OK, first I need to make sure I understand how you have configured your photos. When you say you see a cloud next to your photos, where do you see this cloud? Are you looking at the Photos app in the phone? If so, what Album are you looking at?
Do you have iCloud Photo Library turned on? Settings>Photos & Camera>iCloud Photo Library = ON? What about the Photo Stream and iCloud Photo sharing options on that same screen? On or Off?
Also, do you have a computer available? Mac or PC? Is is signed into iCloud?
Once I get a better idea of the lay of the land we can find a solution that will work for you 🙂
Cheers,
GB
OK, so you do have iCloud Photo Library turned on. That means that you have uploaded all the photos in your Camera Roll up to iCloud, and all new photos go there as well.
However, with iCloud Photo Storage, the entire library is housed on both iCloud and your device. If you select "Download Originals" then all of the photos that can fit on your device will be on the device locally. If you select "Optimize Photos", then as many originals that can fit within the phone's storage limit will be on the phone, and any other photos will be put on the phone as thumbnails only, which cannot be viewed when not connected to Wifi.
So, depending on the size of your library, if everything can fit on your device as originals, then they all will be available offline.
One thing to remember is that iCloud Photo Library is a sharing service, not an archival one. What that means is that all of the photos go to the library in iCloud, and then all of them are pushed back down and shared with all devices that are signed into that same iCloud Photo Library. Anything you do to those photos will be reflected everywhere. So, if you delete a photo on your phone, it will be deleted from your Library completely.
iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support
iCloud Photo Library Help - Apple Support
If you want your photos stored in a safe place, you should either import them to the Photos app on your computer, or put them in an archival cloud service like Dropbox or Flikr:
If you only want selected photos from your Library on the phone, you have two options, but both require that you turn off iCloud Photo Library on the phone:
1. Sync photos to the phone via iTunes. If you have your photos imported to the photos app on your computer, you can use iTunes to sync selected photos back to your phone:
iTunes 12 for Mac: Sync iPod, iPhone, or iPad
iTunes 12 for Windows: Sync iPod, iPhone, or iPad
2. You can also put selected photos on your phone by using iCloud Photo Sharing:
iCloud Photo Sharing - Apple Support
Get help using iCloud Photo Sharing and shared albums - Apple Support
But remember, if you decide to go either of these routes, you would need to turn off iCloud Photo Sharing on the phone.
Post back if you have any questions!
Cheers,
GB
Without Wifi, you cannot download the media to your device. How did your photos get into iCloud? Did you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your device or a computer that had all of your photos, and get them uploaded to iCloud at some point when you had a Wifi connection?
Cheers,
GB
I'm on land now and at home and have access to wifi.
But most of my pictures have the cloud icon on them, so when I got out to sea, there is no way to get them. I need to figure out how to pull them all out of the cloud and onto my phone so that I have them when I'm without the wifi. Any help would be great Gail.
You figured it ou!
I didn't know there was an "optimize iPhone storage" option. I turned that off and now can access all of my pictures offline. Thank you!
stoughnow wrote:
I work on a submarine where there is no internet and need my photos to be out of the cloud and onto my phone. How do I make that happen?
Surface the boat.
😁😁😁
GB
Try Settings/iCloud and slide off syncing. Wait a few minutes and then resync.
Have you tried signing out of iCloud and then sign back in?
I work on a submarine where there is no internet and need my photos to be out of the cloud and onto my phone. How do I make that happen.
