A variety of Appleâs iCloud services are experiencing outages this morning, including Calendar, Contacts, iCloud Drive, and more. Apple has confirmed the outages on its System status webpage.
According to Apple, the issues are affecting the following services and that the outages started at approximately 9 am ET this morning:
Find My
iCloud Account & Sign In
iCloud Backup
iCloud Bookmarks & Tabs
iCloud Calendar
iCloud Contacts
iCloud Drive
iCloud Keychain
iCloud Mail
iCloud Storage Upgrades
Photos
Screen Time
For each one, Apple says that âsome users are affected and may be experiencing a problem with this service.â For the Find My outage specifically, Apple says:
Users may be unable to find the location of people or devices, list registered devices, play a sound on their device, remotely wipe a device, or put the device in lost mode.
Apple says the issues are ongoing and it does not offer a timetable for when the problems will be resolved. You can check on the status of Apple services on the Apple System Status webpage right here. Apple will update the status page once the outages have been resolved.
Some been a customer of 1Password for as long as they can remember. They love being able to have a dedicated application/service for password management, rotating one-time passwords, storing secure information like social security numbers. They know they have a dedicated place to manage all my data in a place they know is safe and easy to access. On the other hand, iCloud Keychain works well and is built-in on all of the devices. Is it time for Apple to release a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain, so itâs easier to manage and interact with that data?
iCloud Keychain remembers things, so that you donât have to. It auto-fills your informationâlike your Safari usernames and passwords, credit cards, Wi-Fi passwords, and social log-insâon any device that you approve. You can also use iCloud Keychain to see your saved passwords.
Weâre all struggling with password management. The FIDO Alliance was created to help rethink how passwords should look going forward, and Apple is one of the newest members of the alliance. It joins other major technology companies like Microsoft and Google. Itâs in the best interest of all vendors to make it easier to create and manage passwords.
The problem with managing passwords on iOS and macOS at the moment is the functions are scattered around. Some of the syncing happens on in the backend with no way to quickly see (especially on iOS). A prime example of this is the syncing of Wi-Fi passwords. Itâs easy to remove old networks on the Mac, but on iOS, itâs all happened without being able to remove anything.
Apple should release a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain
As our devices continue to store ever more personal information, Apple should release a dedicated app to view, add, change, or delete anything being stored in iCloud Keychain. Weâve already seen rumors of iOS 14 bringing new features to iCloud Keychain, so this would be a natural next step. This app would help promote the security of iOS (it would be behind a second round of Face ID scanning) as a place where you can store your most personal data like social security numbers, PIN codes, etc. It would also allow you to view, update, or delete anything password related for website logins.
Right now, website passwords are stored inside of the Safari settings on macOS and inside of the Settings app on iOS. A dedicated app would put this front and center.
On top of a dedicated app for managing personal information, Iâd like to see Apple help promote two-factor authentication. Right now, Apple has its own flavor of how it uses two-factor authentication to set up a new device or log in to iCloud.com on the web, but most websites use another format.
Security on the internet has become more important with each passing year. It seems like every other month there is a major data breach from major retailers or online properties. One of the key things that you can do to minimize the effect these breaches will have on you is to set up and use two-factor (or multi-factor) authentication. Two-factor authentication can be explained as something you know (your password) and something you have (a smartphone or another authorized device). With most implementations, you will log in to a website using your normal login, and you will then prompted to input a secondary code. The secondary code can be generated in multiple ways (more on that later) and changes every thirty seconds. By enabling two-factor authentication on websites that support it, a hacker wouldnât be able to log in just using your username and password. Theyâd need access to your two-factor authentication database in order to access the current code.
Apple has two-factor authentication built right into iOS and macOS, but they implement it in a slightly different way. Instead of using a third-party solution to generate a code, youâll receive an alert on another one of your registered devices. Once you approve the login, a six-digit code will pop up, and youâll input that on the new device.
When saving a password to iCloud Keychain, a dedicated app could help facilitate the set up of a one time password for individual websites. Apple could even create an API that works with Sign in with Apple or just general website logins.
