Backing up your data to iCloud is not always a straightforward process. Sometimes, it can get stuck or be very slow and take up to several hours. But, it’s not as tricky to understand as the common causes are either the backup size being too large or insufficient space. Additionally, even a poor internet connection can result in a lengthy iCloud backup process.
Fortunately, there are multiple ways you can speed up your iCloud backup. So, let’s quickly check them out together.
Turn Off Backup for Selected Apps
During the backup process, it’s important to be mindful of what items we’re choosing to back up. This is because we might not need to backup random apps or files that we won’t need in the future. In doing so, we can help the iCloud backup to be much faster since we’ll be reducing the backup size.
Here’s how you can disable and delete backups for various items in these easy steps:
- Go to Settings and then tap on your name.
- Then, go to iCloud.
- Tap on the Manage Storage option.
- Go to Backups and select your device.
- This page might take a while to load. But, you’ll see the list of all the apps that have iCloud backup turned on. Browse and slide the toggle to turn off backup for that specific app.
- Tap on the pop-up option that says Turn Off and Delete.
As you continue turning off iCloud backup for apps, you can also notice the Backup Size reducing at the top. However, if you wish to turn on back up again for an app, you can follow the same steps above and then easily slide the toggle back.
Clear Up Storage Space on iPhone
A slow iCloud backup process usually results from too much data being backed up at once. Additionally, backing up certain files may not even be necessary. It also doesn’t help when iCloud only allows free 5GB of storage space.
So, the solution here is to check your storage and delete or uninstall media, apps, and files that you deem unnecessary. Then, you can retry backing up data to iCloud.
Clear Storage on iCloud Drive
This method is similar to clearing storage space on your phone. The backup process can be laggy or slow if there’s not enough space on your iCloud. So, if there are unnecessary files taking up space in your iCloud Drive, it’s best to delete them right away. You can visit your iCloud Drive from any Apple device or even a web browser on a Windows PC.
On iPhone or iPad
- Open the Files app and tap on the Browse tab.
- Now, go to Locations and tap on iCloud Drive from the list of options.
- Tap on the More button in the upper-right corner. Then, tap on Select.
- Select all the files or folders that you want to get rid of and then tap on Delete.
- To again erase the files from the Recently Deleted folder, go back to Locations.
- Tap on Recently Deleted. Select all the items you want to delete and then tap on Delete.
On Mac
- Launch Finder and open the iCloud Drive folder.
- Drag a file to the Trash icon. You can also delete the files again from the Trash.
On Windows
- Log in to the iCloud app for Windows.
- Activate iCloud Drive and open the iCloud Drive folder.
- Now, you can select all the files you don’t want to keep anymore.
- Click on Delete.
Improve Internet Speed
Besides the backup size problems on your phone, a weak internet connection is another culprit to a slow iCloud backup. You can also first verify this issue by checking the upload speed of your network. So, we simply need to make the network speed faster. Although this solution may seem simple, it plays an important role in the speed of your iCloud backup.
First, you can check what factors are causing your network to be slow. There may be too many devices connected to a single network. Or, there could be heavy downloads going on on some of the connected devices.
Regardless of the reasons, here are some ways you can improve your internet connection’s speed:
- Close any active apps running in the background.
- Turn off Low Data Mode.
- Enable LTE data network.
- Turn Airplane mode on and off.
- Place your device near the Wi-Fi router.
- Switch to a 5 GHz frequency band.
- Switch to another private network if possible.
- Update iOS.
- Contact your internet service provider.
Back Up Large Files to Another Platform
Usually, photos and videos take up the majority of space and can slow down the process of the iCloud backup. So, you can opt for transferring such files to another platform, like your computer or an external hard drive. But before you do this, make sure to turn off backup for Photos on iCloud by following the steps above.
After moving your files to another PC or a hard drive, you can browse and manually back up only the important photos/videos to iCloud. Doing so will save you plenty of time in the backup process.
If you’re still facing a slow or stuck iCloud backup issue, you can contact Apple Support anytime.
