If you are an Apple user, you are also an iCloud user—even if you don’t subscribe to an upgraded iCloud+ plan, you get 5GB for free. At the very least, iCloud stores and syncs your data across devices, but there are a lot more free and paid features that make the service even more useful. Here are the best tips and tricks for maximizing your iCloud.

Restore earlier versions or trashed files from iCloud Recovery

If you accidentally delete or overwrite a file or contact that’s synced to iCloud, you can restore it from the Recovery portal on iCloud.com. This feature works across many Apple apps, including Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Photos, Notes, and Reminders, as well as Drive, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. When you restore an old version of your data, the current version is archived so you can revert back if you change your mind. Deleted files can be recovered within 30 days.

Set up email addresses on a custom domain for your family or business

If you have an iCloud+ subscription, you can personalize your iCloud email address with a custom domain (rather than the default @icloud.com). Each subscriber can add up to five domains, each with 10 separate email addresses, meaning you can use this feature to manage emails for a small business or even a family group without needing to sign up for another paid service. If you enable the “Allow All” feature, iCloud will receive all emails sent to your domain, even if they contain typos or a username that doesn’t exist. On iCloud, go to Custom Email Domain, select the domain name, and select Turn On Allow All.

Use Hide My Email aliases to manage inbox spam

One benefit of an iCloud+ subscription is Apple’s Hide My Email, which allows you to create unique, random aliases to keep your real email address private. These addresses forward to your primary inbox, and replies appear to come from the alias rather than your personal email. There’s no limit on how many Hide My Email addresses you can generate, so you can use them for newsletter sign-ups, online shopping, and any other credential you may want to deactivate if you start getting spammed. Hide My Email is compatible with Safari, Mail, Apple Pay, and some third-party apps.

Add a legacy contact to create a digital estate planning vault

Apple supports legacy contacts for Apple Accounts, meaning you can designate someone to receive access to your data—including photos, files, messages, and backups—after your death. This allows you to use iCloud as a digital vault for storing documents and other important information that can be securely passed down. (Note that legacy contacts will not receive iCloud Keychain data like passwords and passkeys, so you’ll need another way to share this information if desired.) To designate a legacy contact, go to Settings > [Your Name] > Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact and follow the prompts. That person will need the access key you generate and your death certificate to take over your accounts.

Consolidate family subscriptions to share benefits without compromising privacy

Apple’s Family Sharing allows up to six users to share a single iCloud+ subscription while maintaining separate Apple Accounts. This means that each user has their own private vault for photos, documents, and backups while gaining access to premium features and a lot more storage overall. iCloud+ offers plans from 50 GB to 12 TB of storage. Family Sharing likely makes the most sense if you can fill most or all of the seats and/or already pay for or plan to use close to the limit of one of the higher-cost plans (compared to each individual paying for their own subscription).

Set up a shared photo library to automatically add vacation photos from your main camera roll

Sorting through photos and adding them to a shared album after a vacation can feel like a huge project—but iCloud can do this work for you in real time if your friends and family have iPhones with Bluetooth enabled and are logged into their Apple Accounts. Set up an iCloud Shared Photo Library in the Photos app under Collections > [Your account] > Shared Library and add up to five participants. Then, from Shared Library, tap Sharing from Camera > Share Automatically. If you take photos when other album participants are nearby, they will be uploaded to the shared album.

Create temporary iCloud web links to send large photos to non-Apple users

If you want to text a large photo or video to someone who doesn’t have an Apple Account and access to iCloud photos without compressing the file, you can create a temporary link that gives them access to view and download the file for 30 days. This also allows you to share multiple files with a single link rather than sending them individually, and you can revoke access whenever you’d like. To create an iCloud link, open an image, tap Share, and select Copy iCloud Link.

Note that as of iOS 27 and macOS 27, Apple now supports adding Windows and Android users to iCloud Shared Albums. However, temporary links are still a good solution if you don’t want to share whole albums.

Enable low data mode to keep backups from draining your battery or network usage allotment

iCloud’s backup feature will automatically back up your iPhone periodically so you can restore your data if your device is lost or stolen. This includes information that isn’t regularly synced to iCloud storage, like settings and app organization. You can disable cellular backups to restrict backups to wifi only—or you can turn on low data mode, which will allow for backing up over your cellular connection except when speeds are low, or your data is capped. Low data mode could also save battery by not straining a slow connection. You can enable low data mode for cellular via Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Data Mode.

Disable backups at the app level to save storage space

If your Apple device is backing up to iCloud, you could regularly bump up against your storage limit, especially if you aren’t paying for a large amount of space. One way to mitigate this is to cut down what gets backed up, which you can do at the app level. If you have apps you don’t use regularly or don’t need data from, you can disable them from your iCloud backups. Go to your Apple account in the Settings app and tap iCloud > Storage > Backups > [This iPhone] to manage app backups.

Use built-in storage cleanup tools instead of upgrading for more space

If you sync tons of photos and files to iCloud along with device backups, you may find yourself hitting the storage cap. But you don’t necessarily have to buy more storage space, nor are you stuck manually deleting items one by one. Instead, go to Settings > [Your Account] > iCloud > Recommended For You to find suggestions for freeing up storage space. This may include deleting inactive backups or reviewing your files or photos and videos, which are categorized by duplicates, screenshots, and videos (the content you’re most likely to be able to offload). If you don’t see these options under Recommended For You, go back to iCloud > Storage and select the app you want to clean up. Finally, check what’s included in your device backups, and disable any apps you don’t need under iCloud > Storage > Backups.