How to Move iPhone Storage to iCloud Easily: 2024 Guide

An iPhone will become sluggish and slow when there is not enough storage space. Therefore, you may want to set iCloud as the storage. Fortunately, it is possible to make it.

With iCloud, you can easily back up your iPhone and restore. In addition, you can also choose to move important files to iCloud to make more available room on iPhone and all files stored in iCloud can be accessed on all your devices. You will never lose them even if your iPhone gets lost.

Let’s start to see how to move iPhone storage to iCloud!

Preparation before moving storage to iCloud

Before the process, you'd better make sure there is enough iCloud storage space.

If you don't need this action, you can go to Part 2 to change iPhone storage to iCloud wirelessly, or go to Part 3 to transfer storage to iCloud on PC for free.

Each iCloud user only has 5 GB of free storage space. You can go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud to check if you have enough available iCloud space.

If the available space does not meet your needs, you can pay extra to get more space. Choose Manage Account Storage or Manage Storage > Select Buy More Storage or Change Storage Plan to pick the plan you need.

How to move iPhone storage to iCloud wirelessly

There are 3 ways that can help you transfer phone storage to iCloud from iPhone directly. You can turn on the sync option to save specific data to iCloud or move selected files to iCloud Drive. 

If there are too many large files need to be uploaded to iCloud, you can also choose the faster wired way mentioned in the next part to make it.

1. How to move apps from iPhone storage to iCloud

Now you can follow the steps to move photos, apps, files, and messages to iCloud. However, you are not allowed to select the files you need. For example, when you turn on the sync of photos, it will upload all of your photos to iCloud.

How do I use iCloud instead of storage on my iPhone? Just go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > tap Show All > Turn on the toggle for the specific data. If you want to move photos to iCloud, you should tap Photos and turn on Sync This iPhone.

★Tips:

To save iPhone storage, you can choose Optimize iPhone Storage. In this way, your photos and videos on iPhone will be automatically replaced with smaller versions. 

When connected to a Wi-Fi network, it will sync your files in the background. However, it won't tell you if the sync is over. If needed, you can go to iCloud.com to check whether the files have been uploaded. For any issues, go to this photos not uploading to iCloud from iPhone page.

iCloud is more like a sync system. When you delete an item on iPhone, it will also be deleted from iCloud. Likewise, when you delete an item in iCloud, it will disappear from your iPhone.

In fact, syncing data to iCloud doesn't really solve the problem of insufficient storage. The data is still on your iPhone, and it can only reduce the amount of space it takes up to a certain extent. To make more room on iPhone, you may choose to move iPhone storage to iCloud Drive.

2. How to transfer iPhone storage to iCloud Drive

If you do not want to turn on the sync, then you can choose to move iPhone storage to iCloud Drive. The data saved in iCloud Drive can be accessed on any device. In addition, when you delete the files on iPhone, they will not be deleted from iCloud.

On your iPhone (iOS 11 and later), there’s one app called Files. With this Files app, you can save photos, contacts, documents, etc. from iPhone to iCloud Drive. In this way, you can easily check your files after deleting them from your iPhone.

• Just go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Turn on the sync option.   
• Go to Photos app > Select the photos you want to move to iCloud Drive.
• Tap the Share button in the lower left corner > Choose Save to Files > Select iCloud Drive > Tap the three-dots icon to create a new folder to save your photos > Click Save to confirm.

3. How to transfer data to iCloud - Music

If you like to use Apple Music, you can subscribe it so you can turn on Sync Library to upload your songs to iCloud. Just go to Settings > Music to turn on Sync Library option. In addition, you can turn on Optimize Storage option, in this way, it will automatically delete the songs that haven't been played for a long time.

How to transfer data from iPhone to iCloud on PC for free

As a professional iPhone data transfer and iCloud data management tool, AOMEI FoneBackup can help you easily transfer data from iPhone to PC and then you can upload data from PC to iCloud/iCloud Drive efficiently.

Section 1. Move iPhone data to PC with a cable

During the iPhone-to-PC data transfer process, you can get many advantages and save lots of time.

Now you can click the button to download AOMEI FoneBackup to your Windows PC and learn from the steps to get how to transfer data from iPhone to PC.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI FoneBackup > Connect iPhone to PC via a USB cable > If asked, tap Trust on iPhone to continue.

Step 2. Go to Phone Transfer from the left pane > Choose iPhone to PC and click Get Started.

Step 3. Preview and select the files you need (If you want to transfer photos, you can choose Photos and go to the albums to find the photos you need.) > Click OK to continue.

Step 4. Click Start Transfer > On the pop-up window, choose the storage path and adjust other settings as you like > Click OK to start.

Once the transfer is finished, you can use AOMEI FoneBackup's iCloud manager feature to upload your targeted data to iCloud or iCloud Drive.

Section 2. How to transfer iPhone data to iCloud/iCloud Drive

When it comes to uploading, downloading and deleting iCloud data, AOMEI FoneBackup's powerful iCloud manager feature will help you finish the process efficiently.

Now follow the steps below to see how to transfer photos from iPhone storage to iCloud!

Step 1. Start to iCloud login process

Go to My iCloud > Log in with your Apple ID > Click Manage iCloud. (If you need to sync iCloud data to another account, you can choose iCloud Sync from this interface to operate.)

Step 2. Choose things to move iPhone storage to iCloud

Click each icon you need > Click the Upload button to continue (You can tap on iCloud Drive to access your iCloud Drive data easily).

Step 3. How to transfer to iCloud storage

Choose your targeted data on the PC from the pop-up window > Click Open to move things to iCloud to free up space.

FAQs about How to move internal storage to iCloud

• Why is my iPhone storage full when I have iCloud storage?

iCloud stores your data, but it doesn't remove it from your device by default. Downloaded movies, music you haven't streamed in ages, and those "just-in-case" apps can silently gobble up space.

• Why does my photos taking up space on iPhone even with iCloud?

When this issue occurs, it may be because that there are too many high-quality or similar photos on your iPhone, you can go to this why is my photo storage so high on iPhone guide to find detailed solutions.

Final words

That’s all about how to move iPhone storage to iCloud. The files in iCloud storage can be accessed on any device. You can first move your important files to iCloud and then delete them from iPhone to free up space. Or you can use the professional AOMEI FoneBackup to transfer data from iPhone to PC and then add them to iCloud efficiently.