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Why are the images on iPhone or in iCloud show image size over 2X as compared to the downloaded images?

I have been using PhotoSync to transfer photos to my PC from my iPhone and I was somewhat concerned when I noticed the image size was less than half than what is on my iPhone. I first thought PhotoSync has compressing the files but looking at the settings it is set to download original size. In the example below, the iphone shows my image size is 6.7MB which is also what is shows when I look at the same photo in iCloud. When I use iCloud or PhotoSync to download the image to my PC, the image size is only 2.99MB. When I look in the iCloud Photos folder synchronized to my windows PC, it also shows an image size of 2.99 MB. Why would this be? The conspiracy theorist in me is that Apple is artificially inflating the size of the photos to consume more iphone storage / iCloud space but there has to be a better explanation. Thoughts?



iPhone 12 Pro Max

Posted on Apr 28, 2024 6:42 PM

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User profile for user: Shooter-71
Shooter-71 Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

Posted on Apr 29, 2024 5:00 AM

I determined what the reason and since I cannot delete my post, I add the explanation here for others.


This issue is only happening when I am taking photos in the Portrait mode on the camera. There is an option within iCloud.com that allows you to download the photo as Unmodified Originals which would be the photo without the blurred background in the Portrait mode at the 6.7 MB. If you download the photo directly from your phone connected to lightning cable like it is a drive, it also download the Unmodified Original. When I am using PhotoSync of iCloud Photos to transfer the photo to my PC, there is not option to select to download the Unmodified Original or the Modified (Portrait modification) so it downloads the final modified version to your PC that has the smaller size. For a standard photo that is take with no Portrait Setting, then the photos are transferred and they are all the same size. I assume this will be the same if you do other modifications to a photo light light affects, cropping, etc but I have not yet verified that.

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User profile for user: Shooter-71
Shooter-71 Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

Apr 29, 2024 5:00 AM in response to Shooter-71

I determined what the reason and since I cannot delete my post, I add the explanation here for others.


This issue is only happening when I am taking photos in the Portrait mode on the camera. There is an option within iCloud.com that allows you to download the photo as Unmodified Originals which would be the photo without the blurred background in the Portrait mode at the 6.7 MB. If you download the photo directly from your phone connected to lightning cable like it is a drive, it also download the Unmodified Original. When I am using PhotoSync of iCloud Photos to transfer the photo to my PC, there is not option to select to download the Unmodified Original or the Modified (Portrait modification) so it downloads the final modified version to your PC that has the smaller size. For a standard photo that is take with no Portrait Setting, then the photos are transferred and they are all the same size. I assume this will be the same if you do other modifications to a photo light light affects, cropping, etc but I have not yet verified that.

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Why are the images on iPhone or in iCloud show image size over 2X as compared to the downloaded images?

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