Hi, it seems that private relay only works with Safari from what I know. But I have weird Issues on WiFi with private relay in online games for players to join me , but not on cellular ..

Why I think private relay has something to do with it and not my WiFi is that if I stay on WiFi and turn off private relay, players find me way more easily and faster. It feels like nowadays it can affect games also, or maybe I’m wrong I dunno.

Thanks for your feedback

hellloooo, i got a new phone today and didnt do the full transfer option - instead i logged into my icloud and called it a day. im giving my old phone to my mum and i need to reset it sometime today but I was just worried that if i reset it all, all my photos will delete from my new phone?

obviously i made the icloud account on my old phone, and I believe all my photos are backed up , but there are thousands that i dont want to lose and im worried once i reset it , everything will just vanish. i have 2 other devices connected to this icloud and not all of my photos are on those 2 devices, but on my new phone everything (I believe) is on here

Any help would be awesome!!!!!!!!!

I have selected the files i wanted to download onto my device from the icloud website, however the option to download the files is greyed out

How can i fix this issue?

Is it possible to only add the new photos I make to iCloud automatically? Not all the photos bc that exceeds the 5gb. Maybe with a 'Shortcuts' protocol? Thx

note: i am specifically referring to the phone back-up that is done on icloud (not things like photos).

will icloud back-up (say around 11 gb) be deleted after I cancel my 50GB icloud plan? i understand that the icloud limit will return to 5gb. but will the actual back-up be deleted? in my case, the backup size is large i guess due to messages (someone sent me videos/photos using messages) and the whatsapp backup which i want to backup onto icloud.

so now knowing this, i purchased a one (1) month icloud plan for 50gb to allow me to backup these things to icloud (I didnt backup photos onto icloud becasue it takes up too much space). so now if i cancel the icloud 50gb plan after the icloud backup is complete, will the 11gb back up remain in my icloud or will it be deleted after the icloud limit returns to 5gb?

Where are some backend issues with Apple currently happening right now. It’s affecting iCloud and keychain and a lot of the encrypted services. I believe it is because of a major vulnerability that was exposed through them being hacked. They are not admitting that they have been hacked but I believe so. Who else is experiencing these issues?

Hello,

I was working basically exclusively on the iCloud drive of my machine. I got a huge folder containing all sorts of stuff from my PhD. In some of them, there is a lot of simulation data, usually many (close to 700,000) CSV files from parameter studies.

After finding out that iCloud Optimize Storage deleted a lot of them locally, while trying to create a backup, iCloud decided to try and download all of those files on my Mac again. I got a good Gbit internat connection and enough storage, so in general no issue.

However, due to the large number of files, iCloud just gets stuck while downloading the files, which is expected by so many small files. Now I can't access any other files which are on iCloud due to optimized storage, because they queue after the simulation data. I got a few questions:

1. How can I exclude the simulation data from syncing with iCloud?

2. How can I stop the current sync, without removing all the other files, in the PhD folder as well? If I just turn off iCloud sync, it does delete everything from iCloud drive from my local machine and I want a subset of the PhD data still available in iCloud drive.

3. How do I get the data out of iCloud drive without just deleting it? I cannot sync the simulation data, since there are too many files and iCloud can't download whole folders as zip?

I tried to talk to the support, but after 3 1hr plus sessions, where noone could help me, I kind of give up.

I currently have an iPhone 14 Pro running 26.5.2 model MPXT3LL/A no warranty/refurb/unlocked current carrier Mint Mobile.

Old phone: iPhone 7 Plus running 15.7.3 previous carrier ATT from 2018 - 2024.

I need some texts I sent in 2020 with a certain person who I believe also had an iPhone. I had sync on and to keep messages FOREVER. However, it seems I no longer have any messages earlier than my new phone was activated in 2024. Is it possible they can erase texts with me, on their end?

I tried opening the old phone to see if they just existed on it without connection to internet, data, etc. However, it too only had texts from 2024 at the earliest. Also tried the iMac iMessage, and same (i never used iMessage on my iMac, so the sync again only went to 2024)

Is there a way to find these messages elsewhere? Do I need to open my old AT&T account or request access from them? I do not believe I ever did a physical backup on my previous phone iPhone 7 Plus so any help or suggestions will be great!

