iCloud - What's all this data being Backed up.?

[frosty001]

I've searched the forums and elsewhere and not really got an answer. If anyone can help with this i'd appreciate it. I was considering a visit to a Genius just but thought the Macrumors community would be a better source of info.

iCloud - What is it actually backing up daily and how does that eat into my online allowance?

I was a mobile me user and due to having already paid up, i have the 25 GB allowance. I was hoping that i would downgrade and get some cash back as the 5 GB free allowance seemed plenty big enough as it excluded Apps, Email, Photostream, iTunes purchases, etc...

It's saying i've used 3 GB already and I can't work out what all that data is. The iPhone backup is just under 700 MB. Below 'Backup Options' it lists by size what Apps it's backing up and how much data the Backup includes. Some of these Apps haven't been used in months, well before iCloud / iOS 5 happened.

The Manage Storage screen gives me the following overview:
Backups
iPhone - 692 MB
Documents & Data
Pages - 1.6 MB
Mail - 2.3 GB (i though this didn't count against my allowance as it's a .mac account)

I'm a bit confused where all this data is coming from if i haven't some Apps in ages. I know i can choose not to Backup certain Apps with the on/off toggle, but i'd rather turn it all to on and not think about it.

This is a long winded email, but essentially i'm confused how so much data is being back up when i'm not doing a lot on the device. Surely others are getting up to their 5 GB limit quickly and i wondered if they might be ale to shed some light on this subject.

Thanks.

 

[theBigD23]

I've searched the forums and elsewhere and not really got an answer. If anyone can help with this i'd appreciate it. I was considering a visit to a Genius just but thought the Macrumors community would be a better source of info.

iCloud - What is it actually backing up daily and how does that eat into my online allowance?

I was a mobile me user and due to having already paid up, i have the 25 GB allowance. I was hoping that i would downgrade and get some cash back as the 5 GB free allowance seemed plenty big enough as it excluded Apps, Email, Photostream, iTunes purchases, etc...

It's saying i've used 3 GB already and I can't work out what all that data is. The iPhone backup is just under 700 MB. Below 'Backup Options' it lists by size what Apps it's backing up and how much data the Backup includes. Some of these Apps haven't been used in months, well before iCloud / iOS 5 happened.

The Manage Storage screen gives me the following overview:
Backups
iPhone - 692 MB
Documents & Data
Pages - 1.6 MB
Mail - 2.3 GB (i though this didn't count against my allowance as it's a .mac account)

I'm a bit confused where all this data is coming from if i haven't some Apps in ages. I know i can choose not to Backup certain Apps with the on/off toggle, but i'd rather turn it all to on and not think about it.

This is a long winded email, but essentially i'm confused how so much data is being back up when i'm not doing a lot on the device. Surely others are getting up to their 5 GB limit quickly and i wondered if they might be ale to shed some light on this subject.

Thanks.

What mainly counts against your 5GB is camera roll, including videos and pictures, App Data, and Mail. Your "Documents and Data" count too, for example, Pages documents, and game saves. On MobileMe which was upgraded from .mac initially, your mail does count towards the 5GB. However, you should have an extra 20 GB free because of the transition. I have 25Gb until June 2012, when MobileMe will be officially shut down.

 

[frosty001]

thanks BigD.
I emptied the pics in my Camera Roll by syncing them with iPhoto and back to the phone in an event, turned the iCloud Camera Roll Backup option to off then back on again. Now it's only taking up 4 MB which has massively reduced the next Backup, cheers.

The email backup is odd as i would have thought that our emails (.mac / Mobile me) are automatically backed up as they're on a server anyway. I suppose even if you use up your entire 5 GB allocation for emails, it's still cheaper than what Mobile Me used to cost us.

If Apple could make the wifi sync with iTunes delete your camera roll automatically (or give us the option) as the pics are in your iPhoto & photo stream, then it would reduce Backups a great deal.

 

[theBigD23]

thanks BigD.
I emptied the pics in my Camera Roll by syncing them with iPhoto and back to the phone in an event, turned the iCloud Camera Roll Backup option to off then back on again. Now it's only taking up 4 MB which has massively reduced the next Backup, cheers.

The email backup is odd as i would have thought that our emails (.mac / Mobile me) are automatically backed up as they're on a server anyway. I suppose even if you use up your entire 5 GB allocation for emails, it's still cheaper than what Mobile Me used to cost us.

If Apple could make the wifi sync with iTunes delete your camera roll automatically (or give us the option) as the pics are in your iPhoto & photo stream, then it would reduce Backups a great deal.

No problem. The sync idea for camera roll is a good idea. I do see it as a discount since I was okay paying the 99/year. We get 1 year free and for 15GB for $20 and $25 for iTunes matches, it's still much cheaper. I love the backup features. A friend of mine has already benefited.

 

[Starhawk]

thanks BigD.
The email backup is odd as i would have thought that our emails (.mac / Mobile me) are automatically backed up as they're on a server anyway. I suppose even if you use up your entire 5 GB allocation for emails, it's still cheaper than what Mobile Me used to cost us.

That's not a second copy, or a backup, of your mail. That's the actual mail account usage, and it's counting towards your iCloud account.

Technically, your mail account is now an iCloud account.