iPhone ICloud photo help

[Corsig]

I have almost 10,000 pictures on my phone. I have them backed up on the iCloud & on my Mac. Question is now that they are backed up what happens if I delete them on my phone to make room?

Getting ready for the new phone and don't need all of them to be moved over but I'm afraid to lose them.

Any feedback?

 

[nutmac]

My biggest quibble with iCloud Photo Library's Optimized Storage feature is the exact real world problem you have.

If you have a lot of photos and videos, Optimize Storage may not free up enough storage space. On the average, each photo and video will use 200 to 400 KB of storage. Multiplied that by 10,000, or 2 to 4GB of storage. I have about 100,000 photos and videos, so that's 20 to 40GB of storage.

Ideally, Optimize Storage will automatically free up storage as needed, but alas, my 32GB iPad is incapable of storing even the minimal set of 3rd party apps and iCloud Photo Library.

 

[Corsig]

My biggest quibble with iCloud Photo Library's Optimized Storage feature is the exact real world problem you have.

Yes! My fiancé has a Galaxy and it automatically uploads them to google photo leaving her HD free. I switched my iCloud from 50 to 200 Gbs cause i'm running out of space. I don't mind paying $3.00/month if it allowed me to delete from phone and keep it on the cloud

 

[nutmac]

I talked to Apple Support about this very issue and the only way you can use iCloud to backup photos and videos AND still delete photos or videos off of your device is disable iCloud Photo Library and use My Photo Stream instead (which backs up photos but I am not sure it backs up video).

I find that to be completely unacceptable, especially given $9.99/month that I am paying. On Android, Google Photos will free up space as needed even if you have 1 million photos and videos.

And on iOS devices like iPhone and iPad, it is not possible to use Safari to browse your entire photo and video library on iCloud.com.

On Apple's support document, Optimize Storage is supposed to:

If you turn on Optimize Storage, iCloud Photo Library automatically manages the size of your library on your device. Your original photos and videos are stored in iCloud and space-saving versions are kept on your device. Your library is optimized only when you need space, starting with the photos and videos you access least. You can download the original photos and videos over Wi-Fi or cellular when you need them. You can use Optimize Storage on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.

It should be expanded to "delete photos and videos you access least" from the device. When you have a ton of photos and videos, so-called smaller "space-saving versions" are not small enough. Delete them entirely on the device.