Photos storage not optimize even if it’s toggle on.

Question

Photos storage not optimize even if it’s toggle on.

I toggle on iCloud Photo and selected Optimize IPhone Storage. On my iPhone 12 256GB the storage is optimized and showing only using 36GB for photos. But now on the iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB, it’s showing 76GB for photos with the iCloud Photo on and also selected Optimize IPhone Storage. Now it’s showing I am using 170GB. I was using about 70GB on the iPhone 12 but when I transfer over to iPhone 13, now it’s showing 170GB used…can someone help?

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Sep 26, 2021 1:04 PM

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Answer 1

bailier

Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2021 1:48 PM in response to yhlim_realtor

Welcome to Apple Support Communities yhlim_realtor,

We can definitely understand wanting to optimize your photos with iCloud Photos. According to Set up and use iCloud Photos, when Optimized photos is turned on, they will optimized only when additional space is needed. Check out the section titled " If you need more space".

This would be expected behavior.

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Answer 2

norb240

Level 1

8 points

Oct 4, 2021 12:21 PM in response to yhlim_realtor

There is an absolute bug and Apple is either unaware or not responding to it. I had the exact same issue as yourself after transferring my data on both my wife's and my iPhone X over to our new iPhone 13 pros. I took a screenshot of both my wife's iPhone storage on her X which showed 49gb used and on her 13 pro after being synced showing 185gb being used! Clearly the photos are not being optimized and I reached out to Apple tech support twice and they were clueless on how to fix or even acknowledging the issue is on their end. I did everything from disable iCloud to delete/resetting of the phone and resyncing. After having Apple iPhones for 10 years now, I can definitely say they let me down with this update/upgraded phone.

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Answer 3

Sep 27, 2021 1:57 PM in response to bailier

Thanks for the reply. However at what point would the system consider there is a need for storage optimization? However I don’t quite understand why is it optimized on the IPhone 12 but not on the 13 considering all factors being the same

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Answer 4

Oct 4, 2021 1:18 PM in response to norb240

It has been over 10 days now and my storage has not been optimized. I contacted Apple Tech support, escalated to 2 levels… and was told that this is a normal behavior as the phone was in the process of “indexing” all the photos/videos that was transferred. It will take a day or 2 that was on 9/26. Well, it’s 10/4 and the storage has not decrease at all…. I am sure it’s a big some where…. But I am not able to get any assistance from Apple.

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Photos storage not optimize even if it’s toggle on.

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