Mac users have a great experience in accessing, sharing, and storing files on iCloud. Besides Mac, the default storage lets you store photos, calendars, documents, and notes on all Apple products just by logging in to your account. The auto-sync feature works like magic and updates the changes in all Apple devices. However, sometimes there can be a few temporary problems that you might encounter while using iCloud storage when you reach the storage limit. Let’s read about the common iCloud storage glitches found in Mac and their simple solutions.
Data storage problems on Mac
Apple iCloud storage is an auto drive available for all MacOS, iOS, and iPadOS. You get a free storage space of 5GB to keep everything like photos and video files of your celebrations, work files, and all other documents. The feature of sharing the storage across all Apple devices eats up all space within no time. Next, you start getting notifications to buy extra space when it gets full. But, you can avoid buying new storage by freeing up the space on your Mac.
Check your iCloud space and delete old backups and unwanted apps
Managing iCloud storage is easy if you know the files that are taking up a lot of space in the drive. Manually check the used space of each item and reduce the space by deselecting options that you do not need in the drive. By default, Mac allows many features or applications to get stored in iCloud Drive.
You can deselect these unwanted apps and prevent them from syncing on iCloud storage by turning off iCloud drive. Choosing specific folders and files to take backups on the drive is a good solution. This is an effective way to free up iCloud storage on your Mac. This optimizes iCloud storage and gives you more freedom to work on your device. Let’s talk about optimization in detail in the next point.
Optimize Mac storage
You can use Optimize Mac Storage if you are running short of space on iCloud. It is an in-built feature that you must activate when iCloud is getting full. With this feature enabled, your Mac will automatically use iCloud for backup when there is enough room for the files.
Secondly, when Mac space gets used up it shall send old files to iCloud Drive and you can download it as per your need. The optimized storage feature works best if you love watching Netflix or Apple TV movies. It automatically removes the last watched videos and old TV shows from the system.
Data files not syncing properly
It gets frustrating when you are not able to access data files on iMac and it gives an error stating iCloud Drive is not syncing. The big reason for this error is a slow internet connection and iCloud settings. You can also check your file size as it may cause some limitations and interrupt the smooth file synchronization process.
You can perform simple steps and ensure that your file-syncing process has no roadblocks.
- Check if you have a stable internet connection
- Check for software updates, if available
- You can reset your computer preferences
- Restarting your Mac can also help
- Check your Apple ID and sign in with the right login credentials
- Find out if the laptop or computer has the correct date and time
Once these points are checked, you will not find any error related to Mac not syncing issues. It will resolve the issue instantly and let you transfer files to iCloud Drive.
Facing problems in uploading photos to iCloud or not updating
When you get an error message stating that your MacBook or iMac is unable to upload or update photos to iCloud. Then, you must check for duplicate photos, high-resolution photos or video files, and useless screenshots. You might forget to delete it but over time these pictures take up a lot of space on the drive. As a result, the drive stops updating or stops taking backups.
Deleting duplicate photos
You can reduce iCloud storage space by removing duplicate video and image files. The process is simple as iCloud stores all the duplicate files separately in an independent tab. To free up the storage, select duplicates from the Utilities tab and choose the delete button. This will clean up your system too easily with a single click.
Do away with old backups to increase the backup space
Keeping the backups of the old device or computers that are not in use takes a lot of drive space. You can delete the unnecessary backups and make your storage light. Select Backup from the System settings in your Mac computer and choose the remove button of the files that you want to delete. By default, after deleting a backup from Mac, it deactivates iCloud backup settings. You can activate it later anytime.
Deactivate photos or video backup to iCloud
To reduce the storage space, you can deactivate the auto backup of photos in the iCloud. When the photo backup is active, all your pictures or videos get stored on the iCloud storage. This can use up a lot of space on your drive to make it full in a very short time.
You can use your space wisely by manually selecting the photos or videos that you want to save for memory. Doing this process on a regular basis can be of great help and help prevent the problem of storage space running out.
Conclusion
Losing up all your iCloud space can cause trouble for you and you do not wish to spend extra dollars to buy additional storage space. Avoiding incurring additional costs and making storage space on the drive is possible if you take quick action and troubleshoot errors. By optimizing storage space on Mac or other Apple devices, the in-built 5GB space can last for a long time and you can have a clean and well-organized drive.