Resolved iCloud Drive says it's full, but isn't?

[tevion5]

I have an issue where my iCloud Drive claims to be full.

It reports my current usage as being "59GB of 50GB". This is reported on my iPhone 6S and MacBook Pro. I have a 50GB plan for 0.99c a month. But what I don't understand is that it doesn't add up.

The main thing I use it for is Documents and Data. This accounts for 30GB.

I don't use Photo Stream or iCloud Photo Library.
I don't use iCloud iPhone backups, I backup to my mac.
Mail only accounts for 21.2MB.
I do pay for Apple Music, but iCloud music library is turned off. (Tried setting it up twice but didn't work. Plan to retry when I have time.)

So what is it? Does anyone have any ideas where this magic extra 29GB of usage is coming from?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Ho hum, very odd. Could you open your Mac and throw on System Preferences> iCloud> Manage (located at the bottom right). I'll show you mine, you show me yours.

Am I right in saying that yours shows something similar, but the numbers on the left don't add up and storage is somehow over?

 

[tevion5]

Here it is, rather odd alright.

Actually thinking about it more I have a suspicion. Could it be possible that my entire iTune music library is on my iCloud? It turns out iTunes on my mac said it actually was set up, despite me never seeing it properly complete. That is roughly about 30GB. But I turned iCloud Music Library off on iTunes now, and it was off on my iPhone and yet the problem still remains.

As you can see below, it doesn't seem to add up. (Note: My iPhone reports that the figure is 59/50GB, suggesting around 29GB of unaccounted usage.)

 

[keysofanxiety]

Here it is, rather odd alright.

Actually thinking about it more I have a suspicion. Could it be possible that my entire iTune music library is on my iCloud? It turns out iTunes on my mac said it actually was set up, despite me never seeing it properly complete. That is roughly about 30GB. But I turned iCloud Music Library off on iTunes now, and it was off on my iPhone and yet the problem still remains.

As you can see below, there is around 29GB unaccounted for.

View attachment 699243

View attachment 699242

Well, that is a pickle. It could be that there was a half-sync on some music and now it's just not grafting.

You could try to sign out from iCloud on all your devices, then sign back in. Any better?

If not, could you go to www.icloud.com and sign in, then go to Settings – how does the storage break down there?

 

[tevion5]

Well, that is a pickle. It could be that there was a half-sync on some music and now it's just not grafting.

You could try to sign out from iCloud on all your devices, then sign back in. Any better?

If not, could you go to www.icloud.com and sign in, then go to Settings – how does the storage break down there?

View attachment 699244

Pretty much the exact same story as given on my iPhone.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Pretty much the exact same story as given on my iPhone.

View attachment 699245

Man that is weird. The only thing I've found out based on the names of your devices is that you're a Battlestar Galactica fan. If I'm off the mark with that one too then I really have been 100% useless today.

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas, really sorry about that! It may be worth speaking with Apple Support if you haven't already?
[doublepost=1494452597][/doublepost]

Pretty much the exact same story as given on my iPhone.

OK wait, let's try one more thing. Call it a desperate flash of inspiration as iCloud.com is showing it all used up by Docs. I imagine iCloud is backing up your Desktop & Documents from your Mac. Has there been anything enormous that's found its way onto your Documents or Desktop?

What does the Get Info on your Mac look like? If it is backing up through iCloud, it won't be visible through Macintosh HD> Users, so you'll need to check from the sidebar instead.

If that all looks OK, how about we sign back into iCloud and then disable iCloud Drive/Documents? It might take quite some time to unsync mind you, as it'll have to copy from the cloud back to local... but maybe that might do the trick.

 

[tevion5]

Man that is weird. The only thing I've found out based on the names of your devices is that you're a Battlestar Galactica fan. If I'm off the mark with that one too then I really have been 100% useless today.

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas, really sorry about that! It may be worth speaking with Apple Support if you haven't already?
[doublepost=1494452597][/doublepost]

OK wait, let's try one more thing. Call it a desperate flash of inspiration as iCloud.com is showing it all used up by Docs. I imagine iCloud is backing up your Desktop & Documents from your Mac. Has there been anything enormous that's found its way onto your Documents or Desktop?

What does the Get Info on your Mac look like? If it is backing up through iCloud, it won't be visible through Macintosh HD> Users, so you'll need to check from the sidebar instead.

View attachment 699247

If that all looks OK, how about we sign back into iCloud and then disable iCloud Drive/Documents? It might take quite some time to unsync mind you, as it'll have to copy from the cloud back to local... but maybe that might do the trick.

