How to archive my old photos only on iCloud and get some free space on my apple devices

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Level 1

5 points

How to archive my old photos only on iCloud and get some free space on my apple devices

Hello Apple Gurus,
Like it is mentioned in the title, I want to archive old pictures of my apple devices that I don't want to access everyday on my iCloud to have some free space on my apple devices.
I already turned on the "Optimise storage" option but it is not enough as it saves not even the half of the space.
I have around 10000 photos and I don't want to access them all everyday.
Do someone have an idea if it is possible with ICloud ? and if it is the case , how can I do it ?

Regards,
Driss

MacBook Air, iOS 9.3.4, IPad Air / IPhone 6s ..

Posted on Aug 16, 2016 9:13 AM

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Answer 1

Azbxl Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 16, 2016 11:25 AM in response to Azbxl

MY MAC :

The Cloud :

Hi,
Thanks for your answer.
But as I said the optimisation is already on for all my devices.
And I don't keep an original version on my devices but as you can see in the 2 screenshots it's not working for me as good as for the other people apparently.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Aug 16, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Azbxl

An option, although it will take more work, is to turn off Photos syncing on the computer, reopen Photos with the option/alt key held down and create a new System Library. Transfer the photos you want in iCloud to this Library, The remaining photos will still be in the other Library. Once that is done, you can delete all the photos on the device. Then sync the new Library to iCloud. If desired, you can move one or both Libraries to an external drive. Article is for iPhoto, but the basics are the same.

iPhoto: Move your iPhoto library to a new location

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Answer 3

Aug 16, 2016 9:15 AM in response to Azbxl

With iCloud Photo Library enabled, you cannot delete a photo on one device (or at iCloud.com) without deleting it from every device that uses iCloud photo library (and iCloud.com). In order to save space on your mobile devices (and indeed your Mac if you wish to do so) turn on optimisation for photos on these devices (settings > photos & camera > optimise storage on your mobile device and Photo preferences > optimise storage on your Mac)

Optimisation is dynamic, it reduces the resolution of your photos as and when needed, so you may not notice it occurring at first. However when it is needed, it is very effective and users have reported libraries being optimised to much less than 10% of their original size in some cases. My own library is about 9% of its original size on my phone.

In most cases optimising your photos should be enough to alleviate space related issues on your device. If however you have an exceptionally large library you may need to turn off iCloud photo library on your mobile device and use photo stream instead. You can then use a computer to handle photo stream photos and have them automatically imported into you iCloud photo library.

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Answer 4

Aug 16, 2016 11:44 AM in response to Azbxl

But in the screenshot you have free space, as I said optimisation is dynamic it will free up space as you need it, you don't appear to need it.

If you need to force the issue you could delete the library and redownload it, that way every item will be optimised. Personally I wouldn't do that.

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