iCloud Backup Issues

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iCloud Backup Issues

My wife's phone wasn't being backed up for over a year because she had too many photos. I downloaded and deleted thousands of photos from iCloud which freed up enough space (70GB).

I ran a backup of her phone overnight. It says it was last backed up this morning and the newer photos are appearing in iCloud.

However:

The photos in iCloud appear to be small (under 1MB)
If she opens Photos on her phone, it says "Updates Paused. Not Enough iCloud Storage". I received an email this morning saying our shared iCloud was nearly full and I checked and it was.
If I go to our iCloud storage now, it says it still has 70GB free. It only appears to have backed up 5GB worth of data (hence why the photos are so small I guess)

Any ideas what's happening?

Posted on Nov 23, 2022 8:17 AM

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Answer 1

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rgraves Author

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Nov 24, 2022 6:10 AM in response to rgraves

I think I've figured it out. Looks like the Backup was successfull but it only uploaded small versions of every photo. I went into General -> iPhone Storage and it said iCloud Photos was at 1%. I went into the Photos app where it had paused uploading. I got it to resume uploading photos and it seems to be working now.

It's slow given the number of photos, but the iCloud Photos is now at 26% and my iCloud Storage is gradually decreasing so everything seems to be working... at least for now.

Not sure why it told me yesterday that my iCloud Storage was full when it wasn't, but hopefully this will finish properly in the next day or two.

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Answer 2

rgraves Author

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27 points

Nov 23, 2022 8:41 AM in response to rgraves

She has iCloud Photos enabled with Optimize iPhone Storage set. My understanding was that would keep the large photos in iCloud, not smaller <1MB files.

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iCloud Backup Issues

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