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applowicz Author

Level 1

8 points

Full iPhone memory despite having 2 Terabytes on iCloud

Hello, I have an iPhone 12 with a capacity of 128 GB. Currently, almost all memory is occupied (127.6 GB). Photos and videos take 50 GB, notes 20 GB, the rest is taken by applications, on the iPhone I only have 5 GB of files and documents. I have 500 GB out of 2 Terabytes on my iCloud drive (I purchased a subscription).

And now the question: when buying a subscription, I counted that the iPhone would transfer photos to iCloud and free the memory on the iPhone itself (I have the option of automatically sending photos to iCloud and the option "optimize iPhone disk").

At the bottom of the photos.

Going to Settings> General> iPhone (location) next to "iCloud Photos" is "1%".

Does this mean that the iPhone did not transfer the photos? What could be the reason?

Basically how do I free up memory on my iPhone? I have two Terabytes on iCloud and still have a clogged iPhone.

Is the only option to manually send all photos to iCloud or another drive, such as one drive and delete them from the iPhone, or should the iPhone automatically transfer all photos to iCloud (after all, there is 1.5 Terabyte free)?

I will be grateful for your help, Thank you.

Posted on Apr 20, 2022 8:00 AM

Best reply

shoeluvr13

Level 6

17,101 points

Posted on Apr 20, 2022 9:59 AM

iCloud and physical iPhone storage are separate. You’ll want to follow steps at What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? - Apple Support (EG)

iCloud Photo is not a backup it’s designed to sync only. If you delete from one device it deleted from iCloud and all other devices with it on. This is explained further under “How iCloud Photos works“ at Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

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Full iPhone memory despite having 2 Terabytes on iCloud

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