Wrap-up
What do you think? Should Apple release a dedicated keychain application to bring the security of iCloud to the front and center? I think removing it from the Settings application would make it easier for people to look up their passwords if logging into a public computer, manually add new information in a secure way, and just generally have a better understanding of where all of the information lives.
Have you deleted or lost Safari bookmarks from iPhone, iPad, or Mac somehow? If so you can use a procedure weâll outline here to restore and recover lost Safari bookmarks back to your device.
Most iPhone and iPad owners make use of Safari to browse the web, and creating bookmarks of favorite sites (like SydneyCBD.repair of course) is a common procedure. Since itâs the web browser that comes pre-installed on iOS and iPadOS, Safari works seamlessly with other devices in the Apple ecosystem, and iCloud can help sync your bookmarks too.
Bookmarks, History, and other data are synced automatically across your devices as long as iCloud is enabled, so regardless of whether youâre browsing on your iPhone, iPad, or a MacBook, all your Safari data is readily available. However, itâs always possible to to accidentally delete a bookmark, or have some other action occur where you lose your Safari bookmarks.
Did you lose your bookmarks in Safari for whatever reason? Perhaps after an accident, a corrupted iOS update, some other error on the device? If so, look no further. Thanks to Appleâs iCloud service, itâs fairly easy to restore your lost Safari bookmarks data. In this article, weâll be discussing how you can recover all your lost Safari bookmarks using iCloud using a process similar to restoring lost contacts with iCloud, restoring lost Calendars and Reminders with iCloud, and recovering lost iCloud Drive documents and files.
How to Recover Lost Safari Bookmarks with iCloud
By default, iCloud backup is enabled on all Apple devices, so restoring your bookmarks shouldnât be a tedious process. However, if you ever manually disabled backups at some point for whatever reason, this procedure will not help you recover your lost Safari bookmarks data.
Open any web browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. from your PC, Mac, or iPad and head over to iCloud.com. Sign in to iCloud by clicking on the âarrow iconâ once youâve typed in your Apple ID and password.
Click on âAccount Settingsâ once youâre in the iCloud homepage.
Here, just click on âRestore Bookmarksâ under the Advanced section located at the bottom of the page, as shown in the screenshot below.
Youâll get a new pop-up window where iCloud will start searching for the Safari bookmarks that are stored on the cloud. Wait for a few seconds. Once the search is complete, youâll get a list of all the bookmarks that can be restored. Simply select the bookmarks which you want to recover by checking the boxes and click on âRestoreâ as shown in the screenshot below.
The restoration process will take a few seconds to finish. Once itâs done, the window will display how many bookmarks were restored in the process. Click âDoneâ to close this window and end the procedure.
Those are the steps required to recover and restore your lost Safari bookmarks.
This recovered data will be accessible immediately across all your supported Apple devices, as long as theyâre logged into the same iCloud account, which is one of the many reasons you must use the same Apple ID on all of your own personal devices.
To use the data recovery features available on iCloud.com, you need to use the iCloud.com desktop site, meaning you can use an iPad or computer that features a desktop-class web browser. You can also use this trick to access and login to iCloud.com from iPhone with full access by requesting the desktop site. If youâre trying to perform this restoration process on your iPhoneâs mobile browser without requesting the desktop site, youâre out of luck. Itâd be reasonable to expect Apple to add this functionality to mobile devices at some point down the line however, so that limitation may change in the future..
By default, Apple provides 5 GB of free cloud storage with every iCloud account. As long as youâre not backing up tons of files and photos, this should be adequate to store most of basic stuff like bookmarks, documents, files, contacts, calendars, and other data on Appleâs cloud servers. If you do need to update to a larger iCloud storage capacity, theyâre available at monthly costs of $0.99, $2.99 and $9.99 for 50 GB, 200 GB and 2 TB storage space respectively.
For the majority of users, youâll want to have iCloud backups enabled, so unless you have serious privacy concerns or some other compelling reason it may be a good idea to shell out for an iCloud paid plan if needed to backup your devices.
