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Ezra923

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
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I have a 128gb Iphone 12PM and I also pay for 2tb of icloud. I keep getting messages that my iphone is full which is mostly photos and imessage but i still have 1TB left of iCloud space the first half is also taken by photos and iMessage. I’m confused lol
 

Ezra923

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
255
90
Have you enabled optimize iPhone storage in the iCloud Photos menu?
Yes I have, everything is optimized for about 2 years now. It says that there are 80k photos and videos on icloud but a lot are still on the phone. Most of the space seems to be taken by iMessage on iphone storage but that’s optimized as well
 

0128672

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Apr 16, 2020
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Yes I have, everything is optimized for about 2 years now. It says that there are 80k photos and videos on icloud but a lot are still on the phone. Most of the space seems to be taken by iMessage on iphone storage but that’s optimized as well
I'm curious how you optimize iMessage storage. There isn't a setting for that as there is for Photos. When you say there's still a lot of photos on your phone, you realize with iCloud Photos enabled, those are the lower resolution versions of what's stored in iCloud. They still take up storage space on your phone, just less than the full resolution versions.
 

Ezra923

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
255
90
I'm curious how you optimize iMessage storage. There isn't a setting for that as there is for Photos. When you say there's still a lot of photos on your phone, you realize with iCloud Photos enabled, those are the lower resolution versions of what's stored in iCloud. They still take up storage space on your phone, just less of it.
Ahh I see , I think I was confused about the fact that I see iMessage taking a huge chunk of the space on iCloud but I think all it does is allows me to continue my conversation on all my devices. A lot of the photos being on my iPhone storage doesn’t make sense tho
 

0128672

Cancelled
Apr 16, 2020
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Ahh I see , I think I was confused about the fact that I see iMessage taking a huge chunk of the space on iCloud but I think all it does is allows me to continue my conversation on all my devices. A lot of the photos being on my iPhone storage doesn’t make sense tho
What are the actual storage numbers you're dealing with for your Photos on iCloud and on your phone? Knowing those numbers can help us understand how that might be filling up your 128GB phone storage. Have you considered perhaps downloading some of your iCloud photos to your computer so that you can store them on your hard drive and back them up externally?
 

Ezra923

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
255
90
What are the actual storage numbers you're dealing with for your Photos on iCloud and on your phone? Knowing those numbers can help us understand how that might be filling up your 128GB phone storage. Have you considered perhaps downloading some of your iCloud photos to your computer so that you can store them on your hard drive and back them up externally?
I considered that but I have so much space left on icloud. On iPhone storage I have 30gb of Photos and on iCloud I have 900gb of photos. I guess 30gb isn’t much just not sure why they aren’t syncing
 

0128672

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Apr 16, 2020
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I considered that but I have so much space left on icloud. On iPhone storage I have 30gb of Photos and on iCloud I have 900gb of photos. I guess 30gb isn’t much just not sure why they aren’t syncing
How do you know they're not syncing? Are there photos on your phone that are not on iCloud.com?

The other thing to remember is that iCloud Photos is for sharing across devices, not as a backup storage. Yes, you can perform backups via the iOS backup utility, but generally it's for sharing. I would strongly encourage you to regularly backup your large photo library using multiple external drives or other non-Cloud methods.
 

Ezra923

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
255
90
How do you know they're not syncing? Are there photos on your phone that are not on iCloud.com?
I assume so because there are 30gbs of photos on my iPhone storage, should they not all be on iCloud?
 

0128672

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Apr 16, 2020
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I assume so because there are 30gbs of photos on my iPhone storage, should they not all be on iCloud?
As I mentioned above, those are the lower resolution versions of what you have in iCloud.

"When you turn on iCloud Photos, your photos and videos automatically upload to iCloud. They're not duplicated in your iCloud backup, so you should keep backup copies of your library."

"If you turn on Optimize Storage, iCloud Photos 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."

 
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Ezra923

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
255
90
As I mentioned above, those are the lower resolution versions of what you have in iCloud.

"When you turn on iCloud Photos, your photos and videos automatically upload to iCloud. They're not duplicated in your iCloud backup, so you should keep backup copies of your library."

"If you turn on Optimize Storage, iCloud Photos 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."

Ahh that makes perfect sense! Initially I didn’t see your second paragraph. I wish it were more of an instant backup. I should backup my pics externally but I also need to access photos anywhere from 5 years ago to now on the go for work. I’ll look into getting bigger space on my next iPhone upgrade. Thank you for clearing that up
 
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