How to Disable and Delete iCloud Backup on iPhone and iPad

iCloud backup for iPhone and iPad devices can be a lifesaver if you lose your device. But if you back up your device regularly to the cloud or if you just don’t have enough storage space on your iCloud, you might want to turn off the feature.

Before you decide to delete any application data from your iCloud or turn off the iCloud backup feature altogether ensure that you have backed up your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or your Windows PC.

Delete Old iCloud and App Backups on iPhone and iPad

Apple has an inbuilt storage management tool that is built for iCloud, which is very similar to the tool for checking the local storage on your iPhone and your iPad. By using the tool, you can see how much space is taken up by backups in total and by specific applications.

Open up the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad and then click on your Profile.

Tap on Profile icon from the Settings app

Next, select the “iCloud” option.

Next, Tap on iCloud from the profile screen

From there, tap on the “Manage Storage” button.

From the iCloud Storage list, select the “Backups” option.

Tap on Backups from the iCloud menu

You will now see all the iPhones and iPads that are associated with your iCloud account and the volume of storage space that they are consuming. Tap on a device to see a further breakdown statistics.

You will now see the details for the last backup time and a list of applications that are backed up to iCloud, together with how much storage space that they are taking up. If you can spot an application that is taking up too much space, you can tap on the toggle button next to the app to delete and disable iCloud backup for that specific application.

Tap on the toggle that is next to an application

To confirm, tap on the “Turn Off And Delete” option that is from the popup menu.

Do this for a couple of applications and see if you can get a very significant amount of storage space back. In that way, you might not have to disable the iCloud backup feature completely.

If you want, you can still turn off and delete the whole iCloud backup for the device. To do this, swipe to the bottom of the page and click on the “Delete Backup” option.

From the popup, click on the “Turn Off & Delete” button to confirm.

Now, the whole iCloud backup of your iPhone or iPad would be deleted, and the iCloud Backup feature would be disabled.

Disable iCloud Backup on iPhone and iPad

If you just want to disable the iCloud Backup feature without checking the storage, there is a shortcut for you.

After tapping on the Profile from the “Settings” application, go to the “iCloud” tab.

Swipe down and click on the “iCloud Backup” button.

From here, simply click on the toggle that is next to the “iCloud Backup” option.

On the popup that comes up, confirm by tapping on the “OK” button.

Your current device backup would be deleted from iCloud, and the iCloud Backup feature would be disabled for the device.

If you want to turn in on-again, come back to this screen and click on the toggle that is next to the “iCloud Backup” That's all that there is to it.