I cannot access all my photos from the cloud on my iPhone 6

Question

Level 1

11 points

I cannot access all my photos from the cloud on my iPhone 6

I uploaded all my photos to the cloud anticipating I would have all my photos accessible from all my devices. If I am home, in front of my Mac, all photos appear on my iPhone 6. Earlier today, away from my home and Mac, I wanted to show someone a special photo and could not access it. There were lots of blank spaces that contained a little white cloud in the corner but no photo. I do have iCloud set to use Cellular Data when not connected to Wi-Fi. What can be the problem?

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.3

Posted on Sep 4, 2016 4:50 PM

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Answer 1

Ferd II

Level 10

104,871 points

Sep 4, 2016 5:05 PM in response to Lorraine99

Lorraine,

Did you choose to "Optimize Storage" on your iPhone? iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support

If not, cellular download for full versions is in my opinion quite glacial.

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Answer 2

Lorraine99 Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 4, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Ferd II

Yes I do have "Optimize iPhone Storage" checked. Is that something I should have?

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Answer 3

Ferd II

Level 10

104,871 points

Sep 5, 2016 10:06 AM in response to Lorraine99

Lorraine99 wrote:

Yes I do have "Optimize iPhone Storage" checked. Is that something I should have?

No, that is what I would recommend for saving space on your iPhone.

If you recently activated the ICPL, it may be possible that the photos are still being populated to the iPhone Photo App. FWIW, I have found a WiFi connection to be preferable, if available.

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Answer 4

Lorraine99 Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 5, 2016 10:06 AM in response to Ferd II

I'd uploaded my photos to the cloud quite some time ago but I recently decided to remove whatever photos were on my phone as I was running out of space. It is possible that the photos were still being populated and iCloud was updating. It may have been too soon to try to access. It had only been an hour or so.

I'm not terribly worried at this point. I do have all my photos on my computer as well as the cloud so it's not a major issue that one photo was not available. Thank you for responding.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,341 points

Sep 5, 2016 12:01 PM in response to Lorraine99

If you remove the photos from your phone, they will be deleted from iCloud and any device/computer syncing iCloud Photos unless you try off syncing before deleting.

iCloud is a syncing system, not an external 'hard drive'.

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Answer 6

Lorraine99 Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 5, 2016 12:01 PM in response to Eric Root

Thank you Eric. I didn't delete them from my phone. I realize iCloud is not an external 'hard drive'. I did sync them first and they are stil available on my computer. My issue was when I was away from my computer, most of the cloud photos were not available on my iPhone as expected. I have more than 5,000 photos in the cloud already and they're usually available. But I may have been too quick to try to access them after this last sync. Next time I'm out and about, I'll try to access them to see if there is an ongoing issue. Thanks again.

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Answer 7

Eric Root

Level 10

685,341 points

Sep 5, 2016 1:16 PM in response to Lorraine99

You are welcome.

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