Other I need a 2TB iPhone 16 Pro Max

[ibookemo]

Well it’s coming to that time of year again when I promise myself that I’m definitely not upgrading my phone but I end up doing so every single year 🫠

The thing is though, my 1TB 15 Pro Max is actually running out of space. It’s family photos and videos - I take a lot of the kids.

I pay for iCloud storage of 2TB and am pretty happy with it. I really want to have the original files on my phone but to keep that up I need a 2TB model.

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

The funny thing is that this would be the ‘feature’ that would push me to buy a new one. Not AI or a new camera button, but just good old fashioned storage space.

The iPhone cameras are great and I also use a Fuji, Sony and Ricoh camera, putting the pictures on my iPhone and iCloud. The Apple system works very well for this. Just the files end up growing and growing over time.

My plan B is to just rely on iCloud storage until a larger capacity iPhone pops out. It hopefully will in the next few years.

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics - that’s the happy balance.

 

[Jim Lahey]

First rule of iCloud, or any offsite storage solution for that matter - never ever 'rely' on it as a means of backing up data you don't also have possession and control of on your own equipment. Though rare, bugs and mishaps do happen. Some years ago an iCloud syncing error almost detonated every video and photo I'd ever taken. Only not using Optimize Local Storage and not having Power Nap enabled on my Mac saved the day. My iOS devices and entire iCloud library were annihilated. Consider yourself warned 👍

 

[ibookemo]

First rule of iCloud, or any offsite storage solution for that matter - never ever 'rely' on it as a means of backing up data you don't also have possession and control of on your own equipment. Though rare, bugs and mishaps do happen. Some years ago an iCloud syncing error almost detonated every video and photo I'd ever taken. Only not using Optimize Local Storage and not having Power Nap enabled on my Mac saved the day. My iOS devices and entire iCloud library were annihilated. Consider yourself warned 👍

Yes. This is precisely the reason I’d like to keep a copy of my original pictures on the iPhone. You could say, this is the purpose of this thread. A ‘warning’ isn’t really warranted 🫠

 

[Shirasaki]

Yes. This is precisely the reason I’d like to keep a copy of my original pictures on the iPhone. You could say, this is the purpose of this thread. A ‘warning’ isn’t really warranted 🫠

However, it is probably better to have a copy of your original pictures and video on a Mac, which can be backed up easily externally, over iPhone which is more susceptible to loss And theft. Sadly Apple charges a kidney for MacBook storage upgrade.

 

[coffeemilktea]

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

While it's always possible, I haven't seen any rumors about an upgrade to 2 TB. 🤔

To save space on my phone, I've moved most of my pictures and videos to the Photos app on my Mac, and from there they've been backed up to different external hard drives. It's not as easy or seamless as just having a massive amount of storage on my phone (or on the cloud), but it works. 😬

 

[hovscorpion12]

As far as external storage I have a balance between SSDs and cloud.

This is the second year where multiple rumors pointing to 2TB upgrade in 2026. [unfortunately at the cost of Read/Write speed].

 

[eyoungren]

I'd love a 2TB model, but unlike OP that's just because I'd want one, not because I need it.

My life is not on my phone. Possibly you could argue it's on my Macs, but never my phone. I could lose everything on my phone in the next 5 minutes and I'd be able to restore it all simply because I do not keep all my eggs in one basket.

I too have a 2TB iCloud sub (for convenience, not backup). I also have a 4.1TB sub with Dropbox and a 100GB sub with Google. Dropbox also routinely backs up my photos to a Camera Uploads folder making all those photos available to every Mac/PC I have running Dropbox. And the drives those computers use get backed up to my NAS and to Dropbox again (sparse drive images).

I'm not putting my trust (or my 'digital life') in just ONE device.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

However, it is probably better to have a copy of your original pictures and video on a Mac, which can be backed up easily externally, over iPhone which is more susceptible to loss And theft. Sadly Apple charges a kidney for MacBook storage upgrade.

I don't personally think that's enough for photos and video. I keep offline backups, on a usb harddrive, that I make every week or so. One stays at work in my desk and the other at home, and I rotate them roughly once a month.

Any data you truly care about should be backed up on something that is not connected to the internet in any way.

 

[ibookemo]

I've found a solution - the iMazing app.

I can store my iPhone images in iCloud, set my iPhone to 'optimise storage' and periodically drag new images from the phone using iMazing onto an external drive. It will even download them from the cloud for you - a neat little app.

 

[Tsepz]

Well it’s coming to that time of year again when I promise myself that I’m definitely not upgrading my phone but I end up doing so every single year 🫠

The thing is though, my 1TB 15 Pro Max is actually running out of space. It’s family photos and videos - I take a lot of the kids.