The convenience that iCloud brings to the table and how it works seamlessly across iOS and macOS devices is simply unmatched. Users donât have to heavily rely on physical storage anymore, as valuable information like contacts, photos, files, etc. are automatically backed up to the cloud when their devices are turned on and connected to power. You can always manage your iCloud backups too from the devices, if you need to delete an iCloud backup from iPhone or iPad for example to make space for a fresh backup.
Worried you might have lost iCloud Drive documents or files? Or perhaps youâre wondering if you can recover a deleted file or document from iCloud Drive? Donât panic, you can probably restore and recover those files from iCloud Drive using the procedure weâll discuss here.
Files, documents and other data that we constantly use for school, college, and work purposes are always extremely valuable. Some of you may have your important data, files, work presentations saved on your iPhones and iPads to quickly access them when youâre on the move. Appleâs iCloud Drive service has made it easier to back up all these files and securely store them on the cloud, which you immediately could access it from all your Mac and iOS devices. That being said, itâs not too hard to accidentally lose your files, documents and other data, because sometimes all it takes is a mistaken deletion, or a failed or interrupted upload, or even a botched software update.
If youâre one of those iPhone or iPad users who lost your data because of a corrupted iOS update or you just accidentally deleted a couple of files, donât fret. Youâve come to the right place, and you very well could recover and restore those lost iCloud Drive files.
In this article, weâll be discussing how you could recover all your lost documents & files from iCloud.
How to Restore Lost or Deleted iCloud Drive Documents & Files
This procedure will aim to help you recover your data from iCloud Drive, whether that data has been lost, deleted, or removed. Follow the step-by-step instructions to use the restore process with iCloud:
Open any web browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. from your PC, Mac or iPad and head over to iCloud.com. Sign in to iCloud by clicking on the âarrow iconâ once youâve typed in your Apple ID and password.
Once youâre in the iCloud homepage, click on âAccount Settingsâ.
Now, simply click on âRestore Filesâ under the Advanced section located at the bottom of the page, as shown in the screenshot below.
Youâll get a new pop-up window where iCloud will start searching for the files stored on the cloud. Give it a few seconds. Once itâs done searching, youâll get a list of all the recoverable files that can be selected as per your preference. Simply choose the files you want to recover by checking the boxes and click on âRestoreâ.
iCloud will now begin the restoration process. If you have plenty of files to recover, youâll need to wait a couple of minutes. Once itâs complete, just click on âDoneâ to exit out of the window to and end the procedure.
Thatâs pretty much all there is to it.
The restored documents and files will immediately be available across all your devices as long as they are logged into the same Apple account and Apple ID with iCloud enabled.
Itâs worth noting here that you canât complete this procedure from a mobile browser, unless you request the desktop site for iCloud.com first.
Additionally, if you manually turned off iCloud on your device beforehand, you will be unable to recover your files as they werenât backed up to the cloud.
By default, iCloud backup is enabled on your device, and everyone should keep that feature on for myriad reasons including potential data recovery, easy device transitioning, amongst other reasons.
Every Apple ID is provided with 5 GB of free iCloud storage when they sign up for an Apple account. That might not seem like much, but itâs actually adequate to store most simple documents and files unless youâre a power user, or you plan on storing a lot of photos or other stuff in iCloud. If you are a heavy iCloud user, or have a few devices that you want to backup to iCloud, then iCloud plans range in cost from $0.99, $2.99 and $9.99 per month for 50 GB, 200 GB and 2 TB storage space respectively. For the most part, thereâs really no reason to have iCloud disabled unless you have serious privacy concerns or have no use for the cloud features it offers.
Appleâs cloud storage platform brings a lot of convenience to the end-user and works seamlessly across Mac and iOS devices. If you have all of the iCloud features turned on, then all your data gets synced and backed up, including contacts, photos, files, etc. are automatically backed up to the cloud when your device is turned on and connected to power.
Worried about lost contacts from iPhone, iPad, or Mac? If you are looking to recover and restore lost contacts, the instructions here will help walk you through the process by using iCloud to recoup contact information that has gone missing from a device.
