Optimal way to keep photos to maintain storage.

[TorontoSS]

Hi there - I was wondering what is the best way to store photos? I was under the impression that they remain in iCloud and thumbnail versions are available on the device. But in my iPhone they seem to be on there as there 6.5 gb of photos on the device. Any way to keep them in cloud but only ones I need on device?

Thanks!

 

[Feenician]

Hi there - I was wondering what is the best way to store photos? I was under the impression that they remain in iCloud and thumbnail versions are available on the device. But in my iPhone they seem to be on there as there 6.5 gb of photos on the device. Any way to keep them in cloud but only ones I need on device?

Thanks!

Do you have the following setting enabled? Settings -> Photos -> Optimize iPhone Storage

 

[TorontoSS]

Do you have the following setting enabled? Settings -> Photos -> Optimize iPhone Storage

Yup I have that on. Is that the only thing to do? I still have 6.5 g of photo data.

 

[KrisLord]

Yup I have that on. Is that the only thing to do? I still have 6.5 g of photo data.

How much free space do you have though?

It’s optimising space usage rather than minimising storage. So it can reduce storage if space is needed.

 

[Feenician]

Yup I have that on. Is that the only thing to do? I still have 6.5 g of photo data.

Yes, that should do it. However it won't delete anything if there isn't any pressure for space.

 

[TorontoSS]

Yes, that should do it. However it won't delete anything if there isn't any pressure for space.

How much free space do you have though?

It’s optimising space usage rather than minimising storage. So it can reduce storage if space is needed.

Oh I see. I don’t have pressure on space right now. I’m only using 25 out of 128gb on the 7. I was doing this exercise because I am downgrading to 64 to get the iPhone X and wanted to know how I could get less on it. I’m hoping 64 will work out!
I have 200 on iCloud of which I only use 50 so was wondering if the photos could just be there instead of the phone.

Thanks!

 

[Feenician]

Oh I see. I don’t have pressure on space right now. I’m only using 25 out of 128gb on the 7. I was doing this exercise because I am downgrading to 64 to get the iPhone X and wanted to know how I could get less on it. I’m hoping 64 will work out!
I have 200 on iCloud of which I only use 50 so was wondering if the photos could just be there instead of the phone.

Thanks!

Ah. I think you should be good. When you restore or just sign in to the 64Gb an appropriate amount of storage should be taken for that size.

 

[gwhizkids]

This is one of the essential problems with how Apple handles photo storage. I have 10s of thousands of photos. If I store them in iCloud, they all show up on my phone. So, even though it may “optimize “ I was always up against my storage limits on a 16 GB phone. I was still getting out of memory reminders. I finally gave up and moved photos to Google Photos.

 

[cynics]

Apple isn't very transparent with how they deal with iCloud Photo Library and Optimize device storage.

They want to keep photos stored on the device for 2 reasons.

First, its a better user experience to have the photos stored locally. This way when you want to see them, share them, edit them etc etc you aren't reliant on your ISP or cellular providers. I used to have a 16gb device and it was a pita with a large library since it would always be downloading the original from the cloud and if network conditions were bad enough sometimes it just wouldn't work. Now with a 64gb device even though only a small percentage of my total photo library size is stored on the device I feel nearly all the photos I look at "feel" like they are locally stored.

Second is to minimize cellular data usage. Since Oct 28th (last reset) Photos has used 475mb between syncing and me downloading original versions of pics. This would only get exponentially worse if they moved more photos off my phone. Since I have plenty of space on my phone that would just be completely unnecessary and wasteful for my data plan.

Sometimes (but not always) manually syncing with iTunes will reallocate the cached photo data to the "other" section of the phones storage. However this is probably just a visual change and that data was already set as cached and scheduled for removal if storage space was required.

I just sync'd my iPhone to iTunes the first time in eons and my photo storage went from 5.6gb to 761mb. However again this space wasn't reclaimed, it was just reallocated to the "other" section in the phone. I mentioned this doesn't always work because I was attempting to follow the data on my iPad however syncing made no difference. The variable there is I always look at older photos on my iPhone and I never look at older photos on my iPad so maybe nothing was cached on the iPad.

Regardless you have more than enough space even at 64gb. Its a moot point anyway since with iCloud Photo Library on when you sign into the new device the photo library will repopulate with the majority of data not downloading to the extent it is now.

 

[TorontoSS]

Apple isn't very transparent with how they deal with iCloud Photo Library and Optimize device storage.

They want to keep photos stored on the device for 2 reasons.

First, its a better user experience to have the photos stored locally. This way when you want to see them, share them, edit them etc etc you aren't reliant on your ISP or cellular providers. I used to have a 16gb device and it was a pita with a large library since it would always be downloading the original from the cloud and if network conditions were bad enough sometimes it just wouldn't work. Now with a 64gb device even though only a small percentage of my total photo library size is stored on the device I feel nearly all the photos I look at "feel" like they are locally stored.

Second is to minimize cellular data usage. Since Oct 28th (last reset) Photos has used 475mb between syncing and me downloading original versions of pics. This would only get exponentially worse if they moved more photos off my phone. Since I have plenty of space on my phone that would just be completely unnecessary and wasteful for my data plan.

Sometimes (but not always) manually syncing with iTunes will reallocate the cached photo data to the "other" section of the phones storage. However this is probably just a visual change and that data was already set as cached and scheduled for removal if storage space was required.

I just sync'd my iPhone to iTunes the first time in eons and my photo storage went from 5.6gb to 761mb. However again this space wasn't reclaimed, it was just reallocated to the "other" section in the phone. I mentioned this doesn't always work because I was attempting to follow the data on my iPad however syncing made no difference. The variable there is I always look at older photos on my iPhone and I never look at older photos on my iPad so maybe nothing was cached on the iPad.

Regardless you have more than enough space even at 64gb. Its a moot point anyway since with iCloud Photo Library on when you sign into the new device the photo library will repopulate with the majority of data not downloading to the extent it is now.

Thank you - that's a very informative post. I guess this is because one uses icloud photo library. When I restored my current phone as new, all of my old photos came back on despite it being set up as new. I'm assuming, in the future, if I really am pressed for space, I can shut off this feature on my phone (keep it in the ipad and mac) and not have those photos stored locally, correct?

 

[DaPizzaMan]

This is one of the essential problems with how Apple handles photo storage. I have 10s of thousands of photos. If I store them in iCloud, they all show up on my phone. So, even though it may “optimize “ I was always up against my storage limits on a 16 GB phone. I was still getting out of memory reminders. I finally gave up and moved photos to Google Photos.

This is the correct answer.

 

[cynics]

Thank you - that's a very informative post. I guess this is because one uses icloud photo library. When I restored my current phone as new, all of my old photos came back on despite it being set up as new. I'm assuming, in the future, if I really am pressed for space, I can shut off this feature on my phone (keep it in the ipad and mac) and not have those photos stored locally, correct?

For the most part yes.

You'd want to shut off...

Settings > Photos > iCloud Photo Library = off

That will disable it on a single device. However you'll be presented with two options.

1. Remove from iPhone - This options removes all the images and videos that are full quality. Everything else stays on the Phone. This is the option you'd want.

2. Download Photos and Videos - This options lets you download all your photos and videos to the device. This the option for people wanting to get away from iCloud Photos assuming they have the space available.

After you select 1 you'll need to manually wipe the rest of the remaining photos if you wanted ALL the space back.