IPhone Not Backed Up Message?

[paulyron]

So I started to get this message a few weeks ago and it keeps showing up daily. It says

IPhone Not Backed Up

This iphone hasn't been backed up in two weeks. Backups happen when this iphone is connected to power, locked and on wifi.

My issue here is when I try to back it up, I get message

This iphone cannot be backed up because there is not enough cloud storage available.

Can someone explain to me how this happened? How much gb do you get free on the cloud and why is it during this entire time i had an iphone, i never had this message? Im confused what I have that is taking up so much space in the cloud? Is it pictures and files i added to my iphone? Its an iphone SE.

Do most of you pay for more cloud storage?

The other thing is this. How do i stop this message from keep popping up everytime? It shows up few times every single day.

 

Im not sure where to post this so if a moderator wants to move this to the correct subforum, that would be great.

 

I do have a lot of photos i took with my iphone and also songs.  I also downloaded a lot of apps as well from app store that i don't even use anymore.  But is it the pictures?  Or the apps?  Back then i always had music there but i never had this issue.  I guess its pictures and or apps?

Edited February 14, 2021 by LogicalDrm
Fixed formatting

[zeusthemoose]

Your backups are stored in the same place that all other iCloud things are. This can include app data, photos, and more depending on your settings. The message you are getting means that your iCloud storage (5gb by default) is filled and has no room for more backups. You can go to settings >> your name >> iCloud to see what is taking up space. You can delete or stop backing up things as needed to allow room for your backup. 
I personally pay $0.99 a month for 50gb storage so I don’t have to deal with deleting stuff.

[Intergalacticbits]

Like he said. 

On my iPad I can look at what is being backed up, the amounts of space for each thing and choose of my personal data what is or isn't included in those backups.

If it was me I'd just look and see what is hogging up all the space.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Phones and Tablets

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Mine hasn't been backed up in months hahahaa. Though it usually just sends something to notification centre without actually displaying a pop up outside of the lock screen. You may want to try offloading some photos from your device as that's what usually takes up a majority of your backup size, or disable photo backups all together. 

 

Manually move your important photos to iCloud and let the rest just remain not backed up. Mine is reporting 6.49GB of photos to put into perspective. 

[Commodus]

This is part of why I back up to my Mac in addition to iCloud. You don't have to pay for extra storage just to be sure you can retrieve as much data as possible. I really wish Apple would drag iCloud into this decade and give users more than 5GB of free space... even 10GB or 15GB would be a relief!

[paulyron]

I went to settings, i cloud... im using about 35gb of 64gb total on my iphone SE.  I saw option to offload unused apps and now it show  29gb of 64gb used.  

 

 

It shows like 3gb used for photos... another 2gb for wechat... and i downloaded lot of apps that are like a gb etc.  Shows music a bit more than a gb.  

 

 

So that means im using 29gb total?  What includes in the 5gb?  I cant imagine all of my files right?  Because not long ago, I didn't had this message and i easily used up over 20gb total of my iphone storage.  But which is stored on icloud?

[zeusthemoose]

Did the screen you were on look like this:

Spoiler

Or this:

Spoiler

If you were on the second one (which it sounds like you were), then you are looking at local storage and not iCloud storage. iCloud storage can be found by clicking on the big tile with your Apple ID then clicking iCloud.

[paulyron]

Hi, it was the second one.  

 

 

Right now i clicked on the icloud storage, shows me using 4.9gb out of 5gb.

 

 

Backups show 4.8gb.  Then a lot of other programs using less than 50mb like whatsapp messages, keynote etc.

 

 

So that means i can't delete any of the backups i have then to make more room?  Like how would i know what to remove from the current backups i have now?

 

 

Also earlier i had clicked some button on the iphone storage which seem to have made me delete 5gb of my storage gb used.  Is there a way to find out what it was? It basically made my iphone go from  35gb of 64gb total on my iphone SE.  I saw option to offload unused apps and now it show  29gb of 64gb used.   I clicked on enable for something but not its not there?