Contacts are extremely important to stay in touch with your friends, family members and colleagues, regardless of what smartphone youâre using. Anyone would be infuriated when they realize all their contacts are missing from their phone. This is a rare problem but it can occur with iPhone and iPad users, particularly if they run into issues like losing contacts and other data after a major iOS software update, accidentally deleted them some other way, or even losing some contacts after syncing or restoring a device from an iTunes backup. Thanks to Appleâs cloud storage service called iCloud, users donât really have to worry too much about permanently losing their contacts anymore, as you can use a handy feature to recover and restore lost contacts which can be used for iPhone, iPad, Mac, or other devices too.
By default, iCloud backs up your iPhone or iPad or Mac over Wi-Fi when its turned on and plugged in to a power source, and that happens automatically. All iCloud users get 5 GB of free cloud storage when they sign up for iCloud and an Apple ID, so backing up important data such as contacts, messages, calendars and more shouldnât be an issue. Thereâs more than one way to recover the backed up data, just in case youâve lost them.
If youâve accidentally lost some or all of your contacts on your iPhone or iPad after an update or syncing process, youâve come to the right place. In this article, weâll be discussing how you could easily restore all your lost contacts from iCloud.
How to Restore Lost Contacts from iCloud.com
First of all, weâd like to let you know that this iCloud approach isnât the only way to recover your lost contacts. However, this might arguably be the easiest method to restore your contacts across all of your Apple devices. As long as you have access to a web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Safari or even Microsoft Edge, you should be able to complete this procedure within a few minutes. So without further ado, letâs take a look at the necessary steps.
Launch any web browser and head over to iCloud.com. Now, type in your Apple ID and password and click on the âarrowâ icon to sign in to iCloud with your Apple account.
Youâll be taken to the homepage. Here, click on âAccount Settingsâ located below your name and profile photo.
Now, click on âRestore Contactsâ under the Advanced section located at the bottom of the page. This will open a new pop-up menu.
Here, youâll see multiple archives of your contacts list backed up previously to iCloud. Once youâve selected an archive, click on âRestoreâ right next to it.
Youâll now get a pop up with a warning to confirm the restoration process. Simply click on âRestoreâ. Itâll take a few minutes to complete, especially if you have a lengthy contacts list.
Once complete, iCloud will immediately make a backup of the new archive as shown in the screenshot below. Itâs worth noting here that, whatever archive you select will replace the existing contacts on all your Apple devices. Simply click on âDoneâ to exit out of the window and end the procedure.
Thatâs all there is to it.
Youâll notice this method will restore lost contacts to all devices that are using iCloud, that means any iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod touch, or any other Apple device synced with iCloud will get the contacts restored when you initiate this recovery process.
If you own multiple Apple devices, restoring lost contacts from the iCloud website might be a lot more convenient, as it restores contacts across all of your devices within a couple of minutes. Cloud storage platforms like iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc have all made it easier for users to restore their contacts quickly in case if theyâve accidentally lost them for whatever reason, and given the importance of a users contacts this is a great feature to have available.
Prior to iCloud, the only way to get back the lost contacts was by physically connecting the device to a PC or Mac running iTunes and restoring it from a previously made contacts backup. This took some time and could be inconvenient for some users who would rather enjoy the post-PC era and never connect their device to a computer for backups, plus it was still possible to lose the backed up data in case of a hard drive failure or the computer got lost. Fortunately thatâs now a thing of the past, so long as you use iCloud of course.
We donât always listen to music on a single device. Depending on what weâre doing, we often switch between our smartphones, tablets, computers and even smart speakers. This is why popular music streaming services offer apps on a variety of different devices. If youâre an iPhone or iPad user, thereâs a pretty good chance you utilize Apple Music to listen to all your favorite songs while youâre on the go.
In addition to streaming music thatâs available on the platform, Apple Music unlocks a nifty feature called iCloud Music Library, which as the name suggests, allows you to sync your music across all your supported Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and iTunes on Windows.
