iPhone 11 Pro How does iCloud photos work in regard to local iPhone storage?

[gdourado]

Hello, how are you?

Currently I have about 5000 pictures on my iPhone 11 Pro.
It has pictures since my iPhone 7.
They are all in the local storage since I have iCloud photos turned off.

All my images are in the DCIM folder.

If I activate iCloud photos, what would happen to the pictures I currently have on my iPhone? Would they be uploaded to iCloud and deleted from the phone? Or would they stay in iCloud and duplicated on the phone?

Also, if I have iCloud photos on and add pictures to iCloud photos that weren’t taken with the iPhone, would I be able to access them on the photos app on the iPhone? Would they be downloaded to the iPhone to? Or just be accessed remotely?

I was reading on apple.com how iCloud photos work, but I failed to understand these questions I have.

Thank you for your help.
Regards.

 

[StumpyBloke]

They will be uploaded to iCloud, assuming you have enough iCloud storage, and stay on your phone.

And any photos added to iCloud photos should show on any devices using the same Apple ID with iCloud photos enabled.

As an FYI, if it was me, I would make a full iTunes backup first before enabling iCloud photos just in case something, very unlikely though, went wrong.

 

[gdourado]

They will be uploaded to iCloud, assuming you have enough iCloud storage, and stay on your phone.

And any photos added to iCloud photos should show on any devices using the same Apple ID with iCloud photos enabled.

As an FYI, if it was me, I would make a full iTunes backup first before enabling iCloud photos just in case something, very unlikely though, went wrong.

Thank you for your reply.
So in regard to the iPhone, everything should remain the same, the only difference being that the pictures already there and the ones taken in the future will be uploaded to iCloud.

But when you say any photos added to iCloud through the website should show up on any devices, will they only be removed accessed? Or if I have space on the iPhone, will they be downloaded?

 

[StumpyBloke]

If you have your photos settings as per this image then they’ll be on your phone (assuming you have enough onboard storage).