how to keep all photos in the cloud to save storage?

[x-evil-x]

I have never deleted or transferred pics to my Mac from my phone I thought I kept all images in the cloud but I just checked and I have over 30 gigs of photos on my phone.
I dont want to hit something and have the phone delete all of them without them being saved in the cloud.
I pay for 200gigs a month storage plan.

 

[mritech]

I went thru this already. If you have the iCloud Photo Library on you’re good.

I had 20 gigs on my phone. The reason I had so much was a combination of the thumbnails that take up some space and the photos and videos that were taken for the year I had the phone.

Now I only have 4.8 gigs since I upped to the iPhone 8. Which is mostly the thumbnails for the previews low res versions as Apple told me.

I kinda figured out this on my own by....
1-signing out of iCloud on my iPhone 7 before signing in to my new iPhone 8
2-going to a brand new iPad that I recently got that I was able to see all my photos I went years back too. Also there was the same type of storage amount on the iPad at 4.5 gigs at that time and also I never took a picture with the iPad so I knew I was good as far as that was the thumbnails space took
3-I signed in to my new iPhone 8 and then I got the same 4.5 gigs once it populated with my iCloud sign in
4-I wiped out my iPhone 7

Good luck. Let me know how you make out

 

[x-evil-x]

I went thru this already. If you have the iCloud Photo Library on you’re good.

I had 20 gigs on my phone. The reason I had so much was a combination of the thumbnails that take up some space and the photos and videos that were taken for the year I had the phone.

Now I only have 4.8 gigs since I upped to the iPhone 8. Which is mostly the thumbnails for the previews low res versions as Apple told me.

I kinda figured out this on my own by....
1-signing out of iCloud on my iPhone 7 before signing in to my new iPhone 8
2-going to a brand new iPad that I recently got that I was able to see all my photos I went years back too. Also there was the same type of storage amount on the iPad at 4.5 gigs at that time and also I never took a picture with the iPad so I knew I was good as far as that was the thumbnails space took
3-I signed in to my new iPhone 8 and then I got the same 4.5 gigs once it populated with my iCloud sign in
4-I wiped out my iPhone 7

Good luck. Let me know how you make out

So you didn’t lose any pictures when you did a full fresh instal and just put in your appleid?
I could always try a fresh instal on my7+ to see just worried I’d lose some photos I’m not sure where saved or not in the cloud

 

[mritech]

Just follow what I said. I didn’t backup one image when I upgraded my last 3 phones or last 2 iPads. It will be able to be seen on the device as long as it’s in the cloud.

Check the photo count in your settings “about” page and confirm it with you’re fine. Here’s mine as proof.

I’ve had this less than a month I didn’t shoot over 14,000 pics. The reason the photo count is off is it’s not counting the screenshot I just did

Look what it says under iCloud Photo Library when it’s switched on

 

[dk001]

Recommend you use an additional location (wifi SSD?) for photo storage. iCloud photo in the past has borked my library.
I currently use an external drive and Google Photos. That way if one messes up, I still have a second BU.