iPhone to Mac backups contain the iPhone's photos despite iCloud Photos being enabled

[collin_]

I back up my iPhone to my Mac (encrypted "all data on this device" backup via Finder), and do not use iCloud Backup. However, I do have iCloud Photos enabled on my iPhone (with "Download and Keep Originals" enabled). iCloud Photos is disabled on my Mac.

My iPhone contains roughly 140 GB worth of data. About 100 GB is Photos and everything else takes up the other 40 GB.

Apple states on their website that iPhone to Mac backups do not contain "Data already stored in iCloud, like iCloud Photos, iMessages, and text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages." However, my iPhone's MobileSync backup folder is about 100 GB instead of the expected 40 or less. This means that it must contain at least part of my iPhone's Photos library, despite the fact that those photos are "data already stored in iCloud."

Anyone know why this would be happening and how I can fix it?

 

[Squillace]

Have you tried to delete that backup and perform a new one from scratch?

 

[collin_]

Have you tried to delete that backup and perform a new one from scratch?

Yeah. Don't know what's going on.

 

[zorinlynx]

This is 100% intentional and by design.

One of the most common reasons people back up their iPhone to a computer instead of iCloud is because they have a slow or spotty internet connection so backing up or restoring from iCloud would be an extremely painful experience.

Thus an iPhone to computer backup includes ALL user data on the phone so that if the user has to restore from backup they don't have to download nearly as much data.

I suspect the blurb on the Apple site is wrong and that it's just a mistake, as this is the way it has always worked and I've never seen it do anything differently. The blurb also says iMessage data isn't backed up to the computer, when in fact it is. I have confirmed this.

 

[collin_]

This is 100% intentional and by design.

One of the most common reasons people back up their iPhone to a computer instead of iCloud is because they have a slow or spotty internet connection so backing up or restoring from iCloud would be an extremely painful experience.

Thus an iPhone to computer backup includes ALL user data on the phone so that if the user has to restore from backup they don't have to download nearly as much data.

I suspect the blurb on the Apple site is wrong and that it's just a mistake, as this is the way it has always worked and I've never seen it do anything differently. The blurb also says iMessage data isn't backed up to the computer, when in fact it is. I have confirmed this.

Thank you!