Exclude files iCloud backup

[Psyko]

EDIT: The files are stored "On this iPhone", not on the iCloud drive.

I have a 128 GB iPhone 12 mini and lots of storage to spare. I have 10+ years of photos that I decided to transfer, but not enough space on my computer to want to sync them. I decided to put them in the Files app, "on this iphone", to only use iPhone local storage.

However the files are included to my iCloud backup and aside of using 40 GB of the 50 I have, I don't really trust Apple with all these personal files given having had leaks before.

 

[0128672]

Yes, you can turn off the Files app in Data to Back Up in your iCloud backup settings. To get there, go to Settings > [Apple ID] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups > [select device] > Choose Data to Back up. If you don't see the Files app, tap on Show All Apps.

 

[Psyko]

I double-checked and found the Files app toggle this time. However it only listed as taking up 47 kB and turning it off did not change anything. I even disabled iCloud backups, deleted the backup data, and turned it back on.

And I'm sure Files is the root of my problems, the usage shot up by the same amount as the pictures and videos I had just added.

 

[0128672]

Oh interesting that it didn't make a difference. It's not something I had actually tested. Files is the app that allows you to see your iCloud Drive (and local device) content, so perhaps it's not possible to exclude documents and data stored on iCloud Drive from an iCloud backup. Do you have space to store them on your phone instead?

 

[Psyko]

The files are stored on my phone, not on iCloud drive, which makes it even weirder.

 

[Psyko]

Anyone?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Go into your iCloud Drive and any file or folder you don’t want backed to the cloud, rename the file or folder to end with .tmp or .nosync. That should work.

 

[Psyko]

I re-wrote the thread start. No files are stored on iCloud drive but they are still included in my backup. They're stored "on this iphone". I tried adding .nosync to the folder names, turning off backup and deleting the icloud data, and then turning it back on. Still wants to sync a whopping 41 GB (of which 39 are pictures).

 

[0128672]

I'd like to help you solve this, so I have some questions to try to see the whole picture:
1. Do you have iCloud Photos enabled?
2. How do you know that it's the Files app that's using all that storage?
3. In the iCloud Backup > Choose Data to Back Up list of apps and their sizes, what are the top 5 or 10 apps?
4. Do you have any other devices also using iCloud storage?
5. Would you post an image of your iCloud storage like this one?

 

[Psyko]

I'd like to help you solve this, so I have some questions to try to see the whole picture:
1. Do you have iCloud Photos enabled?
2. How do you know that it's the Files app that's using all that storage?
3. In the iCloud Backup > Choose Data to Back Up list of apps and their sizes, what are the top 5 or 10 apps?
4. Do you have any other devices also using iCloud storage?
5. Would you post an image of your iCloud storage like this one?

1. Photo stream/iCloud photos: no. My camera roll is however backed up to iCloud.

2. My old 5 GB iCloud plan was and still is fine but I preemptively upgraded to 50 GB when I enabled iCloud backups on my old iPhone 7. After buying my 12 mini I transferred some tens of gigabytes of content to my phone (not iCloud drive but "on this iPhone). Backup usage shot from less than 5 GB up to the current 41 GB. While investingating for this thread I've disabled iCloud backups twice, which deletes all backup data and frees the used space. I did this the other day and useage dropped back down to single digit gigabytes (I think <5 GB still).

3. Backups use 38.9 GB. Messages use 1.6 GB. VLC 740 MB. Image library 584 MB. Podcasts 663 MB. Most apps are sub 100 MB or even sub 1 MB.

4. Perhaps my Macbook but a) no usage that I know of and b) the amount of free space drops when I disable iCloud backups on my iPhone.

5. Absolutely! Maybe the labels in Swedish are more or less self-explanatory but the huge purple chunk "Säkerhetskopia" are backups. Green "meddelanden" are messages. Orange "dokument" are documents. And those other colors are, well, insignificant contributions, lol.

 

[0128672]

Thanks for all that detail. I have a busy day today but I'll mull this through over the next couple of days.

