I upgraded from an iPhone 12 to an iPhone 16 pro yesterday and have finally finished setting up my new phone. When I backed up my new phone to iCloud, it says the back up was 4 GB, while my last back up with my old phone was 47 GB. Why is this ? Did not everything back up? I want to delete my old phone from iCloud, but don’t want to lose everything.
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18
The large difference between your old iPhone 12 backup (47 GB) and your new iPhone 16 Pro backup (4 GB) is normal and doesn’t mean data was lost.
Most of your data—like Photos, Messages, Notes, and app data—is stored in iCloud separately and synced directly to your new device. iCloud avoids duplicating data already stored in the cloud, so the new backup only includes items not already covered.
Your new phone may also be using less space due to fewer apps, less cached data, or updated system storage efficiency. Apps are re-downloaded from the App Store, so they aren’t stored in the backup itself.
Before deleting the old backup, make sure everything you need—Photos, Messages, Contacts, Notes, Files, and app data—is present and working correctly on your new phone. Once confirmed, go to Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Manage Storage → Backups → [Old iPhone] → Delete Backup to safely remove it.
iCloud backup on new phone much smaller than backup on old phone
