iCloud Photo Library storage - Glitch or change of policy?

[Phil A.]

I noticed something strange about the reported free space on my iCloud account this morning:

As you can see, it claims I have only used around 12GB of space (188.90 of 200 GB available), despite the fact I have 41.1GB of photos in my Photo Library! In fact, the used space correlates with the space used by everything else so it looks like my Photo Library storage isn't coming off my storage plan...

That got me thinking if this may be a forthcoming change in policy over photos storage or (more likely, I suppose) just a bug in the way the space is being reported: Has anyone else noticed the same thing?

 

[wlossw]

I just checked my icloud storage use, and in my case total storage is reflecting photos correctly in the total (although a change would be awesome!)

 

[Brookzy]

Are other devices also reporting the storage incorrectly?

 

[steve62388]

Just a thought, they're not in a Shared library are they?

I'm not sure why everybody doesn't just use Shared libraries, they don't count towards your storage limit. Maximum number of pictures: 500,000 (100 albums, 5000 pics per album).

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202786
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202299

 

[Phil A.]

Are other devices also reporting the storage incorrectly?

Yeah - all my devices show the same incorrect storage used

Just a thought, they're not in a Shared library are they?

I'm not sure why everybody doesn't just use Shared libraries, they don't count towards your storage limit. Maximum number of pictures: 500,000 (100 albums, 5000 pics per album).

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202786
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202299

Nope, they're not in a shared library (I do have a few shared albums, but not many).

One thing to bear in mind about shared albums is that photos in them have their quality reduced (I've just checked one I created and photos added by my wife from her SE are 2049x1537 pixels with a size less than 1MB whereas on her phone the same photos are 4032x3024 pixels with a size of about 3MB

 

[steve62388]

Yeah - all my devices show the same incorrect storage used



Nope, they're not in a shared library (I do have a few shared albums, but not many).

One thing to bear in mind about shared albums is that photos in them have their quality reduced (I've just checked one I created and photos added by my wife from her SE are 2049x1537 pixels with a size less than 1MB whereas on her phone the same photos are 4032x3024 pixels with a size of about 3MB

Yes, that is one of the limits.

When shared, photos taken with standard point-and-shoot cameras, SLR cameras, or iOS devices have up to 2048 pixels on the long edge. Panoramic photos can be up to 5400 pixels wide.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202786

 

[Brookzy]

Yes, that is one of the limits.

When shared, photos taken with standard point-and-shoot cameras, SLR cameras, or iOS devices have up to 2048 pixels on the long edge. Panoramic photos can be up to 5400 pixels wide.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202786

Slightly off-topic but after some investigation I did last year I discovered Apple is being slightly misleading here, because in fact any image, whether or not it is actually a "panorama", can have a width of up to 5400 pixels (not 2048), provided its height isn't more than 1536 pixels. And square images are another exception. Read more here if you're interested!