Other I need a 2TB iPhone 16 Pro Max

[ibookemo]

You don’t need 1TB of image and video data on your phone. I’m not advocating just turning off ‘keep originals’ if you like to have the full-res ones knocking around, but there is no way anyone has the time to actually look back at that many videos and images regularly.

This data is incredibly important but it’s not 100% useful 100% of the time.

It will be videos clogging up your storage. True, these are precious memories. But it might be worth sorting through them and deleting the largest or ones you don’t want to keep. Consider recording at 1080p as well instead of 4K.

Back everything up to your PC/Mac. Make sure you have iCloud as another backup solution and further copies on an external drive.

You can then use an Apple TV to pull them off your network to look at them on your TV or from iCloud.

Have fun!

Hey, nothing in life is 100% useful 100% of the time. Look at car ownership for instance. Most of the time they just sit there static, costing us a fortune.

This is what we do.

 

[klasma]

Yes. This is precisely the reason I’d like to keep a copy of my original pictures on the iPhone. You could say, this is the purpose of this thread. A ‘warning’ isn’t really warranted 🫠

If iCloud messes up, it might sync back whatever is broken to your phone, and vice versa, so that it ends up broken/deleted on both. To be safe, you really need a separate backup solution. Better invest your time and money in that.

 

[JamesMay82]

If iCloud messes up, it might sync back whatever is broken to your phone, and vice versa, so that it ends up broken/deleted on both. To be safe, you really need a separate backup solution. Better invest your time and money in that.

I was gonna ask that… I’ve always thought about that and in theory it could technically wipe all your photos off.. Same for light room as well isn’t it

 

[klasma]

I was gonna ask that… I’ve always thought about that and in theory it could technically wipe all your photos off.. Same for light room as well isn’t it

Yes. To be reasonably safe, you need unidirectional backups (not a bidirectional sync) to multiple places and/or with versioning.

 

[fatTribble]

For what it’s worth, my Photos app has 1.6TB of pictures and videos. In addition to iCloud, I have a 2TB iPad Pro that I use to backup to OneDrive and Amazon Photos. Both of those services fully support Live Photos by not separating the video from the photo. My MacBook Pro has the 4TB SSD. I backup using Time Machine to several LaCie D2 drives plus another that just has copies of the Photos file. I’m not suggesting anyone should do what I do. Just sharing ideas.

 

[JamesMay82]

Yes. To be reasonably safe, you need unidirectional backups (not a bidirectional sync) to multiple places and/or with versioning.

If we switch off iCloud do you know if we still get all the same features of the photos app doing photos of the day and videos of the day

 

[jwolf6589]

It's nice to be able to have original copies of every photo you take in your pocket. Just a nice thing to have. I see my Mac a more of a tool, my work is in the cloud so it doesn't need much space.

The more I can keep on my phone that can function offline the better.

I have all my photos on my iPhone and only the 128GB model with 64GB free!

 

[klasma]

If we switch off iCloud do you know if we still get all the same features of the photos app doing photos of the day and videos of the day

I believe it’s on-device, but I haven’t tested it.

 

[ibookemo]

I have all my photos on my iPhone and only the 128GB model with 64GB free!

The key word I said is ‘original’.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Lower quality version is good enough to view on your display or TV. Full resolution is great if you plan to Zoom-in, edit or print the photo.

 

[ibookemo]

Lower quality version is good enough to view on your display or TV. Full resolution is great if you plan to Zoom-in, edit or print the photo.

Precisely ✅

 

[VertPin]

just backup your photos to a cheap external drive or 2

i would not rely on a cheap external drive. invest in a good, reputable ssd.

 

[toobravetosave]

i would not rely on a cheap external drive. invest in a good, reputable ssd.

we’re talking a few tbs of backup for personal use

just review some failure rate tables off backblaze and choose something good

expensive doesn’t guarantee good

 

[jwolf6589]

The key word I said is ‘original’.

Mine are original as well

 

[Shirasaki]

On MacBook you can have external hard drives.
And use Time Machine to keep a historical backup of your data.
If you don’t need everything to be on the cloud, get external storage with RAID-1 or RAID-5.
iCloud is the best way to have your live information available at all times and synchronized on all your devices.
Whatever you don’t access often, leave it on the cloud, so your phone doesn’t run out of storage.

