Learn how to delete documents and data saved by iOS and macOS apps in your iCloud account to free up space and remove unnecessary files.
App documents and data stored in iCloud can quickly add up, and depending on the size of your storage plan, you might need to do some cleaning in there from time to time to ensure that you don’t waste any of that precious space. Secondly, this is also helpful to remove data from apps you no longer use.
However, before you begin, be cautious of what you’re deleting. I suggest removing data for apps you don’t use anymore or documents you know for sure you won’t need in the future.
On iPhone and iPad
1) Open the Settings app and tap your name at the top. Then, tap iCloud and select Storage.
2) You’ll see all apps that are storing data in iCloud organized in order, with the app using the most data on top. For each app, you also see how much storage space is being used. Tap the app whose documents and data you want to remove. Then, tap Delete Data From iCloud and confirm. Some apps, such as iCloud Drive, may allow you to delete documents and data for specific categories or projects.
3) For apps like Messages, you’ll see Turn Off and Delete from iCloud, and for iCloud Photos, you’ll see Turn Off and Delete Photos. When you tap these, it will delete the data currently stored in iCloud and will also turn off the feature that prevents Messages or Photos apps from saving new files to iCloud.
4) You can now repeat this process for all unwanted apps whose data you don’t want in iCloud.
Note: If you re-download an app or grant it permission to save data to iCloud, it will start saving documents there again.
On Mac
Because of the nature of iCloud, you can also access these app documents and data directly from your Mac and delete them. But you don’t have to repeat these steps here if you’ve already deleted an app’s data on your iPhone or iPad.
1) Open System Settings, select your Apple Account from the top, and click iCloud.
2) Click the Manage button next to Storage.
3) Select the app whose data you want to remove from your iCloud account and click Delete from iCloud. Repeat the process for all the apps you want to clean up.
Of course, your mileage may vary. In my situation, I don’t have significant documents and data stored in iCloud worth deleting, so my gain is fairly small. But if you’ve been accumulating a bunch of junk over the years, you might very well be able to recover several gigabytes of data, which can really make a big difference.
For more, check out these eight ways to free your iCloud space. And if you back up your iPhone to iCloud, Apple gives you the option to manually select what apps can be backed up there.