Optimised Photo Storage & iCloud.......

[Ifti]

Background:
So I currently pay for the 200GB iCloud subscription.
It is used to backup 4 iPhones in the family - all share the iCloud storage I pay for via family sharing.
We do not use iCloud Drive etc - literally just use it to keep our iPhones backed up.

We do not use the Photo backup either.
Recently I noticed the storage was 150GB out of 200GB used - all by backups.
Upon further investigation it seems my daughters iPhone had iCloud Photos switched on, with 40GB worth of photos being uploaded!
Optimised photos was enabled on her handset.

I switched off the setting and a day later she came to me literally crying saying all her photos had been deleted and were no longer on her phone.
After some panic I realise they were all uploaded to her iCloud account (which is linked via family sharing to my iCloud storage) and by switching iCloud photos back on they all downloaded straight back to her phone. It's a 64GB phone so have left optimised storage on.

Quite impressive.

So, I'm now considering going for the 2TB iCloud Storage instead and backing up all photos on all handsets in the same way. I know other alternatives are available for photos but I'd rather have all backups securely in one iCloud storage space for now.

Question:
I understand how optimisation works - by storing a lower quality image on the iPhone and the original high quality image in iCloud.
However, how exactly does this work?
If a photo is emailed or messaged to someone else, will it send the high quality version or the low quality version?
In essence, when does the handset use the high and low quality versions of the image?

 

[Paddle1]

I believe as soon as you open a photo while connected to wifi or data the full quality version is loaded and temporarily saved to the device.

If there's no internet connection and the image wasn't already temporarily saved to the device the low quality image will appear. Videos will not play offline if they haven't been temporarily saved.

The temporary saving happens both when an image was recently opened or just created. Additionally, when sharing images in the Photos app it will first download the high quality versions if needed before sending. I'm not sure if this happens if the photo is sent from within another app.

 

[contacos]

It also depends on how much space is left on your device. If you still have plenty of space, it will keep more photos in full quality on the device itself. otherwise it "learns" which photos you also check more often and will leave those on the device while keeping the HQ copy of all the others on the cloud.

 

[Ifti]

Thanks guys - I have plenty of space on my handset, as does the other half, so we will store full res images locally on handsets.
My daughter only has a 64GB model which is fast filing, but with optimized photos on it really makes a big difference. So that should do her (and saves me the hassle of listening to "I need a new phone because my storage is finished"!).

 

[cynics]

Question:
I understand how optimisation works - by storing a lower quality image on the iPhone and the original high quality image in iCloud.
However, how exactly does this work?
If a photo is emailed or messaged to someone else, will it send the high quality version or the low quality version?
In essence, when does the handset use the high and low quality versions of the image?

Low res version are only used for previews in albums and share tab. Anything else downloads the full version including emailing, messaging, even just viewing images full screen.

You'll see a loading icon at the bottom of the image when you are viewing the low res version and network conditions are preventing immediate update to high res. On a fast network its invisible.

 

[Ifti]

Much clearer, thanks guys!