I pay for iCloud storage of 2TB and am pretty happy with it. I really want to have the original files on my phone but to keep that up I need a 2TB model.

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

The funny thing is that this would be the ‘feature’ that would push me to buy a new one. Not AI or a new camera button, but just good old fashioned storage space.

The iPhone cameras are great and I also use a Fuji, Sony and Ricoh camera, putting the pictures on my iPhone and iCloud. The Apple system works very well for this. Just the files end up growing and growing over time.

My plan B is to just rely on iCloud storage until a larger capacity iPhone pops out. It hopefully will in the next few years.

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics - that’s the happy balance.

Haven’t heard any rumours of it but it would be great.
If not with 16 then I think 17 Pro should hopefully bring 2TB.

 

[jwolf6589]

Well it’s coming to that time of year again when I promise myself that I’m definitely not upgrading my phone but I end up doing so every single year 🫠

The thing is though, my 1TB 15 Pro Max is actually running out of space. It’s family photos and videos - I take a lot of the kids.

I pay for iCloud storage of 2TB and am pretty happy with it. I really want to have the original files on my phone but to keep that up I need a 2TB model.

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

The funny thing is that this would be the ‘feature’ that would push me to buy a new one. Not AI or a new camera button, but just good old fashioned storage space.

The iPhone cameras are great and I also use a Fuji, Sony and Ricoh camera, putting the pictures on my iPhone and iCloud. The Apple system works very well for this. Just the files end up growing and growing over time.

My plan B is to just rely on iCloud storage until a larger capacity iPhone pops out. It hopefully will in the next few years.

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics - that’s the happy balance.

Why would you need more space on a tiny phone than I have on my 15 inch MacBook Air????

 

[now i see it]

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics

My photos app is using less than 2GB of space

 

[winxmac]

16GB - iPhone 2G [2007]
32GB - iPhone 3GS [2009]
64GB - iPhone 4S [2011]
128GB - iPhone 6/6 Plus [2014]
256GB - iPhone 7/7 Plus [2016]
512GB - iPhone XS/XS Max [2018]
1TB - iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max [2021]

2TB - 2024? 2025? 2026?

I think it's already past due that minimum storage should be set to 256GB

Data transfer via cable is slow for iPhone 15 and 15 Plus and older models so Apple should revert the AirDrop Everyone for 10 minutes to Everyone [without time limit] or re-add Everyone as a separate option...

iCloud free storage more than a decade later is still just 5GB when I think it should be at least 25GB or even 50GB since they have several terabytes of paid storage already available...

 

[MiniMoke]

Well it’s coming to that time of year again when I promise myself that I’m definitely not upgrading my phone but I end up doing so every single year 🫠

The thing is though, my 1TB 15 Pro Max is actually running out of space. It’s family photos and videos - I take a lot of the kids.

I pay for iCloud storage of 2TB and am pretty happy with it. I really want to have the original files on my phone but to keep that up I need a 2TB model.

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

The funny thing is that this would be the ‘feature’ that would push me to buy a new one. Not AI or a new camera button, but just good old fashioned storage space.

The iPhone cameras are great and I also use a Fuji, Sony and Ricoh camera, putting the pictures on my iPhone and iCloud. The Apple system works very well for this. Just the files end up growing and growing over time.

My plan B is to just rely on iCloud storage until a larger capacity iPhone pops out. It hopefully will in the next few years.

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics - that’s the happy balance.

So you have your precious photos ONLY on your phone? Not even an iCloud backup…. Strange
Just use iCloud, Man. Solves your space problem and more security for your photos. I realky don’t understand people who don’t use all the assets offered by Apple…

 

[HylianKnight]

Well it’s coming to that time of year again when I promise myself that I’m definitely not upgrading my phone but I end up doing so every single year 🫠

The thing is though, my 1TB 15 Pro Max is actually running out of space. It’s family photos and videos - I take a lot of the kids.

I pay for iCloud storage of 2TB and am pretty happy with it. I really want to have the original files on my phone but to keep that up I need a 2TB model.

What do you think the chances are of Apple upping the top tier to 2TB? Could it be a possibility this year?

The funny thing is that this would be the ‘feature’ that would push me to buy a new one. Not AI or a new camera button, but just good old fashioned storage space.

The iPhone cameras are great and I also use a Fuji, Sony and Ricoh camera, putting the pictures on my iPhone and iCloud. The Apple system works very well for this. Just the files end up growing and growing over time.

My plan B is to just rely on iCloud storage until a larger capacity iPhone pops out. It hopefully will in the next few years.

