You may see a message on your iPad or iPhone stating that your iCloud storage is full. This irritating pop-up will keep appearing until you buy more iCloud storage from Apple or reduce your iCloud usage.

The amount of iCloud storage that you are given for free is generally more than adequate for most users. But if you are saving things such as photos and videos, these tend to take up more space than ordinary files and documents. That can particularly be the case if you have more than one Apple device – an iPad and an iPhone will each eat into your iCloud allowance.

How to clear some space in your iCloud storage

First, find out what is using up your iCloud storage space. On your iPhone or iPad, tap Settings > iCloud > Storage, then tap Manage Storage.

Under Backups, you’ll see your device listed. Tap this, and you’ll see a list of every app that iCloud is set to back up. You might be surprised by how many are selected to automatically back up to iCloud.

Switch off any apps that you don’t need backed up in this fashion – this will also delete the data from iCloud that they’re using up. You should be able to claw back some space by doing this.

Have a good think about what you do and don't need backed up to iCloud. For instance, having your Photos and Mail backed up may be very important. Having your top score in Angry Birds, less so. All of this data is eating into your iCloud allowance, and turning off iCloud backups for unnecessary apps will claw back lots of space.

Buy more iCloud storage

The price for buying additional iCloud storage is reasonably cheap. If you do not want to delete any files in order to make room, then purchasing the next amount of storage is the best option.