I am upgrading my Icloud subscription to 200GB and I am syncing my 50 gb of photos to it. So after the syncing is done will there be enough space on my phone or should I delete the photos after syncing and there will be space? and after I delete it do I need to restore the photos or how do I access them again?
Please give me a detailed reply.
iPhone 15, iOS 18
As Ingo2711 says, iCloud Photos doesn't behave like an external drive-- it's not a place you can put pictures for extra space or as a backup. iCloud is a synchronization service. When you engage iCloud Photos, for instance, then the Library on your iPhone is kept exactly the same as the iCloud Photos Library. So, for instance, if you take a picture with your iPhone, it is added to the iPhone's Photos Library, copied to iCloud Photos Library at iCloud.com, and then copied to the Photos Library on each of the other devices that you have connected. If you delete a picture on your phone, then that picture is deleted at iCloud and on all the other devices. So you can't think of iCloud Photos as a full backup service, since it backs up mistakes just as quickly as it copies pictures.
With iCloud, you can use Optimize Storage on your iPhone or other Apple devices. Many kinds of storage can be optimized, but Optimizing Photos storage is especially useful. At System Settings>[name]>iCloud>Photos:
If you set Photos to "Optimize Storage,"on your iPhone, then Photos may store only smaller images on the phone and rely on iCloud to keep the full sized images. This is great, since with the lower resolution images you can scan through pictures very quickly, and they look great on the iPhone screen. So, if Optimize is chosen, and you want to edit a picture, Photos will reach out to iCloud to get a full sized image for you to work on. Your optimized Library may take up less than 15% of the space of a fully downloaded Library, but you can still see all the pictures on your phone! But an optimized Library may be kept larger than that if the extra storage space is not needed. All this happens automatically and transparently, so you may not even notice that you have Optimize turned on.
Again, as Ingo2711, said, you still need to back up your pictures to an external drive or to a computer.
As Ingo2711 says, iCloud Photos doesn't behave like an external drive-- it's not a place you can put pictures for extra space or as a backup. iCloud is a synchronization service. When you engage iCloud Photos, for instance, then the Library on your iPhone is kept exactly the same as the iCloud Photos Library. So, for instance, if you take a picture with your iPhone, it is added to the iPhone's Photos Library, copied to iCloud Photos Library at iCloud.com, and then copied to the Photos Library on each of the other devices that you have connected. If you delete a picture on your phone, then that picture is deleted at iCloud and on all the other devices. So you can't think of iCloud Photos as a full backup service, since it backs up mistakes just as quickly as it copies pictures.
With iCloud, you can use Optimize Storage on your iPhone or other Apple devices. Many kinds of storage can be optimized, but Optimizing Photos storage is especially useful. At System Settings>[name]>iCloud>Photos:
If you set Photos to "Optimize Storage,"on your iPhone, then Photos may store only smaller images on the phone and rely on iCloud to keep the full sized images. This is great, since with the lower resolution images you can scan through pictures very quickly, and they look great on the iPhone screen. So, if Optimize is chosen, and you want to edit a picture, Photos will reach out to iCloud to get a full sized image for you to work on. Your optimized Library may take up less than 15% of the space of a fully downloaded Library, but you can still see all the pictures on your phone! But an optimized Library may be kept larger than that if the extra storage space is not needed. All this happens automatically and transparently, so you may not even notice that you have Optimize turned on.
Again, as Ingo2711, said, you still need to back up your pictures to an external drive or to a computer.
Using iCloud Photos as a backup of your photos is not an option.
iCloud Photos will sync all photos to all connected devices and changes made will also sync. In your case, deleting photos on your iPhone will also remove the photos from iCloud.
Have a look at the related article:
Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
To back up your photos stored in iCloud, transfer the photos to your computer, and then remove them from iCloud or your iPhone to create more free space.
Archive or make copies of your iCloud data - Apple Support
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iCloud Photos uses your iCloud storage to keep all of your photos and videos up to date across your devices. You can make more space in iCloud when you delete photos and videos that you no longer need from the Photos app on any of your devices.
Before you delete anything, make sure that you back up the photos and videos that you still want. When you use iCloud Photos and delete a photo or video on one device, it's also deleted on all other devices where you're signed in with the same Apple Account.
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copied from: Manage your iCloud storage on your Apple device - Apple Support
Syncing photos to my upgraded ICloud
