Stop iCloud filling iPhone

I'm sorry, but I believe that you might be misunderstanding what the cloud storage is. If you are using iCloud Photo Library, it is not just storage. It is also, in effect, a syncing service. While the full size photos are in iCloud, they are also being synced to all devices signed in with the same iCloud ID. That is why it keeps filling up your phone. If you just want to hold these photos in iCloud, then you might want to look at iCloud Drive, or other storage service like Dropbox, etc..

iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support

iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

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 your iCloud photo library.

Well, as you have seen, iCloud stops when it runs out of space, but that doesn't help you. As soon as you free space, it starts up again until it fills it up again. So your photo library is too large to sync. That was what I was referring to. You can have a larger library in iCloud if you optimize space, but it still has restrictions based on the amount of space it can sync that library to.

You can provide feedback to Apple here, http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html but to be honest, they have other systems in place that do not affect the storage on the phone.

iCloud photo library is a syncing service, not really a storage service. If you remove photos from your phone, it removes them from iCloud. The amount of storage on the phone is fixed. If you increase iCloud storage it has no affect on your phone's storage.

Apps do not take up a great deal of room, as you have found out. I suggest that your biggest issue is your photo library. The only thing you are paying for is iCloud storage, and that does not affect your phone's storage. You need to reduce the iCloud photo library, so it fits on the phone and any of your other devices.

We are users like you, and if you feel that you have encountered enough issues to make you "jump ship" that is your decision. I would say find a device/service that meets your needs. Don't base your decisions on the fact you are a fan. Use what works for you.

AnthonySmith81 wrote:

Hi- thanks, yes- I've seen this, and it's the photos app taking up 3.5gb of space (and more when I free up space)

Yes, but how much space do you actually have left on your phone?

I'm not sure if everyone else didn't get the wrong end of the stick to begin with but I did. I thought you were saying it was telling you it was short of cloud space. Anyway...

iCloud photo library shouldn't do that unless you take some more photos or open up some photos that had already been optimised. The problem is that if you fill up space you create too quickly, you get to the stage where it can't optimise photos because it doesn't have enough room left to do its thing.

You can see what the space on your phone is used for at settings > general > storage & iCloud usage > storage > manage storage

Disk Space – Free Up

Disk Space – Free Up (2)

Disk Space – Free Up (3)