One of the most frustrating things about being an iPhone owner is the lack of expandable storage. Once you have chosen your model, be it 64GB or 256GB, you’re stuck with that storage until you buy a new phone. Of course, you can alleviate that with iCloud, but Apple only provides 5GB of cloud storage for free. If you want an amount that you can actually use, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee of $0.99 or more in order to access it.
It appears that Apple has finally taken at least a half measure to resolve this issue, as AppleInsider discovered this week that Apple has begun offering customers who have reached their 5GB limit a month of any upgraded iCloud storage plan for free. The only caveat is that you can’t currently be subscribed to an iCloud plan.
According to AppleInsider, users who have hit their free limit and attempt to perform an iOS device backup will now receive a pop-up message that promotes that 50GB plan as well as the new one-month free trial:
You do not have enough space in iCloud to back up your iPhone. A 50 GB plan gives you plenty of space to continue backing up your iPhone. Your first month is free and it’s just $0.99 each month after.
If you tap on the big blue button in the pop-up, you will be redirected to the Change storage plans menu, which can otherwise be found under Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage. If you opt to take advantage of the free trial, be aware that you will automatically be charged for the next month unless you cancel.
This is certainly a step in the right direction, but it’s still ridiculous that 5GB of cloud storage is all that Apple is willing to give away for free. Between high-resolution photos, 4K videos, and all the massive documents that we carry with us on our devices, 5GB just isn’t cutting it anymore, and Apple needs to make a change.
