I managed to do what some might think is impossible:
I maxed out my 2 Terabyte iCloud storage plan. A quick inventory revealed that 1.8 Terabytes of my storage was being consumed by photos and videos. Unfortunately, Apple caps its storage plans at 2 Terabytes. I couldn’t buy my way out of this problem by expanding the plan’s capacity.
While I investigated my options for how to clear out iCloud without losing all of my media files, new photos and videos saved to my iPhone. It wasn’t long before my iPhone storage filled up.
And that’s when things got really challenging.
Without free space in its local storage, my iPhone couldn’t function. It automatically went into a “preservation” mode by offloading infrequently or unused apps.
I noticed that it slowed down considerably. When I tried to upload media files from Photos to a cloud service like Dropbox, it didn’t have space to download them in order to upload them.
The battery drained faster and it ran hot consistently. Then it gave me a notice that it would not continue to charge until it cooled down.
In order to clear space on the iPhone, I had to clear the space in iCloud, and the slowdown interfered with this process. It was stuck, and couldn’t move forward.
I’ve been up to my eyeballs in this project almost consistently for the past few weeks, especially over the past week.
After some trial and error, I finally found a way to get traction and clear enough space in my iCloud to allow the backlog to upload, restoring space in my phone. I’ll share more details on the entire process another time, but here’s the most useful tip:
The low-hanging fruit of what’s taking up space is the stuff we delete from sight without fully deleting.
If you’re running out of storage space, check your deleted photos album and clear it out.
Review and Release What’s Holding You Back
This period of reviewing old photos and clearing out what I no longer need has been very fitting with the current astrology Mercury retrograde and eclipse season, especially heading into today’s lunar eclipse in Scorprio.
Today’s full moon in Scorpio marks the culmination point, the final installation, in a chapter that began a year ago.
This is not just any full moon.
It’s a full moon lunar eclipse. At the south node. In Scorpio.
Let’s break this down.
The North and South Nodes
The nodes are not technically points in the sky. They are points along the moon’s elliptic. When they line up with the sun and moon at new or full moons, eclipses happen.
The ancients viewed the nodes as the head and tail of a dragon.
The north node points to our hunger, what we want more of in life. The south node is a point of release, what we must let go.
This is the last of 3 south node eclipses in Scorpio — a series that started in May 2022 — and the last south node eclipse we’ll have in Scorpio for a couple of decades.
Scorpio Significations
You might say that Scorpio is the “deleted photos” album of the Zodiac.
It is the sign that deals with what we bury deep within and what needs to surface to release. In the body, it corresponds to the excretory system.
Scorpio is the place where we deal with loss, death, and the things that related to death: grief, mental health, inheritance, taxes, and the other things that nobody likes to talk about in a culture that prefers to focus on “happiness.”
That’s the foundation of this eclipse, and this is where my iPhone and iCloud storage issues fit in.
Humans Are Like Phones
We are like our phones in more ways than we might want to admit. When we bury stuff deep within the “Deleted Photos” album of our psyche, it still takes up space — precious bandwidth that impacts our internal operating systems.
To preserve our survival, our nervous systems will shut down non-essential functions like our abilities to make decisions and plan for the future.
When our hidden storage containers are filled to capacity with unexplored and unexpressed grief, anger, and disappointment, we often run hot — the anger burns within us.
We have less space for being present to life, and for receiving what life wants to offer us.
Endings and Beginnings
As the final south node eclipse in Scorpio, this eclipse marks a major ending. A story we’ve been living is coming to a close.
It’s time to move on.
As we embark to unknown territory, we must free up space for functioning, lighten the load so that we aren’t weighed down by what no longer serves us.
It’s time to let it go and to grieve it so we can move forward.
Love it? Hate it? What do you think? Don't hold back...