Are you an Apple Music subscriber whoâs interested in taking advantage of this functionality? Then read on. In this article, weâll be discussing exactly how you can enable iCloud Music Library on your iPhone or iPad.
How to Enable iCloud Music Library on iPhone & iPad
In order to turn on this feature on your iPhone or iPad, you need to be subscribed to Apple Music as mentioned earlier. Simply follow the steps below in order to sync your Apple Music content to iCloud, for access on other devices like your Mac, PC or even HomePod.
Open âSettingsâ app from the home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
In the Settings menu, scroll down and tap on âMusicâ to head over to your Apple Music settings.
Here, youâll notice an option called âSync Libraryâ which used to be called âiCloud Music Libraryâ until the recent iOS software update. Simply tap the toggle to turn this feature on, as shown in the screenshot below.
Thatâs pretty much all you need to do in order to start taking advantage of iCloud Music Library.
Your purchased music and the content you add from Apple Music will automatically be synced across other devices with the help of Appleâs iCloud service.
In addition to this, the songs that you import to iTunes on your PC or Mac will also be available on your iPhone, iPad and other supported devices. This means, you donât have to manually transfer your local music files to your iPhone or iPad by syncing it with iTunes.
Although you need an Apple Music subscription to take full advantage of iCloud Music Library, youâre not completely out of luck if you havenât subscribed to the service. If youâre looking to sync music content on your PC or Mac across your iPhone, iPad or HomePod, you could pay a yearly fee to get access to iTunes Match, which lets you store up to 100,000 songs on iCloud. However, itâs worth noting that you wonât be able to stream Apple Music content with iTunes Match.
The ability to store music on the cloud and accessing it from whatever Apple device you own is extremely useful, as it eliminates the need to manually transfer your songs to other devices. It saves plenty of time and brings a lot of convenience to the table. Remember the time when we had to connect our iPhones to computers using a USB cable to sync content with iTunes? Well, thatâs no longer necessary with this feature, and for many users they certainly donât want to go back to doing hardware syncs again.
iCloud can be used on a Windows PC, which is particularly helpful to iPhone and iPad users who have a PC but not a Mac, or Mac users who have installed Windows 10 in Boot Camp, or even to those who have both Mac and Windows computers, and want to be able to access all of their iCloud content through the PC as well as their other Apple devices. This includes the ability to access iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, iCloud data syncing like contacts, emails, and bookmarks, and more.
This article will walk through you how to download, install, and setup iCloud for Windows.
iCloud requires an Apple ID as the two are associated together, so weâre assuming you already have an Apple ID ready to use and that it matches the same Apple ID and iCloud login in use on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as well. If for some reason you donât have one yet, you can learn how to create a new Apple ID.
How to Install & Setup iCloud for Windows PC
Using iCloud for Windows is available for Windows 7 and Windows 10 or later, so if the Windows version is much earlier then it likely wonât be compatible with iCloud.
First, download the iCloudSetup.exe for Windows installer. For Windows 10 and later, you can download it directly from Microsoft Store here for free, otherwise you can get it from Apple here
If the iCloudSetup.exe file doesnât launch automatically to install, locate the iCloudSetup.exe file through Windows File Explorer and launch it directly
Go through the process of installing iCloud for Windows on the PC, then reboot the computer when it is finished
iCloud for Windows should be open automatically upon reboot, if not go to the Start menu then choose Apps / Programs > iCloud
Login with your Apple ID to sign into iCloud on Windows
Select the iCloud features you want to enable (iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Mail, Contacts, & Calendar, Bookmarks, Notes, etc), then click Apply
Now you have iCloud setup and installed in Windows, and youâll be able to access the iCloud features you enabled and plan on using on the Windows PC.
If youâre an iPhone owner with a Windows PC, itâs highly recommended to go through the process of installing iCloud on the PC as youâll gain access to syncing features like iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos that wouldnât be available otherwise in Windows (though you can always download photos from iCloud with these instructions on Mac or PC by using the iCloud.com web interface).