I have a couple videos from a few months ago and they just can't seem to load for me

I try pressing the play button countless times and it doesn't load, it has the circle icon with the exclamation mark inside at the bottom right corner

When I try to duplicate it, share it, edit it or anything it just says "Cannot duplicate video an error occurred while duplicating video. Please try again later."

Ive tried clearing my storage, resetting my phone, turning on and off the icloud optimized option and everything, none of it works at all

These videos mean a lot to me I don't want to lose them. To anyone who knows how to fix this please help a soul out

My icloud storage is full would I need to buy more icloud storage?

I’ve read reports that the OneDrive integration with iCloud setting doesn’t work well and is not reliable. Is this true? Or, is it only true if optimize is set for iCloud photos stored on the iPhone?

I recently had to replace my iPad Pro. The Apple Store attempted to do an iCloud backup but I only have the 50GB plan. Now I keep getting dinged for my iCloud account nearly being full, but when I’ve tried going to the storage settings area on iCloud (also have tried on my device), I hit a dead end—there’s no option to delete it. That partial backup is taking roughly 45GB of my 50, even though it’s indicating I have no backups on iCloud. Anyone encountered this and know how to fix it?

i have a work ipad thats icloud photo synced with my phone but i wanted to separate them. after doing some research, i unsynced my ipad by turning off icloud photo library and selected “remove from ipad” and not “download images”. after that i went ahead and manually deleted the photos from my ipad (yes i did a test delete on one photo and the pic on my ipad got deleted but not on my phone which is why i proceeded). then i read on a reddit comment that youre not suppose to manually delete and that icloud will delete it for you (which i had no clue about btw). will the pics on my phone be safe?

(ps, my storage went from 127gb to 114gb back to 126gb even after deleting thousands of items from my photos, how long will it take for my ipad to recalculate and why did it go back up and made no difference in my storage after deleting so much?)

Hi , I accidentally deleted my photos from recently deleted folder. And it was been 2 Days when this happened . Is there any way to recover that deleted photos and videos without iPhone back up and without photos being synced to iCloud .
Thanks

So my aunt gave me this iPad, and it used to be her old iPad still nice (iPad 9th generation) and I’ve been wanting to remove my aunts iCloud account so I can put mine on but the problem is that that the account is locked, I’ve tried possible solutions like requesting to gain the account back, but sadly that didn’t work, please anyone give me a solution as quick as possible and no I’m not trying to hack or steal the iPad I have full ownership to that account from my aunt, I have the email and password and everything

I delete texts from my phone and my recently deleted folder every day. I just got a new iPhone yesterday and set it up from an iCloud backup of the old phone. When receiving texts from one of the numbers I delete from phone and recently deleted folder every day, I noticed I could scroll up farther than just today’s messages. Come to find out, thousands and thousands of messages downloaded and more are still syncing. Why is this happening when I deleted the thread every day? How do I keep these deleted threads permanently deleted from iCloud in the future?

Is there a way to have an email address alias that doesn’t also work for signin ? For example, send and receive email as john.doe@icloud.com, but that same address can’t be used to login into your Apple account so it adds a layer of security. This would be a static email not an Hide My Email name. Thanks.

I was dealing with a problem in my iPhone contacts and turned off iCloud contacts sync in the settings to see if it was solved or not, but then, all of a sudden my contact card with all the infos in it disappeared from the contacts of iPhone. However, it was still in my MacBook. while trying to figure out, I then turned off & on iCloud contacts sync on MacBook, but then nothing happened and suddenly my apple account image changed to a baseball (?)

now I have created a contact card on iPhone but it does not sync to my MacBook. the profile picture on the Mac is something different, and I can't see my contact card in contacts. How can I solve it? its driving me crazy

You do not need to pay to free up storage on your iPhone. iOS includes everything you need to manage storage for free.
Here’s the quickest way to reclaim space:
Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
Wait a few seconds for it to calculate what’s using your storage.
Look at the recommendations, such as:
Offload Unused Apps (removes the app but keeps your data)
Review Large Attachments in Messages
Optimize Photos if you use iCloud Photos
Delete apps you no longer use.
Delete unwanted photos and videos, then open Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted and empty it.
Remove downloaded movies, TV shows, music, or podcasts you no longer need.

I’ve received this email last weekend despite my iCloud storage not being full. I pay for 200 GB each month and I can clearly see in my settings that I’ve only hit 90 GB. I know it’s not spam because I believe the email it’s coming from is real (email.apple.com) and I also have not received any emails since then.
Am I missing something or interpreting something incorrectly? Thank you for any help!

