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iCloud photos

I am trying to backup my data to transfer it to my new iPhone but my photos takes up only 2.2 GB even though I have almost 10,000 photos. So I am wondering if the photos are already backed up or maybe it’s compressed because of the ‘optimise iPhone storage’?

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 14

Posted on Sep 29, 2020 8:27 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 29, 2020 10:52 AM

When you are connected to WiFi and electrical power, open the Photos app and it show status as UPDATING. This will tell you that the photos are uploading to iCloud. Your iPhone will do that automatically. Best time is when you go to sleep and the iPhone is charging and on WiFi. There are a lot of photos and it may take several hours to days.


Axel F.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 29, 2020 10:52 AM in response to mirzauwu

When you are connected to WiFi and electrical power, open the Photos app and it show status as UPDATING. This will tell you that the photos are uploading to iCloud. Your iPhone will do that automatically. Best time is when you go to sleep and the iPhone is charging and on WiFi. There are a lot of photos and it may take several hours to days.


Axel F.

Sep 29, 2020 8:37 AM in response to mirzauwu

The Optimize iPhone Storage feature stores low resolution (Less Disk Space) photos on your iPhone while it stores full resolution (original file size) photos on iCloud.

Your screen shot shows the status of your iCloud storage. For 10,000 photos, 2.2GB storage space is low. What is happening is that your 10,000 original resolution photos are being uploaded to iCloud while converting them to low resolution on your iPhone. This way your disk space is optimized and will create some free space on your iPhone. There are 10,000 photos in all and it will take some time. Note that the process of uploading and converting will only continue while the iPhone is connected to electrical power AND a WiFi Network.


Axel F.

iCloud photos

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