Hi, I recently deleted all of my photos from the Photos app, after backing up to iCloud and Amazon photos and yet the app seems to still be taking up 2.79gb of space - if there are no photos stored, why is so much storage being used? Not even big games take up that much storage. I listen to a lot of music on the phone and could do with freeing up nearly 3gb of space
iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 16
One caution - if iCloud Photos is enabled on the iPhone, the iCloud backup of the iPhone does no longer contain the photos (What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support). Using iCloud Photos makes it harder to get a backup of the photos at all. The iCloud backup will no longer include the photos and videos and even the backup on a computer can only save the photos and videos that have been downloaded to the iPhone, not the "optimized" photos, where the originals have been removed to iCloud.
With iCloud Photos enabled we have to save the photos regularly manually on a computer by downloading them from iCloud, as the easy backup methods are no longer saving the photos. So do not delete any photos from your your devices that are important to you, unless you have checked, that you are having at least one copy of the photo on a computer plus a safety copy.
To save storage on your devices the only way to do this without loosing the photos, is the "Optimize Storage" option for iCloud on a Mac or iPhone. iCloud will remove automatically high resolution originals from the iPhone, when the device has no longer sufficient free storage. This can reduce the amount of storage used your your photos to 10% of the size used in iCloud. But you will still need the storage for the optimized versions. You cannot remove the photos completely from your iPhone using iCloud. Let the iPhone and iCloud manage the storage an do not delete photos yourself, unless they are not worth keeping.
One caution - if iCloud Photos is enabled on the iPhone, the iCloud backup of the iPhone does no longer contain the photos (What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support). Using iCloud Photos makes it harder to get a backup of the photos at all. The iCloud backup will no longer include the photos and videos and even the backup on a computer can only save the photos and videos that have been downloaded to the iPhone, not the "optimized" photos, where the originals have been removed to iCloud.
With iCloud Photos enabled we have to save the photos regularly manually on a computer by downloading them from iCloud, as the easy backup methods are no longer saving the photos. So do not delete any photos from your your devices that are important to you, unless you have checked, that you are having at least one copy of the photo on a computer plus a safety copy.
To save storage on your devices the only way to do this without loosing the photos, is the "Optimize Storage" option for iCloud on a Mac or iPhone. iCloud will remove automatically high resolution originals from the iPhone, when the device has no longer sufficient free storage. This can reduce the amount of storage used your your photos to 10% of the size used in iCloud. But you will still need the storage for the optimized versions. You cannot remove the photos completely from your iPhone using iCloud. Let the iPhone and iCloud manage the storage an do not delete photos yourself, unless they are not worth keeping.
Although I don't use iCloud library on either my iMac or iPhone the syncing feature is the same. You may lose all of the photos online in 30 days.
Are you backing up your entire phone to iCloud? If so then you can keep the photos up there but if you do another backup it may overwrite the previous backup containing the photos. I'm not well versed in that.
Be aware that the iCloud Library is not an off computer storage facility. It's a syncing service and any changes made in the local library will be reflected in the iCloud library and that includes deletions. It will keep the photos in the iCloud library for 30 days before making the changers.
Also how did you do the deleting from your local library? Did you go into the Recently Deleted album and complete the deletion. If you don't they will stay in that album for 30 days before being deleted completely.
Did you also delete these photos permanently in “Recently deleted”?
yes, emptied that folder too
I just deleted all the photos in the app and then emptied the recently deleted photos, also within the app
Opps! You're referring to your iPhone and not your Photos library on a Mac, right? Do you have a Photos library on a Mac? My previous comments were in regards to a Photos library on a Mac.
Yes, just the phone. I only have one laptop and that’s a Chromebook on which I store very few files.
How much storage does the Photos app take up?
