iCloud plays an important role on iPhone and Mac. Not only does it seamlessly sync photos, notes, reminders, etc. between devices, it also provides important backup capabilities. But what if you want to turn off iCloud?
Whether it’s to save iCloud storage or protect your privacy, you can completely disable certain iCloud features, or iCloud itself. Let’s dig into it below to see how it works.
What is iCloud?
iCloud is a combination of cloud-based features that work together to synchronize and back up your data. For example, iCloud Photos allows you to securely store your photos and images in the cloud, while iCloud Drive uploads files to make them available across devices.
In addition, native apps (contacts, notes, reminders, etc.) use iCloud to keep your activity up-to-date on all your iOS and macOS devices.
On iPhone, you can also make a full backup of your device with iCloud. Then you can use it to restore everything in case something goes wrong. It also provides a way to track your lost Apple device through FindMy.
Best of all, you don’t have to manually configure iCloud. Simply sign in with your Apple ID to activate your Apple ID on your iPhone or Mac.
However, you can choose to disable individual iCloud features or stop the app from using the service to sync or back up your data. If you prefer, you can also sign out of your Apple ID and turn off iCloud.
Why you need to turn off some iCloud features
Both iPhones and Macs give you fine-grained control over how iCloud works on your device, so you can quickly disable iCloud features. This is why you might want to do it.
Stop data synchronization
iCloud syncs data from various apps such as photos, reminders, calendar events, and more across devices. However, if you want the activity of a particular app to be separate from other devices, you should stop using iCloud.
For example, if you want your iPhone to stop uploading or downloading notes from other devices, deactivating notes on your iOS device may help.
Save iCloud storage
iCloud provides 5GB of free cloud storage data. However, it can fill up quickly. Even iCloud’s paid storage plans don’t last long if multiple devices are associated with the same Apple ID.
Therefore, you can save storage by turning off iCloud features that consume the most storage on some devices (such as iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive). If you want to back up your iPhone to your computer only, you can also disable iCloud backup.
Why iCloud needs to be turned off completely
While iCloud has many benefits, you may need to turn off iCloud completely on your iPhone or Mac.
You are planning to sell your device
If you plan to sell your iPhone or Mac, we recommend turning off iCloud altogether. This will automatically deactivate Find My and disable a feature called Activation Lock. However, all locally stored data will be erased from the internal storage and the device will need to be factory reset and followed up.
Protect your privacy
Apple is firmly committed to supporting user privacy by encrypting iCloud content. However, if you want to prevent your data from being compromised, we recommend deactivating iCloud.
However, it comes at the expense of deactivating FindMy. The anti-theft feature that this feature brings to the table is essential.
In addition, turning off iCloud does not delete the data that has already been saved. This must be managed individually (see below for details).
Turn off iCloud on iPhone and Mac
You can use the following steps to turn off individual iCloud features on your iPhone and Mac.
Turn off iCloud on your iPhone
1. Open setting The app on your iPhone.
2. Select Apple ID..
3. Tap iCloud..
4. Turn off the switch next to the feature you want to disable. Some items (such as photos and iCloud backups) offer additional options that allow you to fine-tune their behavior on your iPhone.
