iPhone X If I upgrade the iCloud storage what happens when I delete pictures on my iPhone after backup?

[DBZmusicboy01]

Would it disappear after backing up my iPhone the next time on iCloud ?

If I took a video today and backup right away then delete it from my phone and then backup my phone the next day. Wouldn’t that video be gone from iCloud as well? I am so confused about iCloud.

 

[BigMcGuire]

First off, just remember that iCloud photos is not a “storage” location, it is a syncing service in a way. When you delete a photo on your iPhone, it removes it from iCloud. You can “save” space on your device by optimizing the sync so it only syncs a thumbnail, not the full image - I do this with my iPad as it doesn’t have the same storage size as my iPhone.

So, assuming you’re talking about iCloud Photos - if you delete a photo, it deletes it everywhere.

If you’re talking about iCloud backup, that’s a different story. ICloud Backup will backup photos if you have iCloud Photos turned off. Is this what you’re talking about?

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

First off, just remember that iCloud photos is not a “storage” location, it is a syncing service in a way. When you delete a photo on your iPhone, it removes it from iCloud. You can “save” space on your device by optimizing the sync so it only syncs a thumbnail, not the full image - I do this with my iPad as it doesn’t have the same storage size as my iPhone.

So, assuming you’re talking about iCloud Photos - if you delete a photo, it deletes it everywhere.

If you’re talking about iCloud backup, that’s a different story. ICloud Backup will backup photos if you have iCloud Photos turned off. Is this what you’re talking about?

iCloud Backup. Meaning backing up everything from the phone. But if I were to delete a photo afterwards and backup the next day. That will mean it will be gone too ?
How am I able to use iCloud as a true online storage service? Like the way Google Drive works.

 

[BigMcGuire]

iCloud Backup. Meaning backing up everything from the phone. But if I were to delete a photo afterwards and backup the next day. That will mean it will be gone too ?
How am I able to use iCloud as a true online storage service? Like the way Google Drive works.

For photos you can’t. That’s the great limitation of iCloud Photos. That’s why I use Google Photos primarily for my photo backup. I’ve got some 150GB+ of photos on there and I love how it’s a true “storage” bank. I hate how iCloud Photos does not have this feature and is more of a syncing service.

As far as iCloud backup, I’m not exactly sure how that works when you delete something, but my guess would be that if you delete a photo, it’ll remove it from the backup eventually? Some other members who know more about this than I do will hopefully post.

I use Google Photos primarily - I’ve downloaded this to an external drive as backup. I then have a Photos library on an external drive that I backup my iPhone to, and I turned on iCloud Photos backup for my 8+ and have some 17GB of photos on that as another “backup” as well.

 

[akash.nu]

iCloud Backup. Meaning backing up everything from the phone. But if I were to delete a photo afterwards and backup the next day. That will mean it will be gone too ?

If you delete a photo from your phone, it will get deleted from iCloud as well.

How am I able to use iCloud as a true online storage service? Like the way Google Drive works.

The iCloud service is developed to be used as an extension of your devices, always available extra storage space. The idea is to not let the user worry about available space on their devices and let the OS handle it. All you have to worry about is to turn the - optimise storage - toggle on and forget about it.

 

[ZEEN0j]

You can store your photos in the files app exactly the same as any other online storage solution.

Just select the photos you want to move and select add to files. After that you can delete your photos from the library.

It isn’t a great solution though as viewing photos in the files app is really slow. But if you just want to store them it is possible.

 

[MrMister111]

I thought iCloud photos was, in a way a backup?

ie its got all my photos in the iCloud. If I bought a new iMac I could then log in on my AppleID and they'll all come down in full resolution?

I know that due to storage limits iPhone/iPad don't have full resolution (in my case jost cases I expect), and have the optimise for thumbnails.

What I have is iCloud photo "backup", all dowloaded in full resolution to my iMac, and my photo library backed up to another seperate online service.

 

[akash.nu]

I thought iCloud photos was, in a way a backup?

ie its got all my photos in the iCloud. If I bought a new iMac I could then log in on my AppleID and they'll all come down in full resolution?

I know that due to storage limits iPhone/iPad don't have full resolution (in my case jost cases I expect), and have the optimise for thumbnails.

What I have is iCloud photo "backup", all dowloaded in full resolution to my iMac, and my photo library backed up to another seperate online service.

