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Monthly charges and location of my photos

I can not find my photos that I am paying for on the cloud (two bills $.99;$2.99).

Posted on Mar 29, 2023 11:02 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 29, 2023 11:22 AM

If you have iCloud Photos turned on, your photos should be on all of the devices where that is turned on and also on www.icloud.com in the Photos app there.


If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on but are doing iCloud Backups, your photos should be included in the backups. You cannot view the contents of an iCloud Backup at iCloud.com. You can only use the backup to do a full restore of a device or to setup a new device.


Unless you are paying for iCloud storage for two different Apple IDs you shouldn't have two bills for iCloud storage. If you have verified that is what the bills are for you may want to contact Apple Support: Contact - Official Apple Support


More information about photos:


iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See the following Apple article for more information: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.



1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 29, 2023 11:22 AM in response to SGKC

If you have iCloud Photos turned on, your photos should be on all of the devices where that is turned on and also on www.icloud.com in the Photos app there.


If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on but are doing iCloud Backups, your photos should be included in the backups. You cannot view the contents of an iCloud Backup at iCloud.com. You can only use the backup to do a full restore of a device or to setup a new device.


Unless you are paying for iCloud storage for two different Apple IDs you shouldn't have two bills for iCloud storage. If you have verified that is what the bills are for you may want to contact Apple Support: Contact - Official Apple Support


More information about photos:


iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See the following Apple article for more information: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.



Monthly charges and location of my photos

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