I envy the regular folk who only have a few hundred gigs of pics - that’s the happy balance.

Do you have “Optimize iPhone Storage” turned on in settings>photos (or settings>apps>photos if you’re on iOS 18)? The full version stays stored in iCloud but a compressed version is placed on your phone?


And as others have stated, have a physical backup somewhere, preferably offsite if possible. For the record, I don’t practice what I preach here ):

 

[slippery-pete]

My Uncle Sal is hoping for 3TB

 

[subjonas]

Why would you need more space on a tiny phone than I have on my 15 inch MacBook Air????

Of all my many devices, the two I would equally want to have the most storage capacity are my desktop Mac and my iPhone—because my desktop is the central hub for all my data, and my phone ideally would be the portable version of it always with me wherever I go. Cloud storage drives mainly exist because phones have limited storage (things like cloud photo sharing is different). But cloud is generally less ideal because of things like subscription fees, poor cell reception areas, data caps, downloads, buffering, etc. A phone with equal storage capacity to my desktop would do away with all that. And if my phone has all my data, then my other devices (laptops, tablets, etc) only need enough storage to handle their specific tasks, and could connect to my iPhone to access the rest of my data if needed. The phone could even act as a backup disk for those devices when away from my desktop, as well as another sort of redundant offsite backup of all the data on my desktop.
Of course good syncing software would be required for this system to work, which I don’t know exists. But assuming it does/will, then I say phones can never have too much storage capacity.

 

[toobravetosave]

just backup your photos to a cheap external drive or 2

 

[Ctrlos]

You don’t need 1TB of image and video data on your phone. I’m not advocating just turning off ‘keep originals’ if you like to have the full-res ones knocking around, but there is no way anyone has the time to actually look back at that many videos and images regularly.

This data is incredibly important but it’s not 100% useful 100% of the time.

It will be videos clogging up your storage. True, these are precious memories. But it might be worth sorting through them and deleting the largest or ones you don’t want to keep. Consider recording at 1080p as well instead of 4K.

Back everything up to your PC/Mac. Make sure you have iCloud as another backup solution and further copies on an external drive.

You can then use an Apple TV to pull them off your network to look at them on your TV or from iCloud.

Have fun!

 

[TechRunner]

This article just posted on MR mentions up to 2TB of storage on 16 Pros:

iPhone 15 Pro vs. iPhone 16 Pro Buyer's Guide: 45+ Upgrades Compared

The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are Apple's latest flagship devices, offering over 45 changes and improvements compared to their...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Amazing Iceman]

However, it is probably better to have a copy of your original pictures and video on a Mac, which can be backed up easily externally, over iPhone which is more susceptible to loss And theft. Sadly Apple charges a kidney for MacBook storage upgrade.

On MacBook you can have external hard drives.
And use Time Machine to keep a historical backup of your data.
If you don’t need everything to be on the cloud, get external storage with RAID-1 or RAID-5.
iCloud is the best way to have your live information available at all times and synchronized on all your devices.
Whatever you don’t access often, leave it on the cloud, so your phone doesn’t run out of storage.

 

[jwolf6589]

You don’t need 1TB of image and video data on your phone. I’m not advocating just turning off ‘keep originals’ if you like to have the full-res ones knocking around, but there is no way anyone has the time to actually look back at that many videos and images regularly.

This data is incredibly important but it’s not 100% useful 100% of the time.

It will be videos clogging up your storage. True, these are precious memories. But it might be worth sorting through them and deleting the largest or ones you don’t want to keep. Consider recording at 1080p as well instead of 4K.

Back everything up to your PC/Mac. Make sure you have iCloud as another backup solution and further copies on an external drive.

You can then use an Apple TV to pull them off your network to look at them on your TV or from iCloud.

Have fun!

I use the photos app on my appleTV often. Great for watching videos as well.

 

[JamesMay82]

I get the attraction but 2TB would just be painful on the wallet!

I would just use iCloud as it streams pretty quick and with current data packages it’s cheap to stream it.

How do you back up all your family photos?

 

[ibookemo]

Why would you need more space on a tiny phone than I have on my 15 inch MacBook Air????

It's nice to be able to have original copies of every photo you take in your pocket. Just a nice thing to have. I see my Mac a more of a tool, my work is in the cloud so it doesn't need much space.

The more I can keep on my phone that can function offline the better.

 

[ibookemo]

So you have your precious photos ONLY on your phone? Not even an iCloud backup…. Strange
Just use iCloud, Man. Solves your space problem and more security for your photos. I realky don’t understand people who don’t use all the assets offered by Apple…

No, I do have an iCloud backup.