I think the word backup / extra storage is incorrectly being used interchangeably. I think it’s important to differentiate between the two -

1. A backup is generally an encrypted instance of a software that contains data / metadata / system settings etc. It’s generally not something a user is supposed to manually fiddle around with. The operating system is supposed to encrypt and decrypt and handle the whole process autonomously once triggered by the user or any other predetermined event switch.

2. An online storage is just some space available on a cloud server stack for a user to upload data to. This can also be triggered by users manually or can be programmed to get triggered autonomously.

The iCloud service encompasses both but for different purposes. When you enable iCloud backup on your device, it’s the first type where the OS deals with everything and you are able to restore to a new device without doing anything at all.

The Files app also uses iCloud services but it’s the second type of data storage system, where the user can manually upload data. But this service is developed a bit differently, to make the users life easier, in that a user doesn’t need to worry about uploading data manually ever.

The photos app is developed with similar implementation. If you don’t delete a picture / video from your photos app then it’s safe to assume that you’d like to keep that data. Then iOS and macOS devices upload the data automatically to iCloud to make it available to all of your devices.

And on top, the - optimise storage - option enables the operating system to either keep a higher / lower resolution version on your device based on the availability of the physical storage on your device and your use pattern. So as a user all you have to do, is decide if you want to keep a piece of data or not. That’s it! Everything else is handled by the operating system.

I hope that makes sense to others.

 

[jpn]

the way i look at iCloud is like this:

1 iCloud Drive is a syncing service.
it allows you to view and work with any of your files on any of your devices at any time (if you set it up to be able to do that)

2 best way to remember that its not a backup service: if you delete it anywhere, its gone everywhere, immediately. photos, contacts, appointments.

3 however, apple does have an incomplete set of tools that may allow you to recover a deleted file (but not a previous version of the file thats saved with the same name).

the various tools that may sometimes be used to get a deleted file back:

a. you can go to iCloud.com and in your browser see if a deleted file is in the e-x-t-r-e-m-l-y s-l-o-w to load recover section (usually not however)

b. photos itself puts deleted files into a deleted photos trash that gets permanently deleted 30 days later.

c. if you have automatic iCloud backups engaged on yr iOS device maybe you can take that drastic solution of using your backup in a recovery that rewrites over some of your iOS data to try to get a file back that way (but thats really stupid and drastic)

d. heaven help you if you have accidentally set the "Optimize Mac Storage" to be on: in this case the system will decide for you what you have haven't looked at/used lately and delete from your devices and store in the iCloud your data. this clicks in automatically if you are getting low on storage space.

apple doesn't use too much the word "backup" in its marketing of iCloud itself.
it uses words like "storage" and "available everywhere" and "syncs".

 

[profets]

I think we should clarify whether the OP is using / has enabled iCloud Photo Library or if he’s solely referring to iCloud Backup.

If iCloud Photo Library is never enabled, then photos/videos taken with the device stay local and are included in the iCloud backup. In this situation, if you were to take a video, then perform a backup, that video (along with whatever else is in the library locally on the phone) would be backed up. After that, if you were to delete the video, and then do another backup, the newest backup would no longer include that video. I’m not sure here what happens with multiple backups or how long they’re accessible. I do recall when restoring a device from iCloud backup that you can see the past several backups to choose from (week worth maybe?).

If iCloud Photo Library is in use, then any photos and videos taken are stored in your iCloud Photo Library and are not affected by a single device’s iCloud Backup nor are they included in the device’s iCloud backup. In this case you have a single Photo library that is part of your iCloud account and synced across any devices that you turn it on for. If you delete the video from any of these devices, it will be deleted from the library and from all devices (it will however stay in a Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before permanent deletion). The same is true for creation of albums, editing photos, etc (synced to the main photo library and across all devices).

Edit: I read through the replies but mis-read @BigMcGuire's (in which he already asked the OP which he was referring to):

First off, just remember that iCloud photos is not a “storage” location, it is a syncing service in a way. When you delete a photo on your iPhone, it removes it from iCloud. You can “save” space on your device by optimizing the sync so it only syncs a thumbnail, not the full image - I do this with my iPad as it doesn’t have the same storage size as my iPhone.

So, assuming you’re talking about iCloud Photos - if you delete a photo, it deletes it everywhere.

If you’re talking about iCloud backup, that’s a different story. ICloud Backup will backup photos if you have iCloud Photos turned off. Is this what you’re talking about?

