iPhone 11 Pro Question about ICloud Drive

[aenflex]

Was on the phone with Apple today and got a pretty vague answer.
If I upgrade to iCloud Drive, can I move my photos from my phone to the cloud and remove them completely from my phone, like Google photos or other cloud-based storage?

 

[Apple_Robert]

This support article may be of help to you.

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 on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

 

[murad_fourth]

This support article may be of help to you.

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 on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

This guy is everywhere in this forum.

I am actually wondering if you @BasicGreatGuy have a life... I mean real life (eating, drinking, reading, playing console games, chatting, taking a nap, having bath, kissing a girl, travelling abroad, dreaming, thinking, working, walking, running, consulting, insulting, praying etc.)...

 

[Apple_Robert]

This guy is everywhere in this forum.

I am actually wondering if you @BasicGreatGuy have a life... I mean real life (eating, drinking, reading, playing console games, chatting, taking a nap, having bath, kissing a girl, travelling abroad, dreaming, thinking, working, walking, running, consulting, insulting, praying etc.)...

I have a very fine life. Contrary to what you may think, I am a very busy man most every day. There is a lot more to my life than MacRumors.

 

[ericwn]

He’s the good spirit of Macrumors.

 

[murad_fourth]

I have a very fine life. Contrary to what you may think, I am a very busy man most every day. There is a lot more to my life than MacRumors.

I see. Then let’s go to a tavern to drink a fine wine when you have free time. Just let me know when and we’ll go. 😃

I know there is a fine tavern (with nice girls in it) in Brno. 😊

 

[aenflex]

This support article may be of help to you.

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 on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

[/QUOT

This support article may be of help to you.

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 on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

I feel like I have pretty good understanding of iCloud photos. However, I want to store my photos in the cloud and completely remove them from my iPhone. This is why I was asking about iCloud Drive. With iCloud photos when I delete pics from my phone they are also deleted from my photos in iCloud. I don’t want to use the ‘optimized’ setting, either. I want complete cloud storage. Surprisingly the tech I spoke with at Apple today didn’t have a definitive answer.

 

[0128672]

I feel like I have pretty good understanding of iCloud photos. However, I want to store my photos in the cloud and completely remove them from my iPhone. This is why I was asking about iCloud Drive. With iCloud photos when I delete pics from my phone they are also deleted from my photos in iCloud. I don’t want to use the ‘optimized’ setting, either. I want complete cloud storage. Surprisingly the tech I spoke with at Apple today didn’t have a definitive answer.

iCloud Photos doesn't work the way you're describing. There's a relationship between the photos on your device and what's stored in iCloud, and it has everything to do with original and a smaller version. Either you're storing the original sizes on your device and smaller versions in iCloud, or vice versa. You can't just store the photos in iCloud Photos and not have some version on your device.

You can create a workaround by exporting all of your photos on a Mac into a folder stored in the Files app or an external drive, and not use iCloud Photo at all. Or maybe there's third-party options to explore.

 

[akash.nu]

If you do choose, you can export all photos from your iPhone on to a iCloud Drive folder. Then you can delete photos on your phone. Just feels like touching the nose the other way around than doing it straight with iCloud photos.

 

[MrKennedy]

I feel like I have pretty good understanding of iCloud photos. However, I want to store my photos in the cloud and completely remove them from my iPhone. This is why I was asking about iCloud Drive. With iCloud photos when I delete pics from my phone they are also deleted from my photos in iCloud. I don’t want to use the ‘optimized’ setting, either. I want complete cloud storage. Surprisingly the tech I spoke with at Apple today didn’t have a definitive answer.

Any particular reason why you want to go this route? The optimized photo storage uses a very tiny fraction of on device storage.

A downside would be if you offload your entire photo library to a separate folder in drive, every photo you take afterwards will exist in the normal iPhone library until you offload them again. Browsing them in iCloud drive kinda sucks, too.

 

[aenflex]

If you do choose, you can export all photos from your iPhone on to a iCloud Drive folder. Then you can delete photos on your phone. Just feels like touching the nose the other way around than doing it straight with iCloud photos.

Thanks, I am going to test it out. My current process is exporting the photos to an external drive AND a dedicated drive on my husbands PC. So if iCloud Drive works as you say, it’ll still be easier than what I currently do.

I have a compendium of photos and I just want them safely stored not on my phone.