 

 

I also see i could click on enable for icloud photos under iphone storage which would save me 5gb ... but i obviously cant do this since well im already out of icloud storage right?

[zeusthemoose]

36 minutes ago, paulyron said:

So that means i can't delete any of the backups i have then to make more room?  Like how would i know what to remove from the current backups i have now?

If you click on the button that says manage storage, then click on backups, you can see all the backups you have stored. There you can delete any old backups that are no longer important. For example, I have 3 backups of my phone stored. If you click on them, you can see the date they are from so you can delete the oldest one. This could free up some iCloud space to allow for new, updated backups. If you do not have any extra backups, then you can go through and edit what gets backed up but that shouldn’t be necessary.

 

40 minutes ago, paulyron said:

Is there a way to find out what it was? It basically made my iphone go from  35gb of 64gb total on my iphone SE.  I saw option to offload unused apps and now it show  29gb of 64gb used.   I clicked on enable for something but not its not there?

Offloading unused apps means that your device will partially delete apps that you have not used for a long time. They delete the app itself but none of the data with it so when you reinstall, everything stays the same. If you go through your home screens, you may notice that some have a download icon on some apps. These are the offloaded apps.

 

45 minutes ago, paulyron said:

I also see i could click on enable for icloud photos under iphone storage which would save me 5gb ... but i obviously cant do this since well im already out of icloud storage right?

This setting makes it so the photos and videos on your phone are stored on iCloud storage and not the physical storage on your device. Like you said, you cannot do this because you do not have enough available iCloud storage.

 

But it seems like you have plenty of storage on your phone, so you do not need to mess around with those settings unless you want to. Your issue is the iCloud storage and you can lower the data there by removing old backups like I mentioned at the beginning of this.

[paulyron]

Okay clicked on




icloud storage


Shows using up 4.9gb/5gb used for icloud


It show


my backups 4.8gb
voice memo 50mb
etc
etc



When i click on backups, it shows


Documents/data 4.8gb
My iphone 4.8gb


I click on my iphone

Last backup back in September 2020
Backup size 5.20gb
Next backup size 2gb


Choose data to back up


Photo library 3.6gb
wechat 800gb
whatsapp 600mb


Then a whole bunch of other apps which are tiny... like 200mb and below with majority 10mb and below



So what is the best thing to do here where i could sort of delete where i can keep it under 5gb?


I assume i can't just uncheck photo library now right since well that doesn't do anything to my already saved backup? I assume best thing to do is delete all the photos i dont need now from my iphone. Then once i do that... delete my backup? Then do a backup again... and when i do this... let say i delete half of my photos... then i would probably only have 3gb-3.5gb total as backup which is below the 5gb total?I went to settings, i cloud... im using about 35gb of 64gb total on my iphone SE.  I saw option to offload unused apps and now it show  29gb of 64gb used.  

 

 

It shows like 3gb used for photos... another 2gb for wechat... and i downloaded lot of apps that are like a gb etc.  Shows music a bit more than a gb.  

 

 

So that means im using 29gb total?  What includes in the 5gb?  I cant imagine all of my files right?  Because not long ago, I didn't had this message and i easily used up over 20gb total of my iphone storage.  But which is stored on icloud?

[zeusthemoose]

6 minutes ago, paulyron said:

So that means im using 29gb total?  What includes in the 5gb?  I cant imagine all of my files right?  Because not long ago, I didn't had this message and i easily used up over 20gb total of my iphone storage.  But which is stored on icloud?

The 29gb is the storage on your phone itself. It is separate from the icloud storage so some apps may sync to both but the majority will only be on your phone.

 

I think the best option for you would be going through your photo library, wechat, and whatsapp and deleting things you no longer want from them. Assuming you can find a decent amount of unwanted stuff, you should be able to bring the backup to below 5gb. I believe it will then automatically back up but if not, you can delete the current one and then make a new backup.