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iPad Pro Photo library in backups?

M

matt3526

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi all,

I have a weird issue with backing up my iPad. For some reason the photo library wants to back up separately to iCloud photos, which causes my backup to bloat. Does anyone know what might be causing this? Screenshots attached.

Thanks

1594645291474.png


1594645332019.png
 
It's iPadOS 13.5

Photo library only appeared since signing out and back into iCloud. My phone doesn't show it. I assume that photos get backed up as part of iCloud photo library, so I'm not sure what's going on here
 
My iPad Pro and iPhone are both on 13.5.1 and both show Photos in the backups, and the sizes of my photo library are correct. I backup to iCloud daily. I look at iCloud Photos as storage and a way to share across devices; backup is a backup.

Here's what Apple says:

Back up your photos and videos
When you turn on iCloud Photos, your photos and videos automatically upload to iCloud. They're not duplicated in your iCloud backup, so you should keep backup copies of your library. You can download your photos and videos from iCloud.com to your computer and store them as a separate library, transfer them to another computer with Image Capture or Photos, or store them on a separate drive."

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date across your devices.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
Namara said:
My iPad Pro and iPhone are both on 13.5.1 and both show Photos in the backups, and the sizes of my photo library are correct. I backup to iCloud daily. I look at iCloud Photos as storage and a way to share across devices; backup is a backup.

Here's what Apple says:

Back up your photos and videos
When you turn on iCloud Photos, your photos and videos automatically upload to iCloud. They're not duplicated in your iCloud backup, so you should keep backup copies of your library. You can download your photos and videos from iCloud.com to your computer and store them as a separate library, transfer them to another computer with Image Capture or Photos, or store them on a separate drive."

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date across your devices.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...

What Apple says seems to contradict your anecdote.

This is what OP expects to (and should) see when iCloud Photos is enabled.

IMG_9E2A1276E9F6-1.jpeg
 
I had this problem awhile back when I turned off iCloud Photos for awhile then turned it back on. The Photos made it into the backup and stayed there. When I turned on iCloud Photos, it left the photos in the backup file. So I had to delete the backup, and do another backup - then it showed correctly "Photo Library is backed up separately as part of iCloud Photos" - similar to nicho's picture.
 
BigMcGuire said:
Yep, this is it - and for photos to be removed, I had to delete the backup.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify as I was trying to multitask and messed up... "Photo Library" in the backup options should be toggled off, not anything within iCould Photos... right?
 
nicho said:
Just to clarify as I was trying to multitask and messed up... "Photo Library" in the backup options should be toggled off, not anything within iCould Photos... right?
Click to expand...

Well, so, I think it is a bug. When I had this happen to me, I had turned off iCloud Photos in the settings so the Photos got backed up in the iCloud Backup. However, when I turned back on iCloud Photos --- Photos was stuck on and stayed in the iCloud Backup. Turning it off didn't remove it, just stopped the backup of additional photos. To get it removed, I had to Delete the iCloud Backup for my iPad, then do another iCloud backup from scratch for the Photos not to appear as they should.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
Well, so, I think it is a bug. When I had this happen to me, I had turned off iCloud Photos in the settings so the Photos got backed up in the iCloud Backup. However, when I turned back on iCloud Photos --- Photos was stuck on and stayed in the iCloud Backup. Turning it off didn't remove it, just stopped the backup of additional photos. To get it removed, I had to Delete the iCloud Backup for my iPad, then do another iCloud backup from scratch for the Photos not to appear as they should.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately OP doesn't have the option to delete a backup at this point. Hopefully turning off "Photo Library" would make that process quicker (90% smaller)
 
It's possible to see Photo Library listed, despite iCloud Photos being on. This can happen if there are photos on the phone that haven't yet been synced to iCloud Photos (for example, if you have Settings > Cellular Data > Photos turned off, the phone has to wait until you connect to wifi to upload photos taken when you had no wifi). This is to ensure that photos that have not yet been synced to iCloud Photos are still backed up somehow.

After turning iCloud Photos off and then back on again, the entire library is re-synced (fortunately, the process is designed to avoid duplication). Until the re-sync is finished, images on the phone will be part of the backup.

You can check to see if the library is still in the process of re-syncing by going into the Photos app > Photos and scrolling to the bottom (to view the most recent images). If it says, "X Photos, X Videos, Updated Just Now" then the library is fully synced with iCloud. If it says "Uploading...," "Downloading...," etc., then it's still being synched.
 
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Thanks for your suggestions, but sadly none of that worked.

Also, I have this 1% photo next to photos, is it related?

1594668361340.png
 
Ok that makes sense, thanks. Now that I’ve plugged it in it’s uploading.

Unrelated but rather annoying (and making my backup huge) is that I have the files app taking space and also an ‘on my iPad’ which when I click on it just shows my files. Does any one have any idea why that happens? It’s like the same files are counted twice.

Thanks

1594669810420.png
 
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On My iPad doesn't seem to be counted twice (in terms of the total of storage used at the top of the screen shot). However, some is displayed twice (once in On This iPad and again in Files). If you add the 72.99 GB (On my iPad)+ 60.26 GB (Files) + 41.2 GB (Photos) you get 174.45 GB, which exceeds the 158.6 GB listed as "Used" at the top of the screen shot. There's undoubtedly even more apps/data on the list that's not in the screen shot.

When I look at Files and On My iPhone on my iPhone there is overlap of the items listed, but there are also differences.

There are certain data types (such as Contacts and Notes) that can be stored "On This iPhone" that do not appear in the Files app. I suspect that's why your On My iPad is significantly larger than Fies.

You can drill-down for further details in Settings > General > iPad Storage - tap on both On My iPad and Files to see more.
 
Hello, what would be the solution to this problem? I already have the icloud storage without space and that of my cell phone equally and I do not see this message on my iphone "photo library is backed up separately as part of icloud photos". it is as if the backup was being done 2 times.

Help!!!!
 
This happened to my wife last week. Found our iCloud storage had increased 40GB overnight. It was her iPhone backup which was all of a sudden backing up photos. But iCloud photos was turned on...

so we deleted backup and turned off iCloud backup then turned it back on. Strange.
 
Also having this problem (iPhone and iPad) that my photo library gets backed up separately even though I have iCloud Photos enabled. The thing is: When I turn the backups off and delete them and then I re-do them manually everything works like a charm. BUT: Just for a few days. Then, suddenly it backs up all of my > 30 GB of photos to iCloud again despite having iCloud Photos turned on.

I also noticed that while my iCloud Photo library is 33 GB, the photo library that iOS tries to back up is 36 GB. And everything is synced (no pending upload or download of iCloud Photos) so that can't be the issue.
 
BigMcGuire said:
This happened to my wife last week. Found our iCloud storage had increased 40GB overnight. It was her iPhone backup which was all of a sudden backing up photos. But iCloud photos was turned on...

so we deleted backup and turned off iCloud backup then turned it back on. Strange.
Click to expand...

I had this problem on my new 12 Pro after transferring data over from my X. Deleting the backup, turning it off and turning it on again did not fix the issue.

Disabling backup of camera roll and waiting 3-4 days seems to have, now that I check.
 
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