Why is My iPhone’s Backup So Large?

We all know how important it’s to regularly backup our data. However, every iPhone user was at least once surprised by the size of their backup. You did your previous backup just a couple of weeks ago, so why would this one take that much space?

In this article, we’ll explain the most common reasons why the backup sometimes takes so much space on the iPhone. We’ll also show you how to make it smaller, as well as some tips and tricks that can save your storage space.

Find Out What Gets Backed Up

If you’re not tech-savvy, you may not know that you can control what kind of data gets backed up. There’s a setting that shows you what is getting a backup, and you can always change the settings. If you’ve never checked that before, the chances are that your iPhone is backing up way too many unnecessary things.

Here’s how you can see what’s being backed up on your iPhone. We warn you that you might be surprised!

1. Go to the Settings.
2. Open the Apple ID Settings.
3. Tap on iCloud.
4. Tap on Manage Storage.
5. Tap on Backups.
6. Select the device you want to check, in this case, your iPhone.

You’ll now see a long list of all things that your iPhone attempts to backup. You’ll also see the size of backup for each item of the list. It will help you better understand why your backup seems so big.

iPhone Backs Up Plenty of Non-Essential Data

With this information in mind, you can manage your backup more effectively. You’ll probably want to back up your contact data as well as data from some apps. But do you need to back up all your conversations? You may need to make some choices and organize your data better.

For each item on the list, you can choose whether you want to enable or disable backup. When done, your backup will be much smaller, and you’ll still get to keep all the vital data.

There are two particularly tricky things we’d like to talk about here. The first thing regards your messages (iMessage, WhatsApp, or any other app), while the second is about your photos. Those two things typically make your backup so big, although many people don’t know it.

Messages Can Take Up Too Much Space

Many people are genuinely shocked when they see how much storage space their messages take. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using iMessage or any popular messaging app.

But is it just messages? Let us remind you of all the photos and videos you’ve received from your friends. From cute pet photos to funny memes and music videos, they can add up and take a lot of space.

If you don’t want to delete all your conversations, at least go through them and remove some long videos or irrelevant photos. Of course, there are some photos that you’d like to keep, but we’re sure you’ve already forgotten a lot of photos you’ve sent or received.

For example, what about that sandwich your friend had for lunch last week and sent you a photo? You probably don’t have to keep things like that forever.

The Issue with Photos

If you’re like most people, your gallery takes the most of your storage space. As you know, iPhone photos are high-quality, which means they take a lot of space. Here’s a trick: if you’re using the free version of iCloud, there might be a better way to store your photos.

If you don’t have a lot of space on your iCloud, maybe you should reserve it for important information such as your contact details or data regarding your job. If you have thousands of photos, think about saving them to your computer, external memory drive, or using My Photo Stream.

My Photo Stream allows you to display your photos on any device. That is, as long as you’re connected to the Wi-Fi. It doesn’t take as much space as iCloud, as it saves photos in a smaller format. However, when you stream them to your device, they’ll be in their original quality.

My Photo Stream is a good thing, but you can use it only for 30 days. After that, you risk losing your photos if you haven’t saved them elsewhere. Anyway, it can be a quick solution if you don’t have enough space on your iCloud and have to move your photos somewhere temporarily.

Wrap Up

We hope that you find this article useful and that you’ve managed to make your backup smaller. In case you don’t want to give up anything from your iPhone, you may need to purchase a bigger iCloud plan. However, we recommend going through your files and picking only relevant stuff.

Do you know any other tips or tricks that could help other users save some storage space? Feel free to share them in the comments section below.