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iPhoto sync confusion, and optimize storage questions

L

ls1dreams

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2009
688
272
OK,

I'm kind of tired of mysterious Apple features, and no error logging of any type.

Situation:

Mom's iPhone with ~ 25gb of photos on it according to manage storage.
Capacity was basically full on her 64gb phone and she couldn't take photos anymore.

iCloud: 5gb upgraded to 200gb. Photo sync is turned on, but iCloud backup is turned off. Turned 'optimize storage' on.

Question 1: After letting phone sit overnight on wifi/charger, iCloud now shows 10gb/200gb used, but under Storage > iCloud Photos, it shows 0%. Uhhh.. what's going on here? Where is the other 15gb? Why does iCloud show something different than the Photo %?

Question 2: What's the expected behavior with optimize storage? I was hoping the iPhone would reserve some % of phone storage to be available so she could continue to take photos. Apple doesn't specify this anywhere. Would it leave 10% of phone capacity? A fixed gigabyte amount? Basically, I'm hoping it will bump a bunch of photos to iCloud and leave some space on the device so she can take photos.

Dealing with storage constraints and sync is such hell.
 
You're assuming that overnight was enough time to upload the full size photos to iCloud Photos. It may not be enough time. On her phone, if you look at Photos > Library, and scroll to the bottom, the upload/sync update status is displayed.

I've never seen anything about a certain percentage of the iPhone storage being reserved for photos. It sounds like a nice idea, but it doesn't work that way. The storage is all based on the total amount of space needed for all of the apps.

Edited: after it's confirmed the update is completely finished, if there's still an issue, could she temporarily delete some other apps that use a lot of storage to see how that changes the available space on the phone?
 
Namara said:
You're assuming that overnight was enough time to upload the full size photos to iCloud Photos. It may not be enough time. On her phone, if you look at Photos > Library, and scroll to the bottom, the upload/sync update status is displayed.

I've never seen anything about a certain percentage of the iPhone storage being reserved for photos. It sounds like a nice idea, but it doesn't work that way. The storage is all based on the total amount of space needed for all of the apps.

Edited: after it's confirmed the update is completely finished, if there's still an issue, could she temporarily delete some other apps that use a lot of storage to see how that changes the available space on the phone?
Click to expand...
Apple doesn't say how Optimize Storage works.

Some people on Macbooks found that if you use it though, the device will keep some storage available and not consume it entirely. Not sure if iPhones work the same way.
 
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ls1dreams said:
Apple doesn't stay how Optimize Storage works.

Some people on Macbooks found that if you use it though, the device will keep some storage available and not consume it entirely. Not sure if iPhones work the same way.
Click to expand...
Apple does explain how it works on iOS: "With Optimize Storage, smaller, space-saving photos and videos are kept on your device while all of your original, full-resolution versions are stored in iCloud. And as long as you have enough space in iCloud, you can store as many photos and videos as you want."

Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
 
ls1dreams said:
Question 1: After letting phone sit overnight on wifi/charger, iCloud now shows 10gb/200gb used, but under Storage > iCloud Photos, it shows 0%. Uhhh.. what's going on here? Where is the other 15gb? Why does iCloud show something different than the Photo %?
Click to expand...
It takes a long time to upload photos to iCloud. I just recently uploaded about 110gb of photos from my MacBook to iCloud. It took 7 days on constant uploading. It was working 24/7. Consider your internet connection speed, I only have 10gb upload, which didn't help.


I would turn on Optimize Storage after all photos are in iCloud.
 
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oneteam said:
It takes a long time to upload photos to iCloud. I just recently uploaded about 110gb of photos from my MacBook to iCloud. It took 7 days on constant uploading. It was working 24/7. Consider your internet connection speed, I only have 10gb upload, which didn't help.


I would turn on Optimize Storage after all photos are in iCloud.
Click to expand...
What confuses me though is that it shows 10gb is now in iCloud, but "0%" for photos which doesn't make sense to me.
 
Namara said:
Apple does explain how it works on iOS: "With Optimize Storage, smaller, space-saving photos and videos are kept on your device while all of your original, full-resolution versions are stored in iCloud. And as long as you have enough space in iCloud, you can store as many photos and videos as you want."

Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
Click to expand...
Ya, it's just unclear on how it does it. I guess I just have to assume it makes space as needed to keep taking photos, but I don't know how long it takes to clear up that space so the device doesn't get stuck.

For example, it certainly seems that I could "outshoot" optimize storage by taking a ton of photos and filling up local storage before it uploads to icloud and then clears the device. I have no idea what that local buffer is.

This also obviously matters if the phone is offline/on cellular, especially if the buffer is small.
 
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ls1dreams said:
What confuses me though is that it shows 10gb is now in iCloud, but "0%" for photos which doesn't make sense to me.
Click to expand...
log into iCloud form a computer and see if there's any photos already uploaded. It is possible that is not giving you the correct % until it finishes uploading all pics.
 
One thought ...
While not as convenient as iCloud, I did buy a dongle and dumped my photos to an mSD card as a backup.
Just in case your Cloud decides it wants to mess your photos. Or you accidently do.

BTDT
 
dk001 said:
One thought ...
While not as convenient as iCloud, I did buy a dongle and dumped my photos to an mSD card as a backup.
Just in case your Cloud decides it wants to mess your photos. Or you accidently do.

BTDT
Click to expand...

I dumped all of my mom's photos to a desktop hard drive + external USB drive as a backup, but I only visit where she lives twice a year or so. Definitely want stuff uploading/backing up automatically as we move forward.

What software do you use to write directly from phone -> SD via lightning?
 
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Files.
Go into Photos.
Once you plug in the dongle with the mSD card, select your photos then via Action Menu > Save to Files and you can select the SD card. It lets you create new folders if needed.
I use a 256gb card.
 
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