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iPhone 13 Pro Max Photos not optimizing storage with new iPhone
- Thread starter vtboyarc
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Mine came down significantly after 48 hours as well but I’m still not sure the available GB calculations are correct on all of my devices.
In the same boat: my available storage finally went up to 151 GB (from about 120 GB) on my 256 GB 13 PM and stayed there for the past week or so.
I don't think I was clear - on the iPhone 13 when I first transferred from my old iPhone the photos went to 100GB and stayed there. After the 15.1 update it went down to 20 GB - my old phone was at about 20GB .
You were pretty clear. We’re talking about the exact same thing. I got more available storage after the most recent update.
this forum was helpful in solving this issue. a little context, i upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro 512GB to iPhone 13 Pro Max 512BG a month ago, whenever the new phones came out and restored from an iCloud backup. My photo library had taken up around 50BG on the 12 Pro, and on the 13 Pro Max was taking up 383GB.. so it was clear iCloud wasn't optimizing my photo library, and my iCloud showed every photo was backed up. to the point where my phone kept crashing every time I'd try to take 4K 60fps video for a project I'm working on.
The solution that ended up working was, turning off and on iCloud Photos, and force restarting my 13 Pro Max (the method of which I learned has changed!). it seems that it reindexed my entire library, and after a few hours once it was done indexing, my photo library went from 383GB to where it's at now - 56GB. So it seems to be an issue with restoring iPhone from an iCloud backup?
This solution worked for me, just wanted to share it with y'all as I know how frustrating it is to have this issue! It'd be nice if Apple somehow added an option to force the optimization to happen, and even choose how much space you would like the photo library to take up on your phone... though that wouldn't be a very Apple thing to do
cheers !
The solution that ended up working was, turning off and on iCloud Photos, and force restarting my 13 Pro Max (the method of which I learned has changed!). it seems that it reindexed my entire library, and after a few hours once it was done indexing, my photo library went from 383GB to where it's at now - 56GB. So it seems to be an issue with restoring iPhone from an iCloud backup?
This solution worked for me, just wanted to share it with y'all as I know how frustrating it is to have this issue! It'd be nice if Apple somehow added an option to force the optimization to happen, and even choose how much space you would like the photo library to take up on your phone... though that wouldn't be a very Apple thing to do
cheers !
I’m having this issue now to an extent. When you turned off iCloud photos what did you do when asked if you want to download them to your phone?this forum was helpful in solving this issue. a little context, i upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro 512GB to iPhone 13 Pro Max 512BG a month ago, whenever the new phones came out and restored from an iCloud backup. My photo library had taken up around 50BG on the 12 Pro, and on the 13 Pro Max was taking up 383GB.. so it was clear iCloud wasn't optimizing my photo library, and my iCloud showed every photo was backed up. to the point where my phone kept crashing every time I'd try to take 4K 60fps video for a project I'm working on.
The solution that ended up working was, turning off and on iCloud Photos, and force restarting my 13 Pro Max (the method of which I learned has changed!). it seems that it reindexed my entire library, and after a few hours once it was done indexing, my photo library went from 383GB to where it's at now - 56GB. So it seems to be an issue with restoring iPhone from an iCloud backup?
This solution worked for me, just wanted to share it with y'all as I know how frustrating it is to have this issue! It'd be nice if Apple somehow added an option to force the optimization to happen, and even choose how much space you would like the photo library to take up on your phone... though that wouldn't be a very Apple thing to do
cheers !
I believe they were all downloaded to my phone already which was a symptom of the issue I was having. Make sure to have your library backed up elsewhere just to be safe, but I would select download to iPhone just to keep that library intact. Otherwise the other option if I remember correctly is removing the photos from the phone, which you definitely don’t want.
I’m wondering if I go the other route if all of my pics will still be in iCloud. Why does it feel like this is more confusing than it should be??
The the original post on this thread is quite excessive and could potentially cause a low space issue if they were to add another large file or app.
That said, iOS will hold on to things that will be removed if there isn't a need to remove them. It's optimize iPhone storage, not just make space for the sake of having free space.
The reason it does this is because its much more efficient for all systems (not just iPhones) to hang onto cache if its not affecting user experience or performance. If you access a file that will be removed again prior to it being removed (especially when it comes to photos) and it pulls it from cache then it saved the wear on the NAND, energy, bandwidth and time required delete it, then redownload it and verify sync across iCloud. Its the entire purpose for it.
Now I'm not saying there isn't a bug or something however if you access your photos, especially 100-200+ gb. That is going to take FOREVER! Make sure the iPhone is locked, on wifi and on the charger...syncing with photos is often paused when on battery due to potential for a lot of power drain.
That said, iOS will hold on to things that will be removed if there isn't a need to remove them. It's optimize iPhone storage, not just make space for the sake of having free space.
The reason it does this is because its much more efficient for all systems (not just iPhones) to hang onto cache if its not affecting user experience or performance. If you access a file that will be removed again prior to it being removed (especially when it comes to photos) and it pulls it from cache then it saved the wear on the NAND, energy, bandwidth and time required delete it, then redownload it and verify sync across iCloud. Its the entire purpose for it.
Now I'm not saying there isn't a bug or something however if you access your photos, especially 100-200+ gb. That is going to take FOREVER! Make sure the iPhone is locked, on wifi and on the charger...syncing with photos is often paused when on battery due to potential for a lot of power drain.