Your iPhone and iPad are probably automatically backing up online using iCloud, but what exactly is it backing up and how much space is it using? Let's see how to manage iOS backups.

Apple provides 5GB of storage on iCloud free of charge but how much are you using? Is there sufficient space for the next backup or are you near your limit? How can you reduce your usage? Is an iCloud backup even a full backup?

Check iCloud free space

To find out how much of your iCloud online storage space is being used for backups, go to Settings on the iPhone or iPad and press your account name at the top. Press iCloud on the next screen and then your storage usage is colour coded with backups in blue.

I have a 50 GB storage plan so I don't need to worry about the amount of space used by backups, but for those people on the 5 GB free plan you do need to keep an eye on the amount used and remaining.

Turn on iCloud Backup

Swipe up to see all the applications using iCloud until you come to iCloud Backup. If it is turned off, tap it and turn it on. Then press Back Up Now. It is best to do this on Wi-Fi so it doesn't use any mobile data.

Turn on iCloud Backup if it is off

Manage iCloud storage

Return to Settings > Your account > iCloud and press Manage Storage (first screenshot above). The amount of space used by backups is displayed, along with all the other apps that use iCloud. Press Backups.

Here you can see the amount of storage used on iCloud and if Backups is pressed, each iOS device's backups are shown.

To choose what is included in a backup, press the backup for the current device (you cannot remotely configure other devices). On/Off switches enable you to choose what data to back up and the total space required for a backup can be reduced by disabling those apps that do not need to back up.

What doesn't need backing up? Generally speaking, any app that stores data in the cloud. For example, the Kindle app stores my book purchases in my Amazon account online and I can simply install the Kindle app and it syncs. I can then pick a book to read or continue reading on I started here or elsewhere. Similarly, Google Keep stores my notes online and if the Keep app was lost I could simply reinstall the app and all my notes would be there as fast as the app could sync. Backups are not needed for these two items and there are others that work in a similar way.

Go through the list of apps and choose which ones to back up and which ones to delete. Each one turned off saves iCloud space by reducing the backup size.

One thing I noticed is that data from several apps I no longer have on the phone was being backed up. This is presumably in case you ever reinstall them, but if you do not intend to use them again, remove them from the backup.

Create a full iPhone and iPad backup

Backups from the iPhone and iPad to iCloud only back up data and they are not full backups. No apps are backed up and iOS is not backed up. In the event of a disaster you would erase the device back to factory settings, or buy a new device, sign in with your Apple ID and then you could restore your data from a backup. It requires a fully functioning iPhone or iPad to restore a backup.

At one time iOS used to create full backups and they would be 3 or 4 GB or even more. All your free iCloud space would be used up by iOS device backups leaving none for anything else. Now just the data on the iOS device is backed up, which means backups are a fraction of the size they used to be. However, there is a way to create a full backup.

Plug your iPhone or iPad into a computer with iTunes on. Select your device in iTunes and enable backups.

iTunes is able to create full backups and they are 3 GB or more. They are not stored on iCloud and are on the Mac's drive instead. Here are some backups to iTunes on an Apple Mac. Go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices. Ctrl+Click a backup and select Show in Finder to see the backup. Each one has its own folder.

Check a backup folder's size (Command+I on the Mac) and you will see that it is several gigabytes. It can be useful to occasionally create full backups using iTunes on the computer because they can sometimes be restored when the iPhone or iPad is not fully working.

A peek at the past

Here is what backups used to be like several years ago in a previous version of iOS - gigabytes of storage were required and we had to back up photos in the Camera Roll too. Now photos are handled separately by the Photos app. They are still backed up to iCloud.

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iCloud backups have changed a lot since those days.