Deleting mail from backup

Question

I do not use the iCloud mail storage (empty), but yet my iCloud storage indicates that Mail is taking up 1.5 GB of space in my backup. I also do not use the Mail app on my Mac. Is this 1.5 GB coming from email stored on my iPhone? If so, how can I delete this from the iCloud backup? There is insufficient space for my iPhone to conduct its regular backup, and I would like to remove mail being backed up, as this is already stored on my email servers.

Answer 1

I spent some time researching this a couple of months back, and I learned some interesting things.  The most interesting of which came from this Tech Note:
iCloud: About storage buffering
Notably:
Documents, Backup, and Mail all count towards your iCloud Storage space. In some cases, one portion of your storage may appear to vary from the actual storage space it is using. For example, you may notice that your Mail appears to be using 50 MB of storage space when actuality it's only using 10 MB.
This may occur after you free up storage space that you were once using. Your iCloud Storage allocation will readjust itself automatically, but only once another iCloud feature uses the previously allocated space. Until then, it may appear that you are still using more Documents, Backup, or Mail storage space than you actually are.
Wow.  That's quite a little tidbit there.  Especially considering the emails Apple had been sending to all loyal MobileMe customers, that it was now time to pony up for additional (paid) storage.
So, I got tired of waiting and I started fiddling some more. I had already deleted the iCloud account on my iPhone (and added it back.)  No change.  I didn't want to delete saved iCloud documents or data, nor did I want to delete my existing iOS device backups, just to test this.  Because I was dubious it would actually fix anything, and creating a whole new backup for both iPhone and iPad would take awhile.
Then I went and deleted the iCloud account on my iPad (as it was reporting the same "phantom" 1.3 GB of iCloud mail) and then added that iCloud account back.  In time, once everything was synced back, I noticed something:  the iCloud mail was now reporting ("only") 968 MB of space!  That's the first change I've seen!  Progress! 
Alas, I checked again, and my iCloud.com mailbox was still completely empty.  So I forged ahead, determined to bring that number closer to zero.
Then on my Mac, I went to "System Preferences -> iCloud -> Manage" and saw the breakdown for how my iCloud Storage was being used.  It says Mail was using 1.3 GB.  WTH?   And also, there it says "To free up storage used by Mail, erase messages in the Junk and Trash folders."  Gee, thanks, yeah, I already did that.  :rolleyes:
So I opened Mail.app on my Mac, and had it sync with my iCloud account (and confirmed yet again, that each and every folder was empty.)  And then quit Mail.   What's going on here?
Then I followed the instructions here:
If your available Storage displayed in iCloud Settings on your iOS device, in iCloud System Preferences on your Mac or in the iCloud Control Panel for Windows on your PC continues to be different than expected, contact iCloud Support for assistance.
...an contacted iCloud Support, thinking they'd know what I was talking about, and maybe they had some magic switch or button they could press, to "update" my account or something, to refresh the numbers being reported, to accurately show that I wasn't using any iCloud space for Mail at all.
And that's when a funny thing happened.  I didn't even finish the explanation, when I went back to "Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage" to review with him what I was seeing.   (The CSR was asking for my serial number.)   And now, for the first time all day, I see that Mail is no longer listed there at all.  That line is gone.  It appears that my "storage buffering issue" been fixed.  And then I had to explain to the CSR, that it looks like the situation has been resolved.  I had a laugh with him, since we both agreed, that sort of thing just seems to happen all the time.
Sure enough, I went back to "System Preferences -> iCloud -> Manage" (on my Mac) and Mail is now all the way at the bottom of the list, taking up "0 KB."
Success.
In any case, I'm posting this to help others.  I can't say with certainty what fixed this for me, but my hunch is that deleting (and then re-adding) the iCloud account on BOTH my iPhone and iPad had something to do with it.  Or maybe it was launching/syncing via Mail.app, and/or giving it some time.  Or maybe those prayers had something to do with it after all. 
The funniest part about all of this is that my whole iPhone backup (with small Camera Roll) takes up 3.6 GB and my whole iPad backup (with even smaller Camera Roll) takes up 1.4 GB... so I'm still right up against that 5 GB quota, and will still end up paying $20/year for the extra 10 GB of space anyway.  If only for elbow room, and if only for peace of mind.
So there ya have it.