We're a family share group of 5 that shares 2TB if iCloud storage. We're coming up on the limit and I'm tempted to just buy more but before I do was going to try to reduce our footprint. In doing a little research, pretty much all of of us have massive amounts of phone and iCloud storage being used on Messages and Whatsapp. It's because we send all kinds of high res photos/videos to one another. I think the Whatsapp issue we'll have to figure out separately, but I"m interested in learning more around how sharing media across Messages works. I can't seem to find the info i'm looking for in Apple documentation.
So here are some questions I can't figure out:
1. If the User A takes a pic with their phone, then sends it to User B via Messages (both of whom are on the same family plan), does that photo take up extra storage on both devices and iCloud storage in addition to the original?
2. I'm considering asking everyone to update their Messages retention settings to 1 month so that anything older gets purged, thereby freeing up space (on their phone and iCloud).They'll probably have to go through the list of media in each of their Message threads and save photos they want to keep. Is this an effective way to free up space? Is there an easier way to do this?
3. Moving forward I think the best way to manage space is to just create iCloud shared Albums and share things with one another like that, but does it really save storage space? Are there any other ways to save on storage?
Thanks
So here are some questions I can't figure out:
1. If the User A takes a pic with their phone, then sends it to User B via Messages (both of whom are on the same family plan), does that photo take up extra storage on both devices and iCloud storage in addition to the original?
2. I'm considering asking everyone to update their Messages retention settings to 1 month so that anything older gets purged, thereby freeing up space (on their phone and iCloud).They'll probably have to go through the list of media in each of their Message threads and save photos they want to keep. Is this an effective way to free up space? Is there an easier way to do this?
3. Moving forward I think the best way to manage space is to just create iCloud shared Albums and share things with one another like that, but does it really save storage space? Are there any other ways to save on storage?
Thanks