 

[0128672]

A question while I'm thinking through all the other info you provided to make sure we're on the same page:

Camera roll went away in iOS 13. When you say it's being backed up but you're not using iCloud Photos, how are you doing this or how do you know it's being backed up?

Edit: would you also please post a screenshot of your Settings > General > iPhone Storage graph?

 

[Psyko]

Camera roll is still present as a photo library in the photos app on the phone. I know it's being backed up because somewhere under the iCloud settings where you manage backups, there is a meny that displays what's using space and how much. The camera roll, named image library in this menu, is around 1 GB whereas I sync around 5 GB or photos from my old phones from my computer.

 

[0128672]

Ah interesting ... I researched a bit but, sorry to say, I am unable to shed any light on why your iCloud backup is behaving like this.

 

[Psyko]

Thanks a lot for the efforts though, much appreciated. Yeah it's weird that I've set it to not include Files ("no data") but that it still eats all this space

 

[mamalig]

Camera roll is still present as a photo library in the photos app on the phone. I know it's being backed up because somewhere under the iCloud settings where you manage backups, there is a meny that displays what's using space and how much. The camera roll, named image library in this menu, is around 1 GB whereas I sync around 5 GB or photos from my old phones from my computer.

I can't back up my data to iCloud. When you try to do this, you get a warning about running out of storage space in iCloud. Help me configure this option.

 

[gwang73]

Thanks a lot for the efforts though, much appreciated. Yeah it's weird that I've set it to not include Files ("no data") but that it still eats all this space

I don't think you can disable this from the backup because you saved your photos to "on this iPhone" and it just sees them as files and there's no way to exclude them.

Not sure if this will work as I sync with iCloud, but if you save your Photos in the Photos app instead and disable iCloud for Photos, it won't sync your photos in iCloud and you may be able to exclude the Photos app from the backup.

 

[SteelerFever]

@Psyko, I figured out the ideal solution. This was annoying me as well, so I thought I'd register and share!

Simplest hack is to move all files you want excluded to a File Sharing folder (like VLC). If you really want to keep that 740MB VLC data backed up, though, use another app like Chrome. These file sharing folders are located in On My iPhone.

If the folder is not there, copy at least one file into File Sharing (with iTunes on Mac or PC), then the folder will be created in On My iPhone on your device. Stash the files in that folder, then exclude the app from your next backup.

Below is my screenshot showing VLC excluded. Hope this helps!

 

[HDFan]

I have 10+ years of photos that I decided to transfer,

The files are stored on my phone, not on iCloud drive, which makes it even weirder.

With only one copy of the files (just on your phone, if I understand you) if something happens to your phone you lose all of your photos. If you care about them you need a 3-2-1 backup strategy. iCloud can't be counted as one of the backups.

 

[Psyko]

@Psyko, I figured out the ideal solution. This was annoying me as well, so I thought I'd register and share!

Simplest hack is to move all files you want excluded to a File Sharing folder (like VLC). If you really want to keep that 740MB VLC data backed up, though, use another app like Chrome. These file sharing folders are located in On My iPhone.

If the folder is not there, copy at least one file into File Sharing (with iTunes on Mac or PC), then the folder will be created in On My iPhone on your device. Stash the files in that folder, then exclude the app from your next backup.

Below is my screenshot showing VLC excluded. Hope this helps!

Thank you! That did the trick Now I'm down to 3-4 GB of usage only, lol. I could probably stop paying for storage now, what do I need the remaining 46 GB for anyway?

With only one copy of the files (just on your phone, if I understand you) if something happens to your phone you lose all of your photos. If you care about them you need a 3-2-1 backup strategy. iCloud can't be counted as one of the backups.

Backups are important, as a matter of fact my new 4 TB external drive should arrive Monday. The photos are only on my phone to have easier access. They're currently only on external hard drives since my stupid Macbook only has 256 GB of storage. Boot camp does away with around 70 GB. macOS, office suite, photoshop and a normal-sized iTunes library leaves little to spare. So I can't just keep them on my computer for syncing purposes (and besides I don't think I could differentiate backing up synced, which I don't want, vs camera roll which I do want backed up, so this is an excellent solution!)