Of course if youâre an iPhone or iPad owner with a Windows PC, or running Windows in Boot Camp on a Mac, youâll also want to make sure the computer has the latest version of iTunes installed on it too, and keep that app up to date so that you can always sync your device with Windows at any time.
While iCloud features are built-in to MacOS, in the Windows world youâll need to download, install, and setup iCloud for PC separately as shown here. But aside from that initial setup difference, many of the features are available to Windows users as they are to Mac, so donât ignore a Windows PC as it works just fine with iPhone and iPad. And similarly if you have a Mac with Boot Camp, it can be a nice feature to have iCloud available in the Windows side of things there too.
Wondering how long an iCloud backup restore to an iPhone or iPad will take to complete? Restoring an iPhone or iPad from an iCloud Backup can take a while, depending on the size of the iCloud backup, and the speed of the internet connection the iOS device is connected to.
If you want to check on the progress of an active iCloud Restore, you can do so in modern versions of iOS.
How to Check Progress of iCloud Restore from Backup on iPhone or iPad
Open the âSettingsâ app in iOS
Tap on âYour Nameâ at the top of the Settings
Tap on âiCloudâ
Tap on âiCloud Backupâ
Locate the data remaining information on the iCloud backup restore process under the âStopâ button to get a rough idea of how much longer the restore will take
The data remaining information will be shown in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).
Itâs best to let the iCloud Restore process complete, however long it may take. Failure to let the iCloud restore from backup process complete can lead to permanent data loss.
Optionally, but not recommended, you can stop an iCloud Restore from backup to an iOS device. Stopping an iCloud Restore can result in data loss and is therefore not recommended unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
While the iCloud Restore process is ongoing, you may notice notably poor battery life on the iPador iPhone as the devices âOngoing Restoreâ background activity and downloading of data uses more energy than usual. Letting the iCloud Restore process complete will return the device to normal expected battery performance.
Note that much earlier versions of iOS do not support this feature.
By comparison, checking the restore progress of an iTunes backup restore is much more obvious because the iTunes window has a progress indicator showing the current progress and how long it will take to complete.
iCloud backup restores can be stopped at any time on newer iOS devices. This means that if you have chosen to restore an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from an iCloud backup, either when setting up a device with a prior iOS backup, or to restore a problematic device as a troubleshooting method, you can stop the iCloud Restore process at anytime. This article will explain how to stop an iCloud backup restore to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Stopping an iCloud Restore is generally not recommended and should not be taken lightly, as it may result in data loss.
Rarely, an iCloud Restore can get stuck, or the process take so long that itâs impractical to complete, thus it may need to be stopped as a troubleshooting method.
If you stop an iCloud Restore from iOS backup, any data that has not been restored will not be restored to the device in the future, nor will that missing data be backed up in the future, and therefore the unrestored data may become lost permanently if the restore is not allowed to complete.
Additionally, stopping an iCloud Restore to an iOS device offers no information as to what information was or was not restored to the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. In other words, youâll have no idea what data was restored versus what data was not, so you could theoretically be missing photos, videos, notes, contacts, apps, app data, files, documents, or other important information by stopping the iCloud Restore.
How to Stop an iCloud Restore on iPhone or iPad
Warning: stopping an iCloud Restore may result in data loss.
Open the âSettingsâ app in iOS
Tap on âYour Nameâ at the top of the Settings list to access iCloud settings
Next tap on âiCloudâ
Now tap on and choose âiCloud Backupâ
Tap on âStop Restoring iPadâ (or âStop Restoring iPhoneâ)
Confirm that you want to stop restoring from iCloud by tapping on âStopâ
As the final confirmation dialog message suggests, stopping an iCloud Restore to an iPhone or iPad will stop any data that has not yet been downloaded from being downloaded, and that missing data will not be restored or backed up again in the future.
Currently, iOS does not provide a list of data that has been restored, or has not yet been restored, and so if you stop the restore process from iCloud you will not have any idea as to what was restored or what wasnât. This is one of many reasons why it is not recommended to stop an iCloud Restore, as you may permanently lose data or other important stuff.
