What happens to icloud backup if you can't pay?

[kristoffer4]

Hey. I have recently changed credit card on iCloud.
By doing this I started wondering what happens to my iCloud backup if my card is invalid or I am otherwise unable to pay?
Will all my iCloud content be deleted from iCloud and the iCloud folder on my mac?

 

[whsbuss]

Maybe not immediately but after some time it will be all gone

 

[Rigby]

You will be downgraded to the 5GB free option. Your data won't be deleted, but you can't add anything new and some cloud functionality will be restricted. See:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201318

"If you downgrade your storage plan and your content exceeds the storage you have available, new photos and videos won't upload to iCloud Photo Library and your devices stop backing up to iCloud. iCloud Drive and the other apps that you use with iCloud won’t update across your devices. You can't send or receive messages with your iCloud email address."

 

[Brookzy]

You will be downgraded to the 5GB free option. Your data won't be deleted, but you can't add anything new and some cloud functionality will be restricted. See:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201318

"If you downgrade your storage plan and your content exceeds the storage you have available, new photos and videos won't upload to iCloud Photo Library and your devices stop backing up to iCloud. iCloud Drive and the other apps that you use with iCloud won’t update across your devices. You can't send or receive messages with your iCloud email address."

I'd have thought your data would be deleted eventually, else you could game iCloud into being an very very cheap long term data archiving solution.

E.g. Create iCloud account, upgrade to 2TB, upload 2TB of data to archive, stop paying. Then if ever you need to access that archive many years in the future, just pay for another month of 2TB storage in order to download it, because your data is supposedly still there.

 

[Rigby]

I'd have thought your data would be deleted eventually, else you could game iCloud into being an very very cheap long term data archiving solution.

Not just iCloud. Onedrive and Google Drive (and probably others) have similar policies.

E.g. Create iCloud account, upgrade to 2TB, upload 2TB of data to archive, stop paying. Then if ever you need to access that archive many years in the future, just pay for another month of 2TB storage in order to download it, because your data is supposedly still there.

If you think it's worth the effort, knock yourself out.