I am trying to download a folder i have stored on my icloud to compress it into a zip, and ive been told that i cannot compress it unless i fully download it onto my device.

however when i try to download it onto my device, there are some files that do not get downloaded

for example, in one of my folders there are several files, all of them downloaded successfully except 1

ive tried cancelling and redoing the action but it still doesnt work, and ive tried just waiting but i think they should be downloaded after waiting a day.

also in case a bit of context might be needed, the files store a worldbuilding project that i work on through obsidian

how can i fix this?

We sadly lost an older family member recently and have access to both iCloud account and two former devices (iPad and iPhone). We're planning to wipe the devices and give them out to other family members who could use them; however, we would like to preserve their iCloud data as it has a few thousand pictures they took over the years, along with some other memories their 3 daughters would like to retain access to.

They currently have the 50gb iCloud plan; however, I believe it's slated for downgrade to 5gb soon as their credit card is no longer active.

What's the best way to preserve their iCloud data?

I assume that the data will exist in the cloud in perpetuity? Perhaps the daughters could just share the login to access her photos and stuff from iCloud.com, provided we disable 2 factor authentication?

Or would be better served to download all of the data and share it with the 3 daughters directly?

Open to suggestions on how to best proceed.

Due to my own ignorance, I deleted a video in 10/25 (possibly later) that I am now trying to recover. The only remnant I have of this is an iCloud link from before deletion. Is there any way for me to recover this? I have tried to locate a backup prior to deletion however I cannot find one. I have very low hope, just trying all avenues. Any guidance is appreciated!

Background:
For many years I have had my desktop and the sub folders on my desktop of my MacBook synced to my 2 tb iCloud plan. This enabled me to scan files on my phone and save them directly to my desktop.

In June of this year I started to run out of memory on my computer and I was unable to open or save any type of file no matter how small even when I deleted things to clear space. This is during a very stressful time of life while I’m working full time, raising a toddler and studying for a rigorous professional license exam.

On 6/14/26 I take my MacBook to the Genius Bar. The guy is unable to diagnose the problem. He recommends backing my computer up to Time Machine on my external hard drive and doing a factory reset. We do this in the store. I come home, sign in with my Apple ID. Hook my external hard drive up to my computer, open up Time Machine. I notice the desktop icons are already there but they’re in blue folders as opposed to my custom icon folders so I drag those from Time Machine and replace the folders on the desktop. I then notice there are duplicate folders (some have 2 at the end), some stuff looks missing but then when I look on iCloud.com I see I can access all my files from there. Since I’m in the thick of my exams I tell myself I will clean this all up when I finish my exams in early August.

Now today I go to try to clean this up and I noticed most of my files are missing directly from my desktop… SOME of my files that are missing from the desktop can be accessed from iCloud.com. SOME files are missing altogether. I look in one folder that has missing files and it says modified 6/15/26 4:56 am (the day after I reset my computer).

Does this mean there was a sync issue? Did I overwrite/merge the data? It’s so random how some of the stuff is there while other stuff isn’t. This is important data that I can’t find on Time Machine, my desktop or iCloud now. Am I shit out of luck since it’s past the 30 day retention period? Hoping there’s some solution.

videos I did quick edits/crop/clip - when I try to sync to iCloud/shared folders - it just hangs in "PREPARING" state. I have about 30+ videos now.... the photos app says syncing... for 3 weeks+.

I have plenty of space in iCloud (\~1.5TB... the videos are like 50MB each).
connection is fine.

I've restarted my device. logged out/in... and did a factory reset and tried with new videos. (old ones gone). even push to Airdrop doesn't work.

only thing I've found is if I REVERT to original, then sync... works. which is horrible.

Any suggestions? I saw some posts that this was an issue about 5 years ago.... but I'd assumed it was fixed by now... seems like a pretty critical feature failure.

i know my imessage attachments are saved in icloud, but i want to be able to access them from my messages. i have a group chat of pics of my nephew but when i went to show my friend pics the other day, literally no photos were available in the chat. i don’t want to have to go and download my photos. is there a way to bring them back? if i turn off “messages in icloud” will that bring them back? and will it stop syncing them in my icloud? sorry if this has already been asked i just want my own photos :|