Broadly speaking, it is recommended to let the entire iCloud Restore process complete, regardless of the scenario, or whether setting up a new iOS device from a previously made backup to iCloud, or restoring a device for troubleshooting, or whatever other purpose. iCloud Restore can take a long time depending on the size of the backup being restored, and the speed of the internet connection that the iPhone or iPad is connected to. You may notice that the âOngoing Restoreâ process is causing battery drain of a newly setup iOS device, but that will stop when the backup has completed.
If you are going to stop an iCloud Restore because itâs stuck or for some other reason and thus want to start the entire iCloud Restore from a backup process over again, you may want to reset the iPhone to factory default settings or reset the iPad to factory settings, and then during the fresh device setup, choose to restore the appropriate iOS backup again, either from iCloud or from iTunes. If youâre using iCloud Restore, be sure to have a fast and reliable high speed internet connection.
Do you have a full iCloud account with no storage available? And do you have an @icloud.com email address that you use with that account? If so, you will no longer receive emails at your @icloud.com email address for as long as your iCloud storage is full.
Additionally, you wonât get any notice or alert about any missing emails to your @icloud address.
Instead, the person trying to send an email to your @icloud address will get an âover quotaâ bounce-back message that reads like itâs from 1996 stating âUser over quota : cannot receive new mailâ⌠(really, when was the last time you saw an email quota error?!? Maybe you were listening to Nirvana on CD while paying by the hour to connect to your dial-up ISP, perhaps AOL, Compuserve, or Prodigy? Time to dust off your 14.4 modem and run Windows 95 again for the full experience!). Hereâs an example of what a bounced emails looks like, sent from a Gmail account to a full @iCloud.com email address:
Again, the person with the full iCloud storage will not get any specific email warning, theyâll just get the regular generic âiCloud storage fullâ message that is a common sight for iOS device owners.
This article is mostly serving as a PSA and general warning, given that most people donât want to miss incoming emails, but also given how common it is for a users iCloud storage to be perpetually full.
Thus, if you want to get emails at your @icloud.com email address, then be sure you have sufficient iCloud storage space available on your associated iCloud account. A failure to do so may mean you are losing out on emails sent to that @icloud.com address.
Freeing up storage in iCloud is challenging at the 5 GB free tier, so youâll almost certainly have to delete iCloud backups to accomplish that, and then youâll almost certainly fill it up again immediately by trying to backup any device, but at least until itâs full again youâll receive emails sent to the @iCloud.com email address.
The next option to relieve the storage conundrum, and whatâs most realistic if you actually want to use iCloud for nearly anything let alone backing up any device, is to contribute to Apple Services revenue growth pay for an upgraded iCloud storage plan, which start at about $12/year.
Upgrading your iCloud storage plan is fairly simple and can be done through the the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, and you will be charged per month depending on the storage plan you choose.
Currently, the available iCloud storage plans are:
5 GB â free, but impractical if you want to use iCloud
50 GB â $0.99 per month
200 GB â $2.99 per month
2 TB â $9.99 per month
If you have a larger capacity iPhone, or multiple Apple devices using the same Apple ID, getting the larger iCloud storage plans tend to make the most sense.
If youâre opposed to the idea of paying for additional iCloud storage, then deleting all iCloud backups and deleting other iCloud data may get you to a point where the 5 GB free plan can be tolerated, though youâll likely not get much use out of iCloud if you canât squeeze storage out of the free tier.
Interestingly, the 5 GB free storage tier that is offered today in 2018 is the same free storage size as was offered in 2011, so while device storage capacity and requirements of iOS devices and Macs has ballooned, iCloud free storage has remained the same. Itâs challenging to find a positive opinion of the free iCloud 5 GB storage plan, DaringFireball says it âseems ridiculousâ and âuntenableâ, while Wall Street Journal called it a âransomâ. Google openly parodied the annoying âstorage fullâ messages in a funny commercial for their own Google Photos cloud service. Itâs probably long past time for the free 5 GB plan to be multiplied by 10 or more, or matched to the size of the devices sold by Apple, but⌠here we are.
