I just downloaded photos from icloud and I *swear* they've been compressed. The photos from my older iphone SE were much larger than the ones I just downloaded from my new iphone SE. Please reassure me that icloud stores the original size. (tho I probably won't believe it)
iPhone SE, iOS 13
How are you downloading from iCloud? You can either download the edited version or the unmodified original. And is your iPhone taking the photos in the space saving High Efficiency format or is the Camera.app set to take JPEGs (More Compatible)? The HEIC files will have a smaller file size than the JPEGs of the same quality, because HEIC is giving a better compression.
Is iOS 13 (as shown low your question) your current system version?
To download the original image file in the full resolution, as the iPhone has taken it, try this:
Open the web page www.icloud.com in a browser on your computer and sign in with your iCloud Apple ID. Open the app Photos there. When you select some photo at iCloud in Photos and go to the download button in the toolbar, hover the pointer there to reveal the tiny, hidden "v" below the button. This will reveal a menu, where you can select to download the high resolution unmodified originals. This will give you the file exactly as the Camera has taken it on the iPhone.
How are you downloading from iCloud? You can either download the edited version or the unmodified original. And is your iPhone taking the photos in the space saving High Efficiency format or is the Camera.app set to take JPEGs (More Compatible)? The HEIC files will have a smaller file size than the JPEGs of the same quality, because HEIC is giving a better compression.
Is iOS 13 (as shown low your question) your current system version?
To download the original image file in the full resolution, as the iPhone has taken it, try this:
Open the web page www.icloud.com in a browser on your computer and sign in with your iCloud Apple ID. Open the app Photos there. When you select some photo at iCloud in Photos and go to the download button in the toolbar, hover the pointer there to reveal the tiny, hidden "v" below the button. This will reveal a menu, where you can select to download the high resolution unmodified originals. This will give you the file exactly as the Camera has taken it on the iPhone.
The width of "2048" is suspicious. That is the size of previews and of photos in shared albums, or photos downloaded from My Photo Stream on the iPhone.
How are you downloading from your iPhone and how are you checking the size?
Have you ever saved photos on your iPhone from Shared Albums or saved them on the iPhone from my Photo Stream?
Another possible reason for smaller images is, if you are zooming in with a large zoom factor. The Digital Zoom will give smaller images.
I'm downloading from icloud and checking size after downloading by hovering over the image in Lightroom or over the file in an Explorer window (get the same number).
> Have you ever saved photos on your iPhone from Shared Albums or saved them on the iPhone from my Photo Stream?
No
OK I just did an experiment. I sent myself a full size image from my phone to my email and downloaded it.
(Yesterday I had selected the option for keeping full size photos on my phone.)
The width is 4032. Size 2.63 Mb (MEGAbytes)
I then downloaded the *same* file from icloud. (instantly appeared in icloud)
The width is 2048 size 964 Kb (KILObytes)
icloud is definitely downsampling my photos.
I'm downloading "unmodified original" from icloud.
My camera takes jpegs.
And using ios 14.3
I've checked and my photos from my "old" SE were 4032x3024 pixels and the "new" phone 2048x1536 pixels so something is *very* wrong with the resolution on my "new" SE as it's using about half the sensor size.
I read online that there's a 12 megapixel sensor and these files are like .5 to 1.5 Mp. Those of the old SE were up to 4 Mp. I know this depends on content and jpegs are highly compressed, but something is very wrong with the images from my new SE.
I'd like to do raw if there's a setting for that or if there's an app that's less intensive than lightroom. (I did lightroom for a while on my old phone, but it seemed too complex to get the photos off, but maybe I should give it another try.)
thanks,
Judy
PS What I'd really love to do is be able to connect my phone to my
(windows) desktop and have it show up as a folder. Used to be possible
and reliable, but Apple has managed to kill that option, undoubtedly
punishment for having a non Apple desktop.
photo compression on phone and in icloud