 

[inkahauts]

First off, just remember that iCloud photos is not a “storage” location, it is a syncing service in a way. When you delete a photo on your iPhone, it removes it from iCloud. You can “save” space on your device by optimizing the sync so it only syncs a thumbnail, not the full image - I do this with my iPad as it doesn’t have the same storage size as my iPhone.

So, assuming you’re talking about iCloud Photos - if you delete a photo, it deletes it everywhere.

If you’re talking about iCloud backup, that’s a different story. ICloud Backup will backup photos if you have iCloud Photos turned off. Is this what you’re talking about?

iCloud photos is a storage location. It always stays in sync with whatever devices are logged into that account as well, but it absolutely is saving the photos in the cloud.

And iCloud photos simply moves deleted pictures and videos into a deleted folder everywhere for 30 days before they are actually deleted.

 

[inkahauts]

For photos you can’t. That’s the great limitation of iCloud Photos. That’s why I use Google Photos primarily for my photo backup. I’ve got some 150GB+ of photos on there and I love how it’s a true “storage” bank. I hate how iCloud Photos does not have this feature and is more of a syncing service.

As far as iCloud backup, I’m not exactly sure how that works when you delete something, but my guess would be that if you delete a photo, it’ll remove it from the backup eventually? Some other members who know more about this than I do will hopefully post.

I use Google Photos primarily - I’ve downloaded this to an external drive as backup. I then have a Photos library on an external drive that I backup my iPhone to, and I turned on iCloud Photos backup for my 8+ and have some 17GB of photos on that as another “backup” as well.

Google photos does the same thing as iCloud photos in my experience with it. So not sure why you think it works so differently. Except that it downrses your photos if you don’t pay for more storage after you have so many...

 

[BigMcGuire]

iCloud photos is a storage location. It always stays in sync with whatever devices are logged into that account as well, but it absolutely is saving the photos in the cloud.

And iCloud photos simply moves deleted pictures and videos into a deleted folder everywhere for 30 days before they are actually deleted.

My definition of a "storage location" is that if I delete something on my device, it doesn't remove it from the "storage location." Google Photos is this storage location - I can delete a photo on my iPhone and it won't wipe it off of my cloud photo storage. OneDrive photos does this. Amazon Photos does this. On iCloud Photo storage if you delete a photo on your iPhone to free up space, it deletes it on iCloud Photos as well.

 

[inkahauts]

I thought iCloud photos was, in a way a backup?

ie its got all my photos in the iCloud. If I bought a new iMac I could then log in on my AppleID and they'll all come down in full resolution?

I know that due to storage limits iPhone/iPad don't have full resolution (in my case jost cases I expect), and have the optimise for thumbnails.

What I have is iCloud photo "backup", all dowloaded in full resolution to my iMac, and my photo library backed up to another seperate online service.

You are correct. Not sure why people are saying it’s not keeping all your phots in the cloud, since it is.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Google photos does the same thing as iCloud photos in my experience with it. So not sure why you think it works so differently. Except that it downrses your photos if you don’t pay for more storage after you have so many...

Have you actually used both? They behave very differently. You can't delete photos on your iPhone and keep them in iCloud Photos like you can with Google Photos. Google allows you to free up space on your iPhone by deleting photos locally while keeping them in Google Photos (cloud). Google doesn't downsize them, it does use a compression algorithm but maintains the resolution if under or equal to 15MP, otherwise, if over 15mp, it downsizes to 15mp.
[doublepost=1534213371][/doublepost]Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Google, so I usually don't recommend it, but when it comes to Photos, sadly, it is superior. It's easier to do shared albums, upload tons of photos for no cost (but what you don't pay for, you're the product).

 

[inkahauts]

My definition of a "storage location" is that if I delete something on my device, it doesn't remove it from the "storage location." Google Photos is this storage location - I can delete a photo on my iPhone and it won't wipe it off of my cloud photo storage. OneDrive photos does this. Amazon Photos does this. On iCloud Photo storage if you delete a photo on your iPhone to free up space, it deletes it on iCloud Photos as well.

Ahh, if I go into my amazon app, or OneDrive app, or googles photo app and delete the picture in there, then it absolutely deletes it everywhere in those systems.. so it’s the same thing imho.

I keep things in iCloud and also one drive although I might switch to amazon, so that I have my photos kept in multiple cloud places...

And I also have my Mac do a full backup, so that I have an actual r al backup of my photos from that image on my Mac. A copy that isn’t controlled by someone else’s cloud...