 

[SteelerFever]

Thank you! That did the trick Now I'm down to 3-4 GB of usage only, lol. I could probably stop paying for storage now, what do I need the remaining 46 GB for anyway?


Backups are important, as a matter of fact my new 4 TB external drive should arrive Monday. The photos are only on my phone to have easier access. They're currently only on external hard drives since my stupid Macbook only has 256 GB of storage. Boot camp does away with around 70 GB. macOS, office suite, photoshop and a normal-sized iTunes library leaves little to spare. So I can't just keep them on my computer for syncing purposes (and besides I don't think I could differentiate backing up synced, which I don't want, vs camera roll which I do want backed up, so this is an excellent solution!)

Glad it helped!

Yes, I also have my Camera Roll backed up with other cloud and external storage. I do not understand the point of having photos, videos, and documents in the full iPhone backup. Unnecessary bloat. Very easy to copy that back after a restore.

Preserving my Home Screen layout and apps is all I really need.

 

[Archigogh]

@Psyko, I figured out the ideal solution. This was annoying me as well, so I thought I'd register and share!

Simplest hack is to move all files you want excluded to a File Sharing folder (like VLC). If you really want to keep that 740MB VLC data backed up, though, use another app like Chrome. These file sharing folders are located in On My iPhone.

If the folder is not there, copy at least one file into File Sharing (with iTunes on Mac or PC), then the folder will be created in On My iPhone on your device. Stash the files in that folder, then exclude the app from your next backup.

Below is my screenshot showing VLC excluded. Hope this helps!

I’m having the same issue with my iPad Pro, I can’t seem to fix it. What is a file sharing folder? I downloaded other file management apps on my Ipad and transferred the files over to those apps but Icloud still seems to want to backup all of these files. Any other suggestions?

 

[Deputyd]

Hi. I'm having the same issue across my iPhone, iPad, my wifes, my sons. If I download or transfer a large file using FILES app and I store it in 'on my iphone' folder. If I add 5GB of files (work files, zips, movies to watch later), guess what, the back up filesize increases by 5GB even though I have specifically set FILES not to backup. I contacted Apple support and they were polite, but pretty useless. They even finished by saying use a computer or USB stick! All I want to do is add lots of files into the 'on my iphone' folder and not have them backup to icloud. Thanks all for any ideas.

 

[komplik]

Hi. I'm having the same issue across my iPhone, iPad, my wifes, my sons. If I download or transfer a large file using FILES app and I store it in 'on my iphone' folder. If I add 5GB of files (work files, zips, movies to watch later), guess what, the back up filesize increases by 5GB even though I have specifically set FILES not to backup. I contacted Apple support and they were polite, but pretty useless. They even finished by saying use a computer or USB stick! All I want to do is add lots of files into the 'on my iphone' folder and not have them backup to icloud. Thanks all for any ideas.

Hi it is as @Psyko said.

You need some application folder. For example Chrome - instal chrome, launch it and download something to internal storage, then Chrome folder will appear in "On My Iphone", move all your locally stored files which you do not want to backup to iCloud to this folder, then exclude Chrome app from backups.

For sure, you can do it with any app folder which will appear on local storage and exclude this app from backups. It is not best solution, but it works fine for me.

It is shame that there is no option to choose which local folders will be included/excluded from iCloud backup

 

[Deputyd]

Hi it is as @Psyko said.

You need some application folder. For example Chrome - instal chrome, launch it and download something to internal storage, then Chrome folder will appear in "On My Iphone", move all your locally stored files which you do not want to backup to iCloud to this folder, then exclude Chrome app from backups.

For sure, you can do it with any app folder which will appear on local storage and exclude this app from backups. It is not best solution, but it works fine for me.

It is shame that there is no option to choose which local folders will be included/excluded from iCloud backup

Thanks - looks like that's the best work around. Just crazy when the 'on my ipad' option is actually not just on my ipad and is also linked to the cloud! I've also used ESfile explorer as that let's you move files into local folders as well. Just means both solutions need extra steps. If Apple really want us to dump laptops for iPads they need to make it easier to do activities that are outside of their perfect world of all Apple apps and unlimited cloud paid storage!