Photos on iDrive don't show on Phone

The Apple Photo app cannot show photos from my iCloud on my iPhone even though I have stored some 40 GB photos. On my Mac it works fine. Anyone got a reason as to why this is?


It only shows the few photos that I have taken using the iPhone - not any other image from iCloud.

To compare Google iOS photo app works brillianty and show all the same images that are stored on my Google Drive.

Posted on Jul 20, 2017 1:36 PM

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24 replies

Jul 20, 2017 2:14 PM in response to jayrocket75

If you don't have enough space in iCloud then the syncs won't work. Are you saying that you don't think you should be running out of iCloud space?


You can see what your iCloud storage is used for at Settings Apple ID(Top) iCloud Storage iCloud Manage Storage on your iOS device or System Preferences iCloud Manage...... on a Mac.

Jul 20, 2017 2:01 PM in response to jayrocket75

The photo app can display photos from the iCloud photo library (if that's what you are referring to). Your nomenclature is not easy to follow and makes it difficult to help. Photos backed up to the cloud can't be viewed anywhere, they are only there for restoration purposes should you lose the originals, however, I suspect you might mean synced to the iCloud Photo Library instead of backed up to the cloud.


What I'm thinking you might want to do is have all the photos visible on both the Mac and the phone. If that's so, the way to achieve this is by enabling iCloud photo library on both devices, which you can do at:

Photos Preferences iCloud iCloud Photo Library (on a Mac)

Settings Photos & Camera iCloud Photo Library (on a mobile device)

Jul 20, 2017 2:58 PM in response to jayrocket75

But this should not make the entire

Library unaccessible should it?

It might do, depending on when you enabled iCloud photo library on each device.


Did you check how much space you have available on iCloud? If it's down to a few MB all sorts of strange things might be happening. If you need more space, it's best to get it before trying to troubleshoot whats wrong.


Be aware though when (if) you get real low on space fixing things are sometimes not quite as simple as just subscribing to more.


Post back when it's convenient.

Jul 24, 2017 6:31 AM in response to jayrocket75

So I have deleted some 5GB of photos from my iCloud yet the Photo app on my iPhone shows nothing but a few hundred pics from the previous two years. I am no closer to an explanation why this is. I have tried to restart my phone.


Surely the app should show all the photos located on the iCloud Drive rather than only the ones shot using the phone, right?

Also it should the photos in the cloud rather them storing them locally (which is not even possible given my iPhone 5S only has 16GB in total), right?

Jul 24, 2017 7:16 AM in response to Winston Churchill

I deleted them on my iCloud account in the browser and each time got the message that the photos would be deleted on all devices. I'll check to see if there is a waste basket of sort in iCloud later tonight.

Never the less I can see my storage plan having increased available space of 5gb so it should be working. I check from both my cloud account and from my phone.

Jul 24, 2017 7:28 AM in response to jayrocket75

I'll check to see if there is a waste basket of sort in iCloud later tonight.

As mentioned there is a recently deleted photo album where deleted photos are kept for 30 days before being irrecoverably deleted, during which period the space they occupy is not recovered.

Never the less I can see my storage plan having increased available space of 5gb so it should be working. I check from both my cloud account and from my phone.

Again as mentioned, if you've gotten into a position where you have used every little bit of iCloud space, don't expect things to repair themselves and go back to normal immediately.

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Photos on iDrive don't show on Phone

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