 

[aenflex]

Any particular reason why you want to go this route? The optimized photo storage uses a very tiny fraction of on device storage.

A downside would be if you offload your entire photo library to a separate folder in drive, every photo you take afterwards will exist in the normal iPhone library until you offload them again. Browsing them in iCloud drive kinda sucks, too.

My current process is exporting the photos to an external drive AND a dedicated drive on my husbands PC. So if iCloud Drive works, it’ll still be easier than what I currently do. I just don’t want them on my phone.

 

[aenflex]

iCloud Photos doesn't work the way you're describing. There's a relationship between the photos on your device and what's stored in iCloud, and it has everything to do with original and a smaller version. Either you're storing the original sizes on your device and smaller versions in iCloud, or vice versa. You can't just store the photos in iCloud Photos and not have some version on your device.

You can create a workaround by exporting all of your photos on a Mac into a folder stored in the Files app or an external drive, and not use iCloud Photo at all. Or maybe there's third-party options to explore.

I understand that I cannot use iCloud photos without storing some version of the files on my iPhone. This is why I wanted to know if iCloud Drive would allow me to fully remove the photos from my iPhone. I don’t want them in there. There are just too many. iCloud Drive is not the same thing as iCloud photos, I don’t think.

 

[0128672]

I understand that I cannot use iCloud photos without storing some version of the files on my iPhone. This is why I wanted to know if iCloud Drive would allow me to fully remove the photos from my iPhone. I don’t want them in there. There are just too many. iCloud Drive is not the same thing as iCloud photos, I don’t think.

Yes, you're right. iCloud Drive via the Files app is different than iCloud Photos. Both use your iCloud storage space, but they're allocated separately.

 

[MyPhone99]

icloud is pretty easy if you go in happy path. but its very confusing if there is small change

For example i have two phones where i logged in with same icloud account and have 1-10 photos on icloud,phone 1 and phone 2 .
Now i took a snap in phone 1(say image 11) and took another snap in phone 2 (image 12)
Now when i check in icloud.com i could see only 1-11 pics in icloud and 1-11 in phone 1 and 1-10& 12 in phone 2.
Not sure when will this image 12 be synced into icloud?

 

[akash.nu]

icloud is pretty easy if you go in happy path. but its very confusing if there is small change

For example i have two phones where i logged in with same icloud account and have 1-10 photos on icloud,phone 1 and phone 2 .
Now i took a snap in phone 1(say image 11) and took another snap in phone 2 (image 12)
Now when i check in icloud.com i could see only 1-11 pics in icloud and 1-11 in phone 1 and 1-10& 12 in phone 2.
Not sure when will this image 12 be synced into icloud?

I use iPhones, iPads, macs, Apple TV’s all day long and such sync issues don’t occur that often. Hardly ever in fact. Are your phones connected to the internet always with proper data connection either via cellular or WiFi?

 

[0128672]

A little trick I found is to get the photos to appear in the Photos app sooner (so they will sync) is to quit the Camera app after shooting. I don't know why this works, but it does.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Yes, you can use iCloud Drive the way you describe, but it takes a fair amount of work (Save image to Files then delete from Photos), and the Files app is not optimized for displaying photos - it's harder to find images, as you have little more than the file name and the upload date to work with. Further, I do a lot of image editing, and iCloud Drive has no photo editing tools (there are markup tools, but that's not what I want).

I'm a fan of iCloud Photos' Optimize Storage. Yes, it does use some storage space on the iPhone, but in my case, I have 103.2 GB of Photos in iCloud, and just 3.43 GB of Photos data usage on my iPhone (Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Photos). The way Optimize Storage works, if you don't view a photo on your iPhone, the full-size image will eventually be removed from the iPhone automatically, while leaving it in the cloud. What's left on the iPhone is the thumbnail-size image so that you can browse through your entire image catalog (each thumbnail is around 150 KB or smaller). If you tap on an image (to view full-size) and it is not in full-size on the iPhone, it is automatically downloaded to the phone. If you don't view it again for a while, it'll automatically be removed from the iPhone again.

From my perspective, I prefer to use the Photos app, as it's optimized for viewing, locating, and editing photos. But if you want zero photos storage on your iPhone and are willing to do all the manual labor necessary to achieve that goal, go right ahead and move photos into iCloud Drive.

