iCloud photo storage question

[robes1]

Hi all, I have a quick question about purchasing 200GB of iCloud storage for my phone. I currently have about 90GB of photos on my 256GB iPhone, and want to sync these onto iCloud to free up space on my phone.

I'm wondering if I purchase the iCloud plan, I understand a lower-res version of the photos and videos will still reside on my phone, but if I go back and view these photos or videos in my library on my iPhone, will it be showing me the lower res version or the full quality? If it's the former, how can I go about always having the full resolution versions available to peruse on my phone?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Option 2: Connect phone to Mac and import all 90GB of photos to the Photos app on the Mac. Then you don't have to pay forever rent to store your photos on a hard drive in the sky. If space is tight on the drive within your Mac, this library could be stored on an external drive.

Make some Photos (app) albums of favorite photos, etc you'd actually like to have immediate access on your iDevices and then sync just those albums back to the phone. 90GB of space will probably drop to < 1GB if you make a lot of albums and include all of your best photos (no resolution compromises). You can also make smart albums so that the latest X number of photos or all photos shot in the last X (amount of time) also sync to the phone, which is a very easy way to have all your newest pics always available, such as latest vacation shots, etc.

With rare exception, just about nobody needs access to their entire library of photos at all times. If you are one of those exceptions, consider buying yourself a NAS and owning your own cloud, billing yourself $0 in monthly rent to access them. It can expand storage space to any size you like and still bill yourself $0/month for access.

I offer this alternative to try to be helpful. Else, 200GB tier will just just fill and you'll need the next tier... and then the one after that. All the tools you need to basically manage your photo collection are already baked into your Mac if you want to use them instead. Synching of select albums and similar still works just fine. If 1GB is not quite enough for you, make that 2GB or 5GB. Whatever you actually need on iDevice at all times will still likely be far less than the full 90GB.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

So you want to "Free up space" on your iPhone, but "always have the full resolution versions"? 🧐

Sounds like contradictory goals to me.

 

[robes1]

So you want to "Free up space" on your iPhone, but "always have the full resolution versions"? 🧐

Sounds like contradictory goals to me.

Given that it's 2025, and how much has technology has developed, it doesn't seem far fetched to have Apple figure out a way to make this happen while storing/syncing the files on iCloud.

 

[lostless]

for the most part, the photos will stay as is, for now once iCloud is enabled. But it will clean up the library in the background and start removing full res versions while charging if space is getting a little low on your phone. Now from your point of view you'll probably not notice anything is different. Or that your even looking at low res copies. they look great on a phone screen just swiping through. But when you zoom in, you'll notice the low res and the phone will automatically download the full res copy once you reach a certain amount of zoom, and the picture will pop into focus.

Now where you may notice is video, as the low res copies are 720P, I believe, and 30FPS. To force full res on those, you just have to hit edit and and go back and that will force the phone to download the full quality.

Also the phone will also automatically download the full quality images when any app needs it, like posting to social media or using a 3rd party backup like google or amazon photos.

Basically think of it as your photos are no longer on your devices, They exist in the cloud, and your devices (phone, iPad, mac, iCloud webpage) act as a portal to your photos.

 

[mrochester]

Given that it's 2025, and how much has technology has developed, it doesn't seem far fetched to have Apple figure out a way to make this happen while storing/syncing the files on iCloud.

That is possible but what’s not possible is to keep all the photos on your phone exactly as they are now but free up space. Either the full res photos are on your phone taking up all the space they currently do or they aren’t and you free up space.

 

[HDFan]

Remember that iCloud is not a backup service. Be sure to implement a 3-2-1 backup plan so you don't lose any files in case of a problem. iCloud can't be used as 1 of the 3 backups. Too many posts from folks who have lost all of their photos because they did not have backups.

 

[P_Watt]

Hi all, I have a quick question about purchasing 200GB of iCloud storage for my phone. I currently have about 90GB of photos on my 256GB iPhone, and want to sync these onto iCloud to free up space on my phone.

I'm wondering if I purchase the iCloud plan, I understand a lower-res version of the photos and videos will still reside on my phone, but if I go back and view these photos or videos in my library on my iPhone, will it be showing me the lower res version or the full quality? If it's the former, how can I go about always having the full resolution versions available to peruse on my phone?

Cut to the quick, you choose which option, but you can't have a halfway choice.
'Optimise iphone storage', it begins to reduce the resolution on the phone, save space
'Download and keep originals' Full res on both, don't save space.

 

[doogm]

I'm wondering if I purchase the iCloud plan, I understand a lower-res version of the photos and videos will still reside on my phone, but if I go back and view these photos or videos in my library on my iPhone, will it be showing me the lower res version or the full quality?

The phone will download the full-quality version any time that you view, edit, or try to share one of the photos that has been off-loaded on-the-fly. If it needs to it will then create a thumbnail out of one of your older, least-accessed photos in your library.