travismccarra
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: Why does iCloud Photo Library use all my storage

I turned on iCloud Photo Library in my Photos app setting and realized the potential for consolidating all my photos to one system that I could access anywhere. I turned on "Optimize iPhone Storage" and suddenly I had  more space to work with. So I went all in. I have loved 50gB or more of photos to my Photos account and now my iPhone has been routinely telling me that it's low or almost out of storage. Am I missing something?

iPhone 6, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 16, 2015 9:09 PM

Close
travismccarra

Q: Why does iCloud Photo Library use all my storage

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by brenden dv,Helpful

    brenden dv brenden dv Oct 18, 2015 1:37 PM in response to travismccarra
    Community Specialists
    Oct 18, 2015 1:37 PM in response to travismccarra

    Hi travismccarra,

     

    I'm sorry to hear you are having these issues with your iPhone and iCloud Photo Library. When you turn on "Optimize iPhone Storage", iCloud Photo Library will store a smaller, device-optimized version of your full resolution photos on your iPhone, as noted here:

     

    Can I use iCloud Photo Library to save space on my device?

    iCloud Photo Library automatically keeps all your photos and videos in the original, high-resolution version. Follow these steps to choose how you store your photos and videos on your device:

    • On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select a storage setting.
    • On your Mac, click Photos > Preferences > iCloud, then select a storage setting. 

    If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. All of your original, full-resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud while device-size versions are kept on your device. You can download the original photos and videos over Wi-Fi or cellular when you need them. 

    If you turn on Download Originals, iCloud Photo Library will keep your original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and on your device. Download Originals is the default setting for iOS devices with the free 5 GB storage plan and for all Mac devices.

     

    iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

     

    What this means is that while the device-optimized versions do take up much less space that the full versions, they do still take up some amount of space, and a large enough iCloud Photo Library can still end up affecting the overall storage space available on your device. To see how much space is being used on your iPhone by each app or service, you may find the info and steps outlined in this article helpful:

     

    See how much storage you've used on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

     

    Regards

  • by travismccarra,

    travismccarra travismccarra Oct 18, 2015 2:07 PM in response to brenden dv
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 18, 2015 2:07 PM in response to brenden dv

    Right, I understand that. So what you are saying is that Apple has no better solution for this? At some point any large library would essentially consume all of one's iPhone storage with all of the thumbnails?

     

    Currently Photos is taking up 3.1 GB of storage space (about half of the images don't even have the thumbnails loaded), and Messages is taking up 5.5 GB. It's as much of a question about Messages in iCloud as well. It appears messages keeps the latest actually on the phone, loading older parts of a long conversation+photos as you scroll up (I assume through iCould). So if messages is actually optimizing storage through iCloud, how is it possibly consuming so much greater an amount of space when text is not large data to store and the number of images contained in all of my messages number in the hundreds in total, compared to Photos which contains 90,000+ photos?

     

    There have to be better solutions than just waiting to upgrade to a new device that I can spend $200+ more on to have almost as much storage on as I do my iCloud plan. Kinda ridiculous, I'm about to have a second child and I'm not even going to be able to photograph any of the events around his birth on the fly - unless I decouple the iCloud photo library or filter through messages I can delete.