If you’re getting the following error message…

“Not Enough Storage: This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available. You can manage your storage in Settings.”

…this may be a legitimate error for you, and if that’s the case, then the answer for you is to either copy some of the data from your iOS device to your computer and delete the data you just copied from your iOS device so there is less to backup to iCloud, OR you can simply buy more iCloud storage.

And keep in mind that if you are backing up more than one device to the iCloud, that each backup of each device will count as additional space being taken up, even if they are the same files on each device.

However, if your situation is similar to the one that I encountered where you aren’t backing up much data in the first place, and then all of a sudden you don’t have enough space to backup your device via iCloud, this fix is for you.

Here is how to fix it:

Go to Settings>General>Usage>under “iCloud”, select Manage Storage>select your iOS device

Here is the screen that you’ll get:

It will tell you the date of the lastest backup, as well as its size. Below that, under “Backup Options”, it will tell you the “Next Backup Size”, which tells you how large the next backup will be. And below that, it will tell you the items that are taking up the most space in order of size, from most to least.

The On/Off switch next to each item listed is turning on and off the backing up of the data for that section or app. So if there is data that you don’t care about backing up, just switch the On/Off switch next to it to “Off”, and if that fixes your storage issue (frees up enough space), then you are good to go.

In this case, the next backup was going to be 5.3GB (this is not pictured above, because I fixed the issue before I decided to blog about it), however the most recent one was only 3.1GB.

On top of that, Apple only gives you 5GB free in your iCloud account. Any more storage space, and you’ll need to pay. Since both the iPhone and iPad were being backed up in this case, something needed to be done.

So I looked under the “Next Backup Size” to see what was taking up the most space, and it was the Camera Roll, which is the album in the Photos app that has all of the photos that you take with your iPhone, the screenshots that you take of the phone’s screen, and the videos that you take with the phone.

I then went to the Camera Roll album to take a look at what was taking up so much space so soon after the last backup, and I noticed that there was ONE video file that was 1hr 15 min long that was taking up 2.2GB of space!

Apparently, what happened was kind of like a pocket dial, where it started recording video without anyone intentionally touching it. The camera button was pressed accidentally while it was being put in a pocket.

The reason it started recording video instead of just taking a picture was that the last time the camera was used, video was taken. That setting will stay the same for the next use of the camera until you change it.

So, I just deleted the big ass video of nothingness and all was well again.

The reason this was able to happen is that with iOS 5, you can now go directly into the camera with the swipe of the screen (starting at the camera icon) without having to unlock the screen. So this is one of the downsides to that feature. However, I’ll deal with it, because it’s worth being able to catch those fleeting Kodak moments when they occur!

Hope that helps ya!

If any of you have any other fixes for this situation, feel free to post them below so others can benefit.

Thanks!

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It never ceases to amaze me how intuitive Apple makes their operating systems, including that of the iPad. We were just at my uncle’s this weekend, and a close friend of the family had his two year old with him. His parents are very much Apple fans, so of course they have an iPad.

Consequently, Hiro, the very cool and hip two year old, has working knowledge of the iPad. His favorite app? Angry Birds? Nope. Need for Speed? Not old enough. Elmo’s ABCs? Not a chance. No, the app of choice for this clever toddler is none other than Netflix. I didn’t derive any conclusion from that (I’m not one to judge a two year old), but I found that to be pretty interesting.

Anyway, we recently gave my mother the new iPad for her birthday, and so we had that with us. First I took some pictures, and then a movie with the iPad of Hiro and his older brother horsing around. They were wrestling on the floor. And when they found out that I was recording it, they really put on a show! Clearly they LOVE the attention.

So after they finished their “match”, they crawled up to the couch where I was recording them from and asked to see it. I showed it to them. Hiro LOVED watching himself wrestle with his brother and make noises that you would think would be coming from a cat in pain.

In fact, he loved it so much that he asked if he could put the iPad on his lap so he could watch it again. I obliged, of course. He then proceeded to play that 20 second clip over and over and over again, laughing more hysterically with each subsequent viewing.

But like all children, his attention span waned, and he wanted to move on. So he reached out with his tiny hand with his figures spread out, put all five fingers on the iPad screen, and brought his fingers together so they touched. What happened? The iPhoto app closed, of course!

I know that it seems obvious now, but I would have never thought of that as a way to close an app being a tech guy. However children, especially at that age, just do things intuitively. They use their sixth sense more in a day than we adults do in a month, and it certainly seems to work well for them.

This is also a perfect example of the brilliance of Apple. They make their computers think the way we humans think (no matter how old), instead of having to teach us humans how their computers think (PC, are you reading this? ;p ).

There’s a quote by Steve Jobs that encompasses the mindset Apple has when they design their products:

“They’re not stupid for not knowing how to use our products. We’re stupid if they don’t know how to use our products.”

So if you want to get better at using the iPad, tap deeper into your intuition and think more like a two year old. ;)

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