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iCloud photos/backup - changing phone

Hi, I’m upgrading my phone from a 6s to a XS, but the storage is downsizing from 128GB to 64GB.


Let’s call the old iPhone ‘phone A’ and the new (64GB) iPhone ‘phone B’.


On Phone A I have 77GB of photos. This won’t fit at all on Phone B. I bought iCloud for the first time, and have enabled backups and photo library to help me move across.


1) If I wipe phone A, or delete it’s data, will the iCloud library sync and thus delete my photos?

2) Will iCloud know not to fill my new phone with old pics?


I want to save my pictures and films in the cloud only - my new phone has very little space, and my old phone is going to be factory reset once I’ve transitioned. How do you transition and downsize safely?

Posted on May 26, 2021 6:23 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 27, 2021 12:46 PM

You cannot use iCloud photo and not store all the photos on your device. iCloud photo is a sync service, not an archive service. Any changes made are made on the device and in iCloud. That includes deletions.


To be sure you have those photo’s securely archived somewhere, I would actually transfer them to a computer to have a safe archival copy. Because you cannot use iCloud photo for 77GBs of photos with a 64GB device. The device will run out of free storage and be useless when you turn on iCloud photo on it and it tries to sync all those photos.


You will also, btw, not be able to set up that new device with your iCloud backup. You cannot restore a backup from a device with larger storage to a device with less storage.


Since your usage is well beyond 64GB, you’re creating a lot of issues by buying a device with such little storage to replace a device which has much more.

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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 27, 2021 12:46 PM in response to BaldrickG

You cannot use iCloud photo and not store all the photos on your device. iCloud photo is a sync service, not an archive service. Any changes made are made on the device and in iCloud. That includes deletions.


To be sure you have those photo’s securely archived somewhere, I would actually transfer them to a computer to have a safe archival copy. Because you cannot use iCloud photo for 77GBs of photos with a 64GB device. The device will run out of free storage and be useless when you turn on iCloud photo on it and it tries to sync all those photos.


You will also, btw, not be able to set up that new device with your iCloud backup. You cannot restore a backup from a device with larger storage to a device with less storage.


Since your usage is well beyond 64GB, you’re creating a lot of issues by buying a device with such little storage to replace a device which has much more.

May 27, 2021 12:32 PM in response to BaldrickG

Hi BaldrickG,


Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. We understand that you will be upgrading your iPhone and downsizing from 128 GB and 64 GB and you have some questions about deleting the old iPhone and keeping the iCloud data. For additional information we recommend you visit the Apple Support articles Move from your current iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a lower capacity device and What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


We hope this information helps.


Take care.

May 27, 2021 5:15 PM in response to BaldrickG

You're welcome. It is really easy to transfer photos from an iPhone to a laptop/desktop computer -> Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support (its pretty much the same thing as transferring from any other digital camera). I have never used iCloud for photos and always keep them on a hard drive (which in turn is backed up) so I can control what is on any of my iPhones or iPads.


You can also transfer them to other online archival storage like Google Photos or Dropbox, but I have never actually done that (but there should be good online instructions).

May 27, 2021 4:54 PM in response to Michael Black

Thank you Michael Black!!


This confirmed my fears, especially about second device becoming immediately full - you explain it all very clearly. I was hoping to use iCloud to ‘offload’ photos from my devices, but thanks for explaining exactly why that wouldn’t work. Also thanks for the backup tip. In some ways this simplifies things - I’ll start afresh!


As for the note on 64 vs 128 - most of my old storage was taken up by photos. Without 4 years of pictures, I’ll easily manage with 64GB; iCloud backups may not work but it will still transfer my contacts and notes etc.

iCloud photos/backup - changing phone

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