Deleted photos, but I'm still getting a storage limit warning

[themack22]

I am here because either I am stupid, or Apple designed a **** product.

I am NOT paying for iCloud storage, I am paying for Google storage (it's much better). But I use the free storage (5GB) for notes, contacts, reminders and other small things (all work related, I have a work iPhone)

• Photos and videos take up about a third of my storage. I want to delete them all, but you have to do it one by one (annoying) by command+click each photo. How can you not shift+click a range and delete??!?!?!?
• I deleted about 100 videos and nothing has changed on the storage limit
• I deleted everything off the photos app on my MacBook (albums too) but that change does not reflect itself on icloud.com/photos

I am about to tear my hair out because I just want to delete all the photos on icloud.com/photos with one click, but as I chip away at it, it doesn't seem to do anything.

HELP please!

 

[elf69]

log into your iCloud account via a browser.

I did that for a friend and was able to wipe out photos and an old backup easy.

log in at iCloud.com

 

[themack22]

log into your iCloud account via a browser.

I did that for a friend and was able to wipe out photos and an old backup easy.

log in at iCloud.com

I did that. Then I started deleting photos, but I am still full. All my devices have been signed out. Hell, they haven't been backing up photos for 6 months now.

 

[elf69]

I just went to iCloud on my Mac (MacBook Air) via preferences and photos.

clicked on photos then "disable and delete"

it deleted 10 photos form my iCloud and turned off photo sync at same time.
freed up 400MB it told me.

 

[themack22]

HOLY S HIT

None of my devices are connected and I deleted 600 photos in the browser on icloud.com and my documents go bigger.

 

[casperes1996]

I don't get what you're saying, man. shift-selection works fine, and if you've disabled iCloud Photos, it automatically deletes all photos in iCloud.

 

[themack22]

I don't get what you're saying, man. shift-selection works fine, and if you've disabled iCloud Photos, it automatically deletes all photos in iCloud.

I've deleted every photo off of icloud and my storage is still full. In fact, it looks like I have more documents now.

BEFORE

AFTER

The orange part got bigger? WTF?!

 

[casperes1996]

The orange part got bigger? WTF?!

Click manage and see what it's showing in there that's using space

 

[mollyc]

What is being stored in iCloud Drive?

 

[Beards]

I have a similar issue, only mine is with a document file that was in iCloud Documents with a size of 3.1GB.
I deleted it from my MacBook Pro using Finder then deleted it from the Trashcan.
At that point I thought iCloud would no longer show the file and give me back the 3.1GB storage.

Simple answer is NO. The file no longer shows in iCloud but the iCloud storage under documents still says that 3.1GB file is still taking up space.

Clearly there is a server issue and I reckon our best bet is to contact iCloud Support and as for a Level 2 person.
Hopefully they should then reset everything..... Again 'Hopefully'!

 

[themack22]

Spoke with Apple. It takes 30 days for you to get your storage space back after deleting. They hold you hostage until then.

Also, as you delete stuff, icloud looks for more documents to store, backfilling that void. Bye Apple!

 

[AeroZ]

Did you check the Recently Deleted album? Photos that are deleted are stored in that album.

 

[themack22]

Did you check the Recently Deleted album? Photos that are deleted are stored in that album.

Oh yeah. It saves everything for 30 days after you delete, and that counts against your storage.

 

[AeroZ]

Oh yeah. It saves everything for 30 days after you delete, and that counts against your storage.

You should be able to delete them all from that album without waiting 30 days.

 

[themack22]

You should be able to delete them all from that album without waiting 30 days.

You can, but they leave you an option to recover them for 30 days. So either pay them $0.99 for more storage for that month and have all warnings go away, or just deal with recurring storage limit warnings.

Kind bull shi t if you ask me.

 

[AeroZ]

You can, but they leave you an option to recover them for 30 days. So either pay them $0.99 for more storage for that month and have all warnings go away, or just deal with recurring storage limit warnings.

Kind bull shi t if you ask me.

If you delete your photos from your albums and then delete them once more in Recently deleted album they still won’t be permanently deleted and space freed?

 

[themack22]

If you delete your photos from your albums and then delete them once more in Recently deleted album they still won’t be permanently deleted and space freed?

That's right, AeroZ. Straight from the horses mouth. They got all pissy with me when I said "so you're holding me hostage for a buck?"

 

[AeroZ]

That's right, AeroZ. Straight from the horses mouth. They got all pissy with me when I said "so you're holding me hostage for a buck?"

Well that really sucks then.

 

[themack22]

Well that really sucks then.

Which is why I moved my photos to google for $2 and way more storage. The main reason was obviously not the cost, I just hate the 1:1 relationship with a photo on your device and the same photo on iCloud.

You cannot delete a photo from your phone that is being backed up on iCloud without it being deleted from iCloud. They have an unbreakable relationship.

Once I upload photos to Google, I can delete it off my phone and it remains in the cloud.

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

Have you deleted them all from the recently deleted section?