External drive is not suitable for photos library purposes. I tried, and my library ended up being corrupted more often than not. I do backups of my mac data.
What I want to advocate is for everyone to have a copy of THEIR data away from the cloud.

 

[blairh]

Well it’s coming to that time of year again when I promise myself that I’m definitely not upgrading my phone but I end up doing so every single year 🫠

The thing is though, my 1TB 15 Pro Max is actually running out of space. It’s family photos and videos - I take a lot of the kids.

I pay for iCloud storage of 2TB and am pretty happy with it. I really want to have the original files on my phone but to keep that up I need a 2TB model.

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

The funny thing is that this would be the ‘feature’ that would push me to buy a new one. Not AI or a new camera button, but just good old fashioned storage space.

The iPhone cameras are great and I also use a Fuji, Sony and Ricoh camera, putting the pictures on my iPhone and iCloud. The Apple system works very well for this. Just the files end up growing and growing over time.

My plan B is to just rely on iCloud storage until a larger capacity iPhone pops out. It hopefully will in the next few years.

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics - that’s the happy balance.

I don't keep a single photo or video on my iPhone. Everything is neatly organized in Dropbox. I'm not trying to pick on you OP, but I really don't understand this need to have so much media stored locally on a smartphone.

 

[subjonas]

I don't keep a single photo or video on my iPhone. Everything is neatly organized in Dropbox. I'm not trying to pick on you OP, but I really don't understand this need to have so much media stored locally on a smartphone.

With cloud storage you have to deal with high subscription fees for large data, dependence on online servers, dependence on cellular reception, privacy concerns, data caps, buffering/loading, etc.

 

[Mike Boreham]

No, I do have an iCloud backup.

An iCloud backup does not backup anything on iCloud that can be downloaded, including photos. That is why the size of iCloud backups is tiny compared to the storage used on the iPhone.

 

[Mike Boreham]

If iCloud messes up, it might sync back whatever is broken to your phone, and vice versa, so that it ends up broken/deleted on both. To be safe, you really need a separate backup solution. Better invest your time and money in that.

Second this. My iCPL lost all its 600 albums and folders many years ago. All photos were still there but with no organisation. Restored from a local full back up of iCPL.

 

[JamesMay82]

External drive is not suitable for photos library purposes. I tried, and my library ended up being corrupted more often than not. I do backups of my mac data.
What I want to advocate is for everyone to have a copy of THEIR data away from the cloud.

100% I’m not sure how it happened but my sister got locked out of her iCloud account due to forgetting password and she lost 4 years worth of photos

 

[Allen_Wentz]

However, it is probably better to have a copy of your original pictures and video on a Mac, which can be backed up easily externally, over iPhone which is more susceptible to loss And theft. Sadly Apple charges a kidney for MacBook storage upgrade.

If one is using a Mac for mass storage backup there is no reason not to simply use multiple copies of inexpensive external storage; it is a safer solution as well as less expensive than needlessly buying pricey internal mass storage.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

i would not rely on a cheap external drive. invest in a good, reputable ssd.

The point is that external drives are relatively cheap, and two cheap drives are better backup than one heavy duty one.

 

[Shirasaki]

If one is using a Mac for mass storage backup there is no reason not to simply use multiple copies of inexpensive external storage; it is a safer solution as well as less expensive than needlessly buying pricey internal mass storage.

But the original has to be downloaded somehow in the first place, which for iCloud photo only works with “Download original”, and ALL originals, which adds up fast. Of course external library for photos app is also a solution but I ditched it after the external drive struggle to keep its connection up. This leaves buying super expensive internal mass storage as the only reliable option.
I don’t think Time Machine backup would download the original automatically During backup.

 

[Rychiar]

I've never kept photos on my phone. I finally pay for 2tb iCloud as of this year but now but I still drag the stuff I want to keep into organized folders on my Mac whenever I have chance

 

[Amazing Iceman]

But the original has to be downloaded somehow in the first place, which for iCloud photo only works with “Download original”, and ALL originals, which adds up fast. Of course external library for photos app is also a solution but I ditched it after the external drive struggle to keep its connection up. This leaves buying super expensive internal mass storage as the only reliable option.
I don’t think Time Machine backup would download the original automatically During backup.

Time Machine backup whatever your drive has stored. If the original was downloaded, that's what it will back up. Time Machine does not check or fetch data online as far as I know.