Turn off iCloud photos - number is less than total

[petererr]

Assuming you have 5000 photos in yours iPhone and they are all in iCloud photos too.

Has anyone noticed this: when you turn off iCloud photos, it prompts xxxx photos and videos will be removed from this iPhone. These photos and videos will remain in iCloud Photos.

However the xxx number is always less than the total number of photos, i.e., < 5000 in my example.

I've observed this many many times in different iPhone and iCloud accounts and it's super confusing?

 

[MacManTexas56]

what's the fascination with everyone turning off iCloud photos all the sudden? lol

 

[petererr]

Put away your ignorant "lol".

Before this is causing other bigger issues. For example, restoring from a backup for a new phone and observing your iphone is uploading 20000 of your photos into iCloud and reporing iCloud is out of space, whereas ALL your photos should be in the iCloud already.

People like me narrow the issue down to the OP. It'd be easier to discuss a simplified and easier to reproduced issue.

 

[MacManTexas56]

it's a legit question....why do people keep turning it off?

 

[mmkerc]

I think the opposite question is valid as well, why use iCloud photos? Like petererr I notice the same anomaly, then when upgrading my overall system I found that I was missing some photos. Because of these reasons, and that I generally do not like using the cloud as a default, I have iCloud photos turns off. With the inexpensive cost of external harddrives why would anyone store everything on the cloud.

As far as the original question, as noted I have seen the same issue. I did not try to resolve it, my solution is to copy all photos to an external drive, and only copy photos I want on multiple platforms to the cloud.

 

[one more]

I think the opposite question is valid as well, why use iCloud photos? Like petererr I notice the same anomaly, then when upgrading my overall system I found that I was missing some photos. Because of these reasons, and that I generally do not like using the cloud as a default, I have iCloud photos turns off. With the inexpensive cost of external harddrives why would anyone store everything on the cloud.

As far as the original question, as noted I have seen the same issue. I did not try to resolve it, my solution is to copy all photos to an external drive, and only copy photos I want on multiple platforms to the cloud.

Storing anything in a cloud (when it works well) is a very convenient way to synchronise your content across multiple devices and reduce your local storage needs. Sure, we can also use local HDDs, NAS solutions, etc. to keep our stuff, but this requires some extra organisation and regular backing up.