Sadly not, my iCloud folder has been reporting 30GB total now and for a long time :/

I think I need some way to wipe my entire iCloud drive. Then maybe fill it up again with my documents fro scratch. Only I can't find anything online relating to that. Thanks for your effort! Appreciate you taking your time to brainstorm and reply

 

[QzzB]

I have an issue where my iCloud Drive claims to be full.

It reports my current usage as being "59GB of 50GB". This is reported on my iPhone 6S and MacBook Pro. I have a 50GB plan for 0.99c a month. But what I don't understand is that it doesn't add up.

The main thing I use it for is Documents and Data. This accounts for 30GB.

I don't use Photo Stream or iCloud Photo Library.
I don't use iCloud iPhone backups, I backup to my mac.
Mail only accounts for 21.2MB.
I do pay for Apple Music, but iCloud music library is turned off. (Tried setting it up twice but didn't work. Plan to retry the I have time.)

So what is it? Does anyone have any ideas where this magic extra 29GB of usage is coming from?

Had a similar thing on my iCloud twice now. Had to contact Apple Support.

I was told by support that what they think it is might be the reservation of uploading files. I had a game that was writing loads of config files to my docs folder that I had synced on iCloud. What the sync client was doing was reserving the space. I made it worse by trying to stop the sync when I saw that it was stuck uploading by removing the files. One of the iCloud engineers needed to go in and manually remove the file reservations.

Think the total of my files were about 5mb but it ate up my entire storage for some reason. possibly a bug but Apple managed to fix it eventually.

 

[zorinlynx]

The last time this happened to me it cleared up on its own an hour later.

Maybe just wait a bit? How long has it been like that?

 

[tevion5]

Had a similar thing on my iCloud twice now. Had to contact Apple Support.

I was told by support that what they think it is might be the reservation of uploading files. I had a game that was writing loads of config files to my docs folder that I had synced on iCloud. What the sync client was doing was reserving the space. I made it worse by trying to stop the sync when I saw that it was stuck uploading by removing the files. One of the iCloud engineers needed to go in and manually remove the file reservations.

Think the total of my files were about 5mb but it ate up my entire storage for some reason. possibly a bug but Apple managed to fix it eventually.

I think I will also just have to talk to Apple support. I have scheduled a call with them tomorrow so hopefully that resolves it!
[doublepost=1494626769][/doublepost]

The last time this happened to me it cleared up on its own an hour later.

Maybe just wait a bit? How long has it been like that?

I've been waiting around 48 hours now and the issue still remains.

 

[tevion5]

Contacted Apple support today after scheduling a phone call with them yesterday.

Apparently there is a rare issue where iCloud allocates space for a backup/music library or something like that an then because of some coincidental error that occurs in the middle of the process, forgets to let go of that space even after you cancel those files being kept in the cloud.

So this is what was wrong and they were able to explain the issue and rectify it pretty much straight away. Anyone else experiencing the same issue just needs to schedule a free call with Apple support and let them know you're having trouble.

It's working now again, and I am only using up the space I am actually making use of!

 

[elpietri]

Apparently there is a rare issue where iClpud allocates space for a backup/music library or something like that an then because of some coincidental error that occurs in the middle of the process, forgets to let go of that space even after you cancel those files being kept in the cloud.

So this is what was wrong and they were able to explain the issue and rectify it pretty much straight away. Anyone else experiencing the same issue just needs to schedule a free call with Apple support and let them know you're having trouble.

It's working now again, and I am only using up the space I am actually making use of![/QUOTE]


I am having a similar issue and it's been over 2 months now. I ran out of space (50 GB) by using iCloud for Photos, Backup and Documents. Had ~29GB in photos/videos and ~20GB in Documents. Decided to turn off iCloud drive on all my devices. Re-created my Documents folder in my iMac and went to iCloud online to delete all the Documents there that were taking ~20GB of space. Deleted them, but it still shows as used up and won't release it. I called Apple Support, twice, two different techs. One said he needed to submit the case to Engineering. Never got back to me. Called again and complained. Escalated to a supervisor who said the same thing. After two weeks she responded that she is still waiting to hear from Engineering. It's been 2 weeks again and I haven't heard a beep. I know it has something to do with their server and the allocations and it will need manual intervention from them to release it, but it is frustrating having to wait this long. Still paying for 50GB but using only 29GB... and no backups in 2 months.

 

[fareal]

Call again and ask them to look for "reserved storage space" in your iCloud account. Took a bit, but that is how they resolved mine.