 

[MrKennedy]

Yes, you can use iCloud Drive the way you describe, but it takes a fair amount of work (Save image to Files then delete from Photos), and the Files app is not optimized for displaying photos - it's harder to find images, as you have little more than the file name and the upload date to work with. Further, I do a lot of image editing, and iCloud Drive has no photo editing tools (there are markup tools, but that's not what I want).

I'm a fan of iCloud Photos' Optimize Storage. Yes, it does use some storage space on the iPhone, but in my case, I have 103.2 GB of Photos in iCloud, and just 3.43 GB of Photos data usage on my iPhone (Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Photos). The way Optimize Storage works, if you don't view a photo on your iPhone, the full-size image will eventually be removed from the iPhone automatically, while leaving it in the cloud. What's left on the iPhone is the thumbnail-size image so that you can browse through your entire image catalog (each thumbnail is around 150 KB or smaller). If you tap on an image (to view full-size) and it is not in full-size on the iPhone, it is automatically downloaded to the phone. If you don't view it again for a while, it'll automatically be removed from the iPhone again.

From my perspective, I prefer to use the Photos app, as it's optimized for viewing, locating, and editing photos. But if you want zero photos storage on your iPhone and are willing to do all the manual labor necessary to achieve that goal, go right ahead and move photos into iCloud Drive.

Well said. OP If you’re going to regularly transfer photos to another cloud service, there are options better than iCloud.

 

[Shirasaki]

Another perk for iCloud photos is photos app’s “library” nature and the ability to categorise photos into albums, add additional metadata etc. it won’t be an easy task on files app or iCloud Drive if it is at all possible.

 

[aenflex]

Yes, you can use iCloud Drive the way you describe, but it takes a fair amount of work (Save image to Files then delete from Photos), and the Files app is not optimized for displaying photos - it's harder to find images, as you have little more than the file name and the upload date to work with. Further, I do a lot of image editing, and iCloud Drive has no photo editing tools (there are markup tools, but that's not what I want).

I'm a fan of iCloud Photos' Optimize Storage. Yes, it does use some storage space on the iPhone, but in my case, I have 103.2 GB of Photos in iCloud, and just 3.43 GB of Photos data usage on my iPhone (Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Photos). The way Optimize Storage works, if you don't view a photo on your iPhone, the full-size image will eventually be removed from the iPhone automatically, while leaving it in the cloud. What's left on the iPhone is the thumbnail-size image so that you can browse through your entire image catalog (each thumbnail is around 150 KB or smaller). If you tap on an image (to view full-size) and it is not in full-size on the iPhone, it is automatically downloaded to the phone. If you don't view it again for a while, it'll automatically be removed from the iPhone again.

From my perspective, I prefer to use the Photos app, as it's optimized for viewing, locating, and editing photos. But if you want zero photos storage on your iPhone and are willing to do all the manual labor necessary to achieve that goal, go right ahead and move photos into iCloud Drive.

Thanks. What I was already doing was even more intensive and redundant. After some testing I decided to use DropBox. A few steps quicker than iCloud Drive. Thanks for you detailed information.
[automerge]1597428144[/automerge]

Well said. OP If you’re going to regularly transfer photos to another cloud service, there are options better than iCloud.

yep - went with DropBox.

 

[purdnost]

I offload all of my photos and videos yearly to an external hard drive. I have sooooo many photos and videos over the years, to store them all in iCloud, it would take up too space on my iPhone just for the thumbnails. I’ve considered the Files app, but that takes even more space. Considering Dropbox, but then I’m paying $$$ and I may run into the same problem with my device not having enough storage space for just the thumbnails.

 

[Five_Oh]

I offload all of my photos and videos yearly to an external hard drive. I have sooooo many photos and videos over the years, to store them all in iCloud, it would take up too space on my iPhone just for the thumbnails. I’ve considered the Files app, but that takes even more space. Considering Dropbox, but then I’m paying $$$ and I may run into the same problem with my device not having enough storage space for just the thumbnails.

How many do you have??

I have about 200 GB of photos/videos in iCloud, but the thumbnails take less than 2 GB of local storage on my phone.

 

[purdnost]

About 1.5 TB, including RAW.

 

[purdnost]

How many do you have??

I have about 200 GB of photos/videos in iCloud, but the thumbnails take less than 2 GB of local storage on my phone.

About 1.5 GB, including RAW.