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Can't enable icloud photos / icloud photos won't turn on

I upgraded my icloud storage because I didn't have enough storage for a backup of my iphone 7 for quite some time. The new backup was only going to be 3.5 gb because I didn't have icloud photos turned on. I upgraded to 50gb and thought oh good now I can turn on icloud photos. I get the message photos synced from itunes will be removed ...that is fine by me because they are on my macbook. When I click remove photos I get the message icloud photos could not be turned on try again later. OMG this is frustrating....is anything ever as simple as it should be with these things?

I eagerly await any responses!!

iPhone 7

Posted on Apr 11, 2019 3:34 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 12, 2019 5:29 PM

Hello Kat2007,


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!


I understand from your post that you have not been able to turn on iCloud Photos. Make sure that everything is set up properly for iCloud as described in the article below:


Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Best Regards.

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6 replies

Apr 13, 2019 7:08 AM in response to Kat2007

Kat2007,


You do not have to have iCloud Photos enabled on all of your devices if you do not wish to see your photos from each of your devices across all of your devices. If iCloud Photos is enabled on your iPhone, after you restore your backup from your old iPhone to your new iPhone and sign into iCloud on the new iPhone, your photos will sync to your new iPhone.


If you do not turn on iCloud Photos, your Photos will be stored in your backup file and will transfer over to the new iPhone when you restore your backup file from the old iPhone to the new iPhone. This article will explain what each type of backup saves which you may find helpful:


How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support


Take Care.

Apr 13, 2019 12:12 PM in response to Kat2007

Kat2007,


If iCloud Photos is not enabled, then your photos will be saved in your iCloud or iTunes backup and will restore to your new iPhone when you restore that backup to your new iPhone. You may want to check and see if you have any restrictions set up if you cannot enabled iCloud Photos.


Use parental controls on your child's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support


Regards.

Apr 12, 2019 6:09 PM in response to CarlAVII

Thanks Allen A!

I read that article and I actually think I was a bit confused about the whole iCloud photo thing. I wasn’t interested in being able to have all my photos on all my devices....I thought this is what I had to do to make sure my current iPhone photos were transferred to my new phone when I set the new phone up.


That being said do I need iCloud photos turned on on all my devices in order to turn it on on my iPhone? I wasn’t clear from the article if you have to turn it on each device in a certain order. It just doesn’t make sense to me why I can’t just turn it on on my iPhone although it doesn’t make much sense if I am not going to be accessing the photos across devices.


Am I correct in thinking that having photo library turned on as one of the items to include in the iCloud backup will ensure that the photos get transferred when I restore my new phone from iCloud?



Can't enable icloud photos / icloud photos won't turn on

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