I went on a two week round trip and now we have hundreds and maybe even over a thousand photos. Is there a central way we can both add and edit photos in one place?

I pay $2.99 a month for icloud storage but my gf does not.

I'm the developer of Blober (https://blober.io/), a desktop app for transferring files through your machine. You sign in with iCloud on Apple's own login page, so blober never sees your Apple password.

What it does with iCloud:

• Copies iCloud Drive files to an external drive, a NAS or another cloud. Files stream through your machine one by one, so a 400 GB library doesn't need 400 GB of spare space on your computer
• Transfer Photos originals without the 1,000-item cap on iCloud.com, and without Apple's data export, which can take up to seven days and arrives as zip files.
• Keep your folder structure, or re-organize files during transfer with templates like Documents/{file_created_date}/{filename} , so files transfer as Documents/2025-08-12/CHAPTER 1. CONTRACT.pdf
• Glob filters like **/*.{pdf,docx} to easily include and exclude files to process
• Save workflows to run again without repeating setup

All transfers run on your computer. I'd like to know what's useful or what's missing.

Hola, quisiera saber si a alguien le ha pasado algo parecido y ha logrado recuperar su cuenta de iCloud. 🥹
Hace un tiempo cambié de teléfono y, como antes había usado Android, no le di mucha importancia a mi cuenta de iCloud. Cuando volví a cambiar a iPhone, creé una cuenta nueva porque no podía iniciar sesión con la anterior.
El problema es que ahora quiero recuperar mi cuenta antigua porque ahí tengo fotos que me gustaría volver a tener, pero ya no tengo el teléfono anterior porque lo regalé y también perdí el chip del número telefónico que tenía vinculado a esa cuenta.
Sí recuerdo mi correo y mi contraseña, pero cuando intento iniciar sesión me pide el código de verificación de dos factores que se envía al número que ya no tengo. Cuando intento recuperar la cuenta, me pide una clave de acceso que tampoco tengo.
Quisiera saber si alguien ha pasado por esto y pudo recuperar su cuenta de alguna manera. ¿Hay alguna solución o definitivamente ya no se puede recuperar? 😔
Les agradecería mucho si pudieran compartir sus experiencias o decirme qué puedo hacer.

Hello all,

I am having some difficulties to free up some space on my Apple iCloud account. I did not pay attention that my phone was synchronizing all pictures to iCloud, and only noticed when I started receiving alerts that my iCloud was getting full.

Now, these pictures are synchronized on my NAS with Immich, so I do not need a copy on iCloud. I went ahead and disabled the backup of pictures to iCloud on the phone, then deleted a few pictures via the web interface. but to my surprise iCloud still reports 0 byte available.

Is there something that I need to do to recover the space after deleting files?

Thank you for you help

i know iCloud Photos is no longer officially supported on such old versions of iOS, but I'm wondering if syncing still works in practice for legacy Apple devices (like those stuck on iOS 9). Has anyone recently tested syncing photos and videos with an older Apple device in 2026?

Even if official support is gone, does syncing still work with Apple's servers in real-world use, or has it completely stopped? I'm particularly interested in first-hand experiences rather than just official compatibility requirements.

Thanks!

My last successful backup was on 22nd April. Won’t let me back up again. Every time I try I get a ‘The last backup could not be completed’ message. What can I do

I’m syncing up an old ipad before I trade it in and the photo numbers are not matching up. It’s been syncing for 24 hours, says it’s finished, and still the iPad has more photos than iCloud or my iPhone. I don’t use the iPad to take photos so I don’t know why it would have more, or why even if it did those photos haven’t moved to iCloud and evened the numbers out.

iCloud: 67151 photos, 8571 videos

iPhone: 67158 photos, 8572 videos (negligible difference)

iPad; 69046 photos, 8680 videos (significant difference)

Any ideas? The iPad is fairly old (iPad 8, on iPad OS 16) so maybe it’s counting something differently than the phone and iCloud? I’m worried now there are photos on this iPad I will lose if I reset it, but I can’t figure out what they are or how to get them into iCloud.

Hi. I am the dev. This is my own app.

When iCloud storage fills up, it is usually Photos. It is rarely one big file. It is years of burst shots, almost the same photo five times, and screenshots, all synced. You can pay for more space, or make the library smaller. The second one is hard to do in one go, so most of us never start. That was me, at least.

The app works on your normal Photos library. So every delete frees space on your phone and in iCloud Photos at the same time. How I set it up:

• Each day you go through one short set of photos. Shots taken together show up together.
• You swipe to keep, to set aside for deletion, or to decide later. A swipe never deletes anything.
• The set aside ones sit in a list. You go over that list once more, then delete with the normal Photos confirm. Recently Deleted still holds them for 30 days, on iCloud too.
• Do a few minutes a day and the library gets smaller at a pace you can keep up with. No panic deleting.

It is free, no ads, no sub, nothing locked. There is a tip jar in Settings that unlocks nothing. It all runs on your phone: no account, and your photos are never uploaded anywhere. There is one optional switch for plain usage counts. It is off by default and it holds no photo data. iPhone, iOS 26 or later.

Happy to answer anything about the Photos and iCloud side.

Free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gleamroll-photo-cleaner/id6782517688

Hi I need help I just opened word document with my bachelors thesis and I just found out ICloud didn’t save my work. I was using MacBook working in Windows Word. I’m in desperate situation so I would appreciate all help how can I retrieve it.
Document was normally automatically set to be saved but this time it hasn’t been saved. I was connected to WiFi so there shouldn’t be issue with that.
Maybe the issue could be that I maybe wasn’t connected ro the WiFi and O don’t really know if it was saved even when I was on my IPhone hotspot.
I was working on the thesis few days back thinking it would autosave. Than I put it away Ind I guess its battery died cause I had to recharge it before using it again today. I cannot fond it in previous version and neither in iCloud.

Any idea someone?

I got an 200gb plan and my last backup is 27gb last month. I used 144gb out of 200gb and it says my iphone cant be backup up cus there is no storage.