My iPhone storage is full, could that be why Photos are not syncing?

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Level 1

8 points

My iPhone storage is full, could that be why Photos are not syncing?

I have a 16gb iPhone 5s, I have a 200GB iCloud storage (167 GB available). The local storage on my iPhone is full.

I subscribed to Apple Music and I set up iCloud Photo Library, optimising iPhone storage, to save space and this worked at first. Now the space taken up by photos has doubled. Seeing that photos were taking up such a big share I went through my iPhone a deleted some - no difference. I went on to my MacBook Air and deleted a thousand photos and could see no difference on my phone and noticed at this point that my phone was not in sync with my Mac.

Do I need to deactivate iCloud Library and then reactivate it, losing the photos that I have taken since the last sync?

When I take HDR pics I do not save the normal photo.

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Mar 28, 2016 1:47 AM

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Answer 1

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Mar 28, 2016 4:12 AM in response to Jon-Scot

If you deleting stuff and it does not reflect on the phone storage it is too late to make settings changes on the phone. What helps to create a backup and restore from that backup. Then library in 90 percent cases will be able to optimize itself and then you should be OK for a while.

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Answer 2

Jon-Scot Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2016 4:19 AM in response to fromsouth

Thanks very much.

I noticed that on my iPad I have not selected "Upload to my Photo Stream", yet none the less photos I have taken on my iPad sync with my my iCloud Library. Might it help if I deselect "Upload to my Photo Stream" from my iPhone?

In the long run I need to buy a new iPhone. Between my iCloud storage plan, iTunes Match and Apple Music, I am spending €180 a year. None of it really helps my space problem.

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Mar 28, 2016 5:01 AM in response to Jon-Scot

Photostream is not really affecting your local storage in the manner that would be enough to cause what you have right now. If your phone does not reflect deletions - operating system is not working anymore, hence changing settings is useless.

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Answer 4

Jon-Scot Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2016 5:09 AM in response to fromsouth

Thanks dude.

What I have done so far is transfer the few photos I'd taken on my phone by airdrop to my mac, then I turned off all syncing. There were 100 photos left, so I did a spot check to make sure they were on my mac, then I deleted them too. Even when there were no photos left, Photos were still taking up 650mb. I am now back up my phone as you suggested then I am going to wipe it and start again.

My iPad is also not syncing, so it is only my MacBook Air and iMac that are currently in sync. So I am updating my iPad to 9.3

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Answer 5

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Mar 28, 2016 3:47 PM in response to Jon-Scot

Welcome (dude 😉) and good luck - just in case restore from backup will not help, take a look at that thread, see if your situation matches.

"Other" Space Huge in iPhone 6 - 16 Gb

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