iphone storage full but I have icloud unused storage

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Level 1

35 points

iphone storage full but I have icloud unused storage

Hello - Clearly I don't understand this iCloud storage thing so please clue me in. I have 50GB of iCloud storage of which my iPhone says 21.8GB are available. My iPhone itself has 11.7GB used and 0 available. I'm unable to update anything or take video etc because it says I need to enable more storage in Settings. But in Settings I'm showing all of that available. So what am I missing? I think I've selected the wrong toggle option somewhere as I can access all of my photos from the cloud on my phone (which is fine, like that). What are the proper settings so that my huge photo library is stored in the cloud and accessible via my phone but my phone still has room to take photos/videos etc. If I try to make space by deleting and I go to photos on my iphone and select some the message is "these photos will be deleted from iCloud Photo Library on all your devices". I don't want to lose them from all devices, or God forbid, everywhere, I'm just trying to make space on my phone. In Settings ->Photos, I have iCloud Photo Library turned on and Optimize Phone Storage checked, all other options turned off.

Please help, I'm clearly missing a major piece of understanding here! Thanks.

Posted on Oct 31, 2016 6:33 PM

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Answer 1

zinacef

Level 10

88,407 points

Oct 31, 2016 8:45 PM in response to dnj

Unfortunately you cannot "make space" on your iPhone by removing the photos and expecting to be still resident in iCloud because that's not how iCloud works. iCloud is a syncing/mirroring service that syncs all of your data across of your devices making them available to you.

If your iPhone storage is full, you will have to remove data. You can also use the 'Optimize Phone Storage' feature to reduce the resolution/quality of the photos on the device.

Manage your iCloud storage - Apple Support

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Answer 2

dnj Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 31, 2016 9:01 PM in response to zinacef

Thanks but I do already have Optimize Storage turned on. Can you please clarify about deleting data -- when I go to delete photos (because I'm pretty sure they are the issue), it gives me the message in my original post. I'm sort of afraid to click "delete anyway" because I want to be sure that those photos remain on my desktop iMac in iPhotos where they're stored. I don't want them deleted from there even if they have to be deleted on my phone. Can you clarify that if I delete whichever ones from my iphone that I can still find those photos on the desktop iMac? Or somewhere? Thanks.

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Answer 3

zinacef

Level 10

88,407 points

Oct 31, 2016 9:04 PM in response to dnj

If you turn off iCloud Photo Library, any photos not uploaded to iCloud (resident on your phone) could be deleted. It's probably best to connect the device, via USB, to a computer and move them to the computer, then upload them there to iCloud. After, you can enable iCloud Photo Library on your device.

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Answer 4

dnj Author

Level 1

35 points

Nov 1, 2016 8:59 AM in response to zinacef

When I do plug it in via USB, the option to upload via Photos is grayed out so I do believe all the photos on the phone are on the desktop iMac. So then according to what you've said, I can go through on the phone and delete as many of those photos as I want as they are already saved in the cloud and on the iMac in iPhoto. But most of the photos on my phone are there via the cloud sharing (I think) because I didn't take those photos on the phone.

When I go to Settings ->iCloud->Photos and turn off iCloud Photo Library I see: "do you want to download a copy of your iCloud Photo Library to this iPhone". I assume that answer is NO or it will take more space, right? So I should then choose "Remove from iPhone" to close the photo library as you suggest. And then re-enable?

I'm sorry to be so messed up about this. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 5

zinacef

Level 10

88,407 points

Nov 1, 2016 9:03 AM in response to dnj

You cannot delete the photos from your phone just because they are already saved in iCloud. No, that's not how the system works.

iCloud is a syncing/mirroring service that syncs/mirrors all your photos/videos across all your devices making them available to you. If you delete a photo(s)/video(s) on any one device, it will be deleted on all devices and in iCloud as well.

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Answer 6

Nov 1, 2016 12:09 PM in response to dnj

Here's a link to a good article that just came out on this specific subject of photos and iCloud Photo Library. Perhaps it will help:

http://www.macworld.com/article/3136269/software/yes-if-you-delete-your-photos-f rom-icloud-photo-library-theyre-deleted-…

You can see how much of your storage is going to Photos (and other apps/docs) by going to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Storage > Manage Storage. Give it a few seconds as it collects specific space allotments for each, especially Photos. Then you can see what each app is using and can even delete from there the apps you feel you can do without to reacquire iPhone storage space.

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