Does turning off and deleting stuff from iCloud save space?

I have a 64GB iPhone 11, and I have to update my phone, and I am wondering if all of data including apps, pictures, and videos will be erased.

iPhone 11, iOS 17

Posted on Dec 20, 2023 12:45 PM

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Posted on Dec 20, 2023 2:37 PM

iCloud is a sync service; that is, everything in iCloud is replicated on every device that is logged in to the same iCloud ID. Anything you add on any device is added to all devices, anything you delete from iCloud is deleted from all devices.


If you need space on your iPhone and you sync (not back up) photos to iCloud you can enable Optimized Storage; this will convert images in Photos to lower resolution (and thus smaller) files, but keep the full resolution in iCloud.


Also, when you update, the process will try to make space by deleting apps, then reloading them after the update completes.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 20, 2023 2:37 PM in response to travelingwoman333

iCloud is a sync service; that is, everything in iCloud is replicated on every device that is logged in to the same iCloud ID. Anything you add on any device is added to all devices, anything you delete from iCloud is deleted from all devices.


If you need space on your iPhone and you sync (not back up) photos to iCloud you can enable Optimized Storage; this will convert images in Photos to lower resolution (and thus smaller) files, but keep the full resolution in iCloud.


Also, when you update, the process will try to make space by deleting apps, then reloading them after the update completes.

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Does turning off and deleting stuff from iCloud save space?

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