I am having a similar issue and it's been over 2 months now. I ran out of space (50 GB) by using iCloud for Photos, Backup and Documents. Had ~29GB in photos/videos and ~20GB in Documents. Decided to turn off iCloud drive on all my devices. Re-created my Documents folder in my iMac and went to iCloud online to delete all the Documents there that were taking ~20GB of space. Deleted them, but it still shows as used up and won't release it. I called Apple Support, twice, two different techs. One said he needed to submit the case to Engineering. Never got back to me. Called again and complained. Escalated to a supervisor who said the same thing. After two weeks she responded that she is still waiting to hear from Engineering. It's been 2 weeks again and I haven't heard a beep. I know it has something to do with their server and the allocations and it will need manual intervention from them to release it, but it is frustrating having to wait this long. Still paying for 50GB but using only 29GB... and no backups in 2 months.

 

[carlosandresmendoza]

Same problem here! Documents folder taking up 27 GB but there are no files at all on the folder, completely empty! Apple Support told me they had to escalate to Engineering, but no response at all so far. Trying to delete documents from the "Manage Storage" option on iPhone or iPad just does not work at all.

 

[Jasd]

Same problem here! Documents folder taking up 27 GB but there are no files at all on the folder, completely empty! Apple Support told me they had to escalate to Engineering, but no response at all so far. Trying to delete documents from the "Manage Storage" option on iPhone or iPad just does not work at all.

Did you manage to get this issue resolved? if so how? i think i might have a similar issues. Thanks

 

[carlosandresmendoza]

Did you manage to get this issue resolved? if so how? i think i might have a similar issues. Thanks

I did manage to solve it after a lot of calls and chats with Apple Support. First level analysts won't even understand the issue and will classify it as a Mac or iPhone problem, you have to clearly state that it is an iCloud Drive problem, not device-related.

Second level analysts, or senior analysts, will somehow try to understand the problem and with efforts from you they will, at some point. Then they will realize they cannot solve the issue and then they will escalate the problem to some sort of Engineering Department. If your lucky, the escalation thing will clearly request for "wiping the iCloud Drive folder" and Engineering will do that. If not lucky, Engineering will come back with some dumb procedures as guaranteeing that you iCloud Drive is empty.

 

[Stavi]

SOLUTION (for me):
1. Sign out of iCloud on your device.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Sign back into iCloud.

Background:
I have three apple device, iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro.
All of their icloud settings/profiles showed I was only using ~70 Mb, however in finder (MacBook Pro) it showed I was at capacity (5 Gb). After calling Apple and telling them to delete the "reserved storage" (above fix), it ended up being on my end and as above shows much easier.

I really only use iCloud to store/sync text files (source code). I do this predominately on my MacBook and often times without **internet access**. Apparently this is a big problem as when you edit a file in the iCloud folder, changes are cached in a .DS_store file locally in your "mobile documents" directory instead of simply updating the file in the cloud. I made enough changes offline to bloat this file to 4Gb in less than a month.

If you want to check to see if this is the case for you and trouble shoot where your iCloud might be "bloated" do this:
Open terminal and copy past the below (no quotations) and substitute YOUR user name for name and hit enter
"cd /Users/name/Library/Mobile Documents"
and then the below command and enter again.
"du -sh */"
If you see a large data size to the left of one of the "iCloud~com~apple" folders that does not show up/is consistent with what iCloud says, the above fix should work. If it doesn't I would refrain from deleting the folder, just call Apple.

 

[SWHighlander]

For my situation, it was a little easier to solve. My iPhone was giving me a daily error: "This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available." Looking in iOS on my phone and in icloud.com, it showed only 3.1 GB of 5.0 GB used, so I was confused. In iOS going into Settings:AppleID/iCloud (very top):iCloud:Manage Storage, under the list of how much space each app was taking up, "Backups" was 1.5 GB. Again, this seemed reasonable and to fit in my iCloud. But if I clicked that Backups button/ right arrow, "This iPhone" showed that my last back size was 1.61 GB but my Next Backup Size was going to be 4.12 GB. Further down that page under "Choose Data to Back up" the culprit was my Photo Library which was almost all of that 4 GB. So I synced my phone to my computer, downloaded my photos/videos, then deleted most of them from my phone. Then the backup worked.

So I had to go into Backups to see the next backup size planned to know where the problem was.

 

[cocoua]

Can't believe this is so old and I still having same problem (((((
the iCloud drive says there is 20GB of files, folders are empty
lets' start with the tedious solution of calling apple support, etc, etc

 

[lumchai]

I was having this issue and it was iCloud DRIVING me mad, heh get it?

Anyway I spent hours trying to get my preeeciousss iCloud storage space back and after everything I tried I found that for some reason emptying the 'Bin' on my second MacBook Pro fixed the issue as I had a lot of large files I previously deleted...I'm not sure if it has to do with temporarily storing a certain amount of previously deleted files in the Cloud or anything of the sort but regardless, it worked for me...

Hope this helps!