Have you ever tried to reduce your iCloud storage? Specifically, photo backups from your phone? I have. Total nightmare. By design.

I have a 1TB iPhone with 19,000 photos. That's 3+ years worth. 420GB, so I need the $10 2TB cloud storage plan even though I can never truly fill it, being limited to 1TB of physical storage. The plans jump from $3p/m for 200GB to $10 for 2TB. Nothing in-between. How many people are paying for storage they'll never use?

Now, the fun part: cleaning up and reducing the plan to 200GB.

1) I sync my iCloud photos with my Windows PC using Apple's very own app. Which sucks and has maybe 5 config settings. It'll somewhat dowload your media tot he PC BUT you often have to manually tell Windows to 'always keep file on device' and wait way to long for it to download a small amount of data from iCloud.

2) OK, it's all downloaded to my PC and synced with my own backup. Time to free up space and save some cash...

3)Turn off photo sync with the phone and cloud. Easy enough. Now spend time trying to use the special 2 finger gesture to select all photos on your phone to delete. 19,000 is a decent amount so it takes some time but sits there, acting like nothing is happening. No progress bar or notification. The only way I can tell it's working is by the heat coming off my phone.

4) a few hours later the phone is free of media. Or is it? No. You have to do the same for 'deleted items'. Also, if you have any burst photos, they steadfast refuse to delete until you try 6+ times. Cool.

5) Now on to the best part: iCloud. Login via browser, select all the images. there is no 'select all' option so you have to drag to highlight all 19,000. Hit delete. 'You can only delete 1,000 at a time'. Awesome, thanks for the headsup! Deleting 19,000 photos, 1000 at a time, takes a few hours. Try it. But at least they're gone and your storage is back to zero, right????

6) No. You have to do the same steps for the deleted items. 1000 at a time. A few more hours of your life gone because Apple decided not to add a 'select all' or delete all' option. Jerks.

7) Now my phone and iCloud show as media-free and I downgrade my plan to 200GB. Many times during this process I thought about giving in and just paying $10 a month for something I'll only use a quarter of. I'm sure that's the plan. But I'm angry now. I flip the option back on to sync my 'empty' phone with my 'empty' cloud storage so that new media is backed up. That's what I'm paying for, right?

8) Wake up the next day to a nice warning that in 30 days I'll be over my plan by 200GB+. Somehow, overnight, iCloud restored all my deleted photos to both my phone and cloud. Should I pay the $10 a month ransom now?

9) I did all 7 steps again, this time leaving off the sync option until my plan changes to 200GB. I verify there is no media anywhere then flip the sync option back on. Now it works.

10) forgot to mention that I tried connecting my iPhone to my PC, authorizing it as file storage, then manually copying the media from phone to PC. I've never had luck with this in the decade plus I've owned an iPhone. Speeds are impossibly slow and the phone disconnects all the time. File transfer is impossible. Also, I see handy folders for my media name after the month and year... BUT these folders stop mid 2019. Where are the recent photos?

Apple has enough money and engineers to make this process pain-free. So this is by design. Not a fan.