GrantP1991
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Q: Trying to backup only my photos onto iCloud,

Hi, I have looked at other divisions but cannot get help to my problem. I want to upload my pictures only into the iCloud so when I get my new phone tomorrow I can put them onto it nice and easy, but standard you get 5gb of days to use, my pictures were 5.5gb so was to much, so deleted 400 pictures thinking this would be enough to reduce it enough to be below the 5gb so I could back them up, but when I went back in to my settings to look it was still at 5.5gb. I have tried resetting my phone, deleting more pictures and I don't want to back them up to my laptop as it's broken.

 

Any help would be much appreciated !

 

Grant

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.1.1

Posted on Jun 16, 2014 5:19 PM

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GrantP1991

Q: Trying to backup only my photos onto iCloud,

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  • Helpful answers

  • by randers4,

    randers4 randers4 Jun 16, 2014 5:24 PM in response to GrantP1991
    Level 9 (62,891 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 5:24 PM in response to GrantP1991

    If you deleted photo stream photos that wouldn't reduce your iCloud storage as photo stream photos are not stored in your iCloud account.  Also, only camera roll photos are backed up, so to reduce the size fo your backup you would need to delete photos from your camera roll. 

     

    If you need to reduce your storage, this article provides some suggestions: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4847.  In addition to what is mentioned in the article, if you have lots of photos and videos in your text messages deleting them may significantly reduce the size of your backup.

  • by GrantP1991,

    GrantP1991 GrantP1991 Jun 16, 2014 5:33 PM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 5:33 PM in response to randers4

    Thank for the response, yes that is what I have done, deleted 400 camera photos from my phone and the size is not going down at all,?

  • by randers4,

    randers4 randers4 Jun 16, 2014 5:34 PM in response to GrantP1991
    Level 9 (62,891 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 5:34 PM in response to GrantP1991

    Try resetting the phone by holding the power and home buttons at the same time until you see the Apple logo, then release.  After it restarts, check again to see if the estimated size of the backup went down.

  • by GrantP1991,

    GrantP1991 GrantP1991 Jun 16, 2014 5:36 PM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 5:36 PM in response to randers4

    As I said in my original comment I have tried this, still nothing?

  • by randers4,

    randers4 randers4 Jun 16, 2014 5:42 PM in response to GrantP1991
    Level 9 (62,891 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 5:42 PM in response to GrantP1991

    I wasn't sure you reset it after deleting the photos.  If you haven't, try that.

     

    If you have, check Settings>General>Usage>Photos & Camera>Camera Roll and compare that to the size of the camera roll under Backup Options in Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup>Manage Storage>your device.  Be sure to wait for the spinning progress wheel to stop before reading the estimate.  Are the two estimates reasonably close?

  • by GrantP1991,

    GrantP1991 GrantP1991 Jun 16, 2014 5:49 PM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 5:49 PM in response to randers4

    Yep already tried and tried again there, yeah the estimates are the exact same, 5.5gb and that is after me deleting a lot off pictures, any other suggestions ?

     

    Thanks for the help

  • by randers4,

    randers4 randers4 Jun 16, 2014 6:00 PM in response to GrantP1991
    Level 9 (62,891 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 6:00 PM in response to GrantP1991

    You're welcome.

     

    Something doesn't sound right.  Are you sure you deleted them from the camera roll and not photo stream, or from an album rather than the camera roll (albums don't contain actual photos, just links to the photos in the camera roll)?

     

    As mentioned earlier, if you have lots of photos & videos in your text messages, deleting these could help significatly as well.

     

    BTW, if it were me, I would never try to store that many photos in a backup and make that my only backup source.  Too many people have run into problems restoring photos from a backup, and some have lost all of them.  If you don't have a computer to store them on I would consider uploading them to another cloud service, such as a Dropbox account.  Also, it's going to take quite a while to upload that many photos.  Remember that your upload speed is quite a bit slower than your download speed.

  • by GrantP1991,

    GrantP1991 GrantP1991 Jun 16, 2014 6:21 PM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 6:21 PM in response to randers4

    Yes I am sure that it is pictures from camera roll I am deleting, it's the only thing I are about on my phone and that is why I am so determined to do it but just cannot seem to reduce the size of them ? Running out of options now

  • by randers4,

    randers4 randers4 Jun 16, 2014 6:30 PM in response to GrantP1991
    Level 9 (62,891 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 6:30 PM in response to GrantP1991

    The only options I can suggest are:

     

    1. Buy more storage (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4874)
    2. Upload them to a different service (such as Dropbox)
    3. If you can live with somewhat lower resolution photos (approx. 3.1-3.5 megapixels), add them to shared streams (http://help.apple.com/icloud/#/mmc0cd7e99).  Each shared stream can hold up to 5000 photos and will remain in iCloud indefinitly until deleted.  They will appear on your new phone when you sign back in, and you can save them to your camera roll or just leave them in the shared stream.  Shared streams don't use any of your iCloud account storage.

  • by GrantP1991,

    GrantP1991 GrantP1991 Jun 16, 2014 6:44 PM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 6:44 PM in response to randers4

    Ok thanks a lot for the help, all the best

  • by randers4,

    randers4 randers4 Jun 16, 2014 6:45 PM in response to GrantP1991
    Level 9 (62,891 points)
    Jun 16, 2014 6:45 PM in response to GrantP1991

    You too.  Good luck.