Apple Downgrading iCloud Storage From 20GB to 5GB

For those using more than 5GB, Apple Inc. has sent this email:

Dear ICLOUD USER,

Your iCloud storage will be reduced to 5GB on 09/30/2012. However, you are currently using more than 5GB.

Unless you take action before your downgrade takes effect, backups to iCloud will stop, and apps will no longer be able to save documents to iCloud. You can either free up storage or cancel your downgrade to keep your current storage plan for another year.

To free up storage in your account:

Step 1: On your iOS device, go to Settings and tap iCloud
Step 2: Tap Storage & Backup
Step 3: Tap Manage Storage and choose items you’d like to delete or stop backing up

To keep your current storage plan:

Step 1:On your iOS device, go to Settings and tap iCloud
Step 2: Tap Account
Step 3: Tap your current plan, then choose Downgrade Options and follow the prompts You can also cancel your downgrade from a Mac or PC.

iCloud account storage management
If you are currently using more than 5GB of storage, Apple will not delete your data if you do not upgrade, but new storage to your iCloud account will be frozen until you remove items to bring your storage levels below the new 5GB limit. This means that not only will you be unable to upload and sync files, but you will also not be able to receive any new e-mail. During this time, iCloud will inform you that you have exceeded your limit and offer links to support documents on how to upgrade or remove items from your iCloud storage.

To free up iCloud storage in OS X, go to your iCloud system preferences pane and click on the Manage button at the bottom of the window. In the new panel that appears you can select a program or service category to see what documents are being stored in iCloud by that service. The overall amount of storage used by that service will be listed underneath it.

While you can manually delete documents and backups from iCloud using the OS X system preferences, e-mail must be managed through Apple’s Mail program or another e-mail client you are using to access your iCloud mail.