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ahh, if I go into my amazon app, or OneDrive app, or googles photo app and delete the picture in there, then it absolutely deletes it everywhere in those systems.. so it’s the same thing imho.

I keep things in iCloud and also one drive although I might switch to amazon, so that I have my photos kept in multiple cloud places...

And I also have my Mac do a full backup, so that I have an actual r al backup of my photos from that image on my Mac. A copy that isn’t controlled by someone else’s cloud...

No worries - agreed 100% about the Mac full backup. I've got all my 155+GB of photos/videos on an external drive. What I love about iCloud Photos is that it doesn't compress the photos like Google does (although I can't tell the difference, I prefer original quality). So I backup my phone (only way I take photos today) to my external drive regularly and have another "backup" with iCloud photos.

Was just pointing out, can't delete a photo on your iPhone and keep it in the Cloud with iCloud. Something I hope that changes with iOS 12 . But either way, I'm happy with it.


Yeah, I backup to OneDrive (Office 365 subscription), Amazon Photos (Amazon Prime), iCloud Photos (2TB Family plan), and Google Photos (bleh), and to my external drive. lol.

 

[inkahauts]

Have you actually used both? They behave very differently. You can't delete photos on your iPhone and keep them in iCloud Photos like you can with Google Photos. Google allows you to free up space on your iPhone by deleting photos locally while keeping them in Google Photos (cloud). Google doesn't downsize them, it does use a compression algorithm but maintains the resolution if under or equal to 15MP, otherwise, if over 15mp, it downsizes to 15mp.
[doublepost=1534213371][/doublepost]Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Google, so I usually don't recommend it, but when it comes to Photos, sadly, it is superior. It's easier to do shared albums, upload tons of photos for no cost (but what you don't pay for, you're the product).

You delete it from the camera roll sure, but it’s still in the google app... (as a thumbnail I’d assume, just as iCloud photos does if you set it to optimize.) so you didn’t delete it any more than you did by setting iCloud photos to optimize, unless it reload the pictures off the net every single time you open the google photos app... which would be ridiculous. What a cluster that would be.

I miss the days of picasa. Google screwed that up big time.

I need to look into amazon prime photos more. One drive is ok right now but I’m thinking prime might be better...

 

[BigMcGuire]

You delete it from the camera roll sure, but it’s still in the google app... (as a thumbnail I’d assume, just as iCloud photos does if you set it to optimize.) so you didn’t delete it any more than you did by setting iCloud photos to optimize, unless it reload the pictures off the net every single time you open the google photos app... which would be ridiculous. What a cluster that would be.

I miss the days of picasa. Google screwed that up big time.

I need to look into amazon prime photos more. One drive is ok right now but I’m thinking prime might be better...

Wow another former Picasa user? Cool . I loved that application/service so much! I miss it a lot.

OneDrive's biggest failing is it doesn't backup live photos but Amazon Photos does.

 

[inkahauts]

No worries - agreed 100% about the Mac full backup. I've got all my 155+GB of photos/videos on an external drive. What I love about iCloud Photos is that it doesn't compress the photos like Google does (although I can't tell the difference, I prefer original quality). So I backup my phone (only way I take photos today) to my external drive regularly and have another "backup" with iCloud photos.

Was just pointing out, can't delete a photo on your iPhone and keep it in the Cloud with iCloud. Something I hope that changes with iOS 12 . But either way, I'm happy with it.


Yeah, I backup to OneDrive (Office 365 subscription), Amazon Photos (Amazon Prime), iCloud Photos (2TB Family plan), and Google Photos (bleh), and to my external drive. lol.

How do you like amazon photos?

And you can’t have backups to many places for photos imho.

 

[BigMcGuire]

How do you like amazon photos?

And you can’t have backups to many places for photos imho.

It's not bad - it had a LOT of development done to it in the last year - but with Amazon Prime only photos are free to upload, so videos count against your storage. But it is a very nice product - I make sure to back up to it.

In order of importance to me:

External drive backup
iCloud Photos
Google Photos (only cuz it's easy to share )
Amazon Photos
OneDrive

 

[MrMister111]

You are correct. Not sure why people are saying it’s not keeping all your phots in the cloud, since it is.

Thought so! With the full versions on my iMac, currently at 550Gb, I then back up to time capsule, and then also to a seperate online backup, this backs up the Photos file as well.