 

[BigMcGuire]

On the iPhone, if you delete the photos, they stay available for 30 days but you can go to iCloud (in settings --> Click your name at the top --> iCloud --> Manage Storage ----- then go to Photos --- Disable and Delete).

Doing this frees up my 7.5 GB of iCloud storage instantly ---- and I still have 30 days to restore but it doesn't count against my storage.

So it looks like you reduced your photo usage - my guess is that takes priority over document usage - so you always had that many documents but your photos take preference. So now you just need to go delete documents?

5GB is incredibly tiny today --- OneDrive (used to?) and Google Drive offer 15GB of storage but the cost to increase that storage is so minuscule that I have a difficult time feeling sorry for people who complain about it. Ok, so you don't want to pay $.99? Turn off iCloud, install iTunes on your Windows PC or your Mac and backup to your computer (you can use external drives to store the iTunes backup). Bam, good to go. Use Google Drive or OneDrive for more storage and we're good to go.

Highly recommend Google Photos for photo storage. Unlimited storage for free (it does compress but that compression even at 100% blowup is something I cannot even see). Otherwise, you can pay $19.99/year for 100GB on Google Photos.


I'd use iCloud if it weren't so difficult to use and had selective sync... I have about 100,000 photos and videos @ 160GB on Google Photos that I can access from my iPhone that takes 0 local storage. Apple has a ways to go with their iCloud. Hopefully them building these new facilities in the USA means they will.

 

[casperes1996]

5GB is incredibly tiny today --- OneDrive (used to?) and Google Drive offer 15GB of storage but the cost to increase that storage is so minuscule that I have a difficult time feeling sorry for people who complain about it. Ok, so you don't want to pay $.99? Turn off iCloud, install iTunes on your Windows PC or your Mac and backup to your computer (you can use external drives to store the iTunes backup). Bam, good to go. Use Google Drive or OneDrive for more storage and we're good to go.

For a few years I kept thinking "This year, surely they'll bump it up to 20GB or something". But nope. Still not. Pretty disappointing really. But the price for 50GB is really tiny so that's what I've got now. I still think the base should be increased though. It would also make a good incentive for people to chose iCloud instead of Drive to start with.

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

On the iPhone, if you delete the photos, they stay available for 30 days but you can go to iCloud (in settings --> Click your name at the top --> iCloud --> Manage Storage ----- then go to Photos --- Disable and Delete).

Doing this frees up my 7.5 GB of iCloud storage instantly ---- and I still have 30 days to restore but it doesn't count against my storage.

So it looks like you reduced your photo usage - my guess is that takes priority over document usage - so you always had that many documents but your photos take preference. So now you just need to go delete documents?

5GB is incredibly tiny today --- OneDrive (used to?) and Google Drive offer 15GB of storage but the cost to increase that storage is so minuscule that I have a difficult time feeling sorry for people who complain about it. Ok, so you don't want to pay $.99? Turn off iCloud, install iTunes on your Windows PC or your Mac and backup to your computer (you can use external drives to store the iTunes backup). Bam, good to go. Use Google Drive or OneDrive for more storage and we're good to go.

Highly recommend Google Photos for photo storage. Unlimited storage for free (it does compress but that compression even at 100% blowup is something I cannot even see). Otherwise, you can pay $19.99/year for 100GB on Google Photos.


I'd use iCloud if it weren't so difficult to use and had selective sync... I have about 100,000 photos and videos @ 160GB on Google Photos that I can access from my iPhone that takes 0 local storage. Apple has a ways to go with their iCloud. Hopefully them building these new facilities in the USA means they will.

I use Dropbox and iCloud

 

[T-Bob]

Finding this more confusing than it should be. Have devices with lots of local storage so only want to use free tier iCloud for the most recent data. Now I have over 3GB of videos went to disable iCloud photo share and the 30 day timer begins, but I can't reenable until I delete all photos and videos off that device?

Is photo stream the only way to accomplish having a selective amount of recent data in the cloud or is there a way to do it with iCloud photo sharing? Would prefer original quality.

 

[BigMcGuire]

The thing to realize with iCloud... it does not operate like other cloud storage providers when it comes to photos. You cannot delete photos locally and have them stay on iCloud. You can only delete them in both locations.

To answer @T-Bob 's questions - you can re-enable iCloud photo and restore but it's very hidden to do so.

Steps:
1. Settings --> Apple ID (top most option) --> iCloud --> Manage Storage --> Scroll ALL THE WAY to the bottom till you see Photos (it will show 0KB) --- then click: Undo Disable & Delete.
2. Turn back on iCloud Photos via: Settings --> Photos --> iCloud Photo Library

Your phone will then re-download all the photos deleted (if you deleted them on your phone).


But there is now way to have photos in iCloud without having them on your iPhone (you can optimize storage which keeps a thumbnail on your phone and stores full copy in iCloud) (not what you want).

My suggestion - Dropbox. You can have that sync your photos to a computer, copy them off of dropbox before you reach the max free storage, then continue syncing from phone to computer. I know a few people who do this. Dropbox will sync photos (then you can move them to an external drive - out of dropbox) and then continue to sync.