We currently move our iPhone travel photos in dropbox but the location and information of the photo is not maintained. I would like to start storing our travel photos, especially in iCloud. However, this will eat up all my iPhone and iPad storage because both sync to iCloud. Is there a setting or a way around this?
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 26
Use the Optimized Storage option for your Photos in iCloud. That way only the smaller thumbnails are stored on your device and not the full resolution photos that would quickly eat up your device storage. Only the full resolution photo is then downloaded from iCloud when needed for printing or editing and will offload automatically when the storage space is needed. When viewing the photos on your device, it does not need the full resolution version of the photo, so it is not required to have the full size photo on your device just to view it.
Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
Just for a comparison, I have 3,000 photos on my iPhone that only uses 600MB of storage and in iCloud those same photos account for 5.8GB of storage. If I were to be running out of storage space on my iPhone, the amount of storage used by Photos would be even less. That is all handled automatically.
Use the Optimized Storage option for your Photos in iCloud. That way only the smaller thumbnails are stored on your device and not the full resolution photos that would quickly eat up your device storage. Only the full resolution photo is then downloaded from iCloud when needed for printing or editing and will offload automatically when the storage space is needed. When viewing the photos on your device, it does not need the full resolution version of the photo, so it is not required to have the full size photo on your device just to view it.
Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
Just for a comparison, I have 3,000 photos on my iPhone that only uses 600MB of storage and in iCloud those same photos account for 5.8GB of storage. If I were to be running out of storage space on my iPhone, the amount of storage used by Photos would be even less. That is all handled automatically.
jlgaliette wrote:
We currently move our iPhone travel photos in dropbox but the location and information of the photo is not maintained. I would like to start storing our travel photos, especially in iCloud. However, this will eat up all my iPhone and iPad storage because both sync to iCloud. Is there a setting or a way around this?
See if google photos will work for you https://www.google.com/intl/en/photos/about/
It keeps the same date/time/location as your camera roll, I don't use description so I can't speak on that.
Thanks for your response but that doesn’t work. It doesn’t upload the caption. Also, in an iPhoto, it lists the name of the location, e.g Statue of Liberty. In Google Photos, it just has a map of NYC with the location pinned.
jlgaliette wrote:
I already had optimize turned on. My numbers are not nearly as dramatic as yours. On my iPad I have 273 Photos and use 726 MB. Those same photos use 1 GB in iCloud.
How much free storage space do you have on your iPad? With enough storage space there is no incentive to offload photos.
Thanks I will try
I already had optimize turned on. My numbers are not nearly as dramatic as yours. On my iPad I have 273 Photos and use 726 MB. Those same photos use 1 GB in iCloud.
I have 64 GB and 10 GB free. When we travel, in a month, I take probably 1000 photos in a month so that storage diminishes quickly.
iCloud photo storage and sync to iPhone
