Question About iCloud

[rockitdog]

I have what may be a silly question but does iCloud photos count towards (or against) your overall device storage? Meaning if you have 2.6 GB of photos and videos on iCloud, does that mean it's also taking up 2.6 GB of your device storage as well?

If I also have 2.6 GB of actual photos and videos saved to my camera roll along with my iCloud am I actually using 5+ GB of my storage? Sorry if this seems like an elementary or noob question.

 

[Tyler23]

I have what may be a silly question but does iCloud photos count towards (or against) your overall device storage? Meaning if you have 2.6 GB of photos and videos on iCloud, does that mean it's also taking up 2.6 GB of your device storage as well?

If I also have 2.6 GB of actual photos and videos saved to my camera roll along with my iCloud am I actually using 5+ GB of my storage? Sorry if this seems like an elementary or noob question.

They are two very separate things. Local storage and iCloud storage. Local storage is what version of the phone you bought, 16, 32 or 64 GB. For iCloud storage, you get 5GB and can purchase. More if necessary. If you have 2.6 GB of photos in your camera roll that are also backed up to iCloud, you're using 2.6 GB of your local storage and 2.6 GB of your iCloud storage with just those photos alone.

 

[rockitdog]

Question About iCloud

They are two very separate things. Local storage and iCloud storage. Local storage is what version of the phone you bought, 16, 32 or 64 GB. For iCloud storage, you get 5GB and can purchase. More if necessary. If you have 2.6 GB of photos in your camera roll that are also backed up to iCloud, you're using 2.6 GB of your local storage and 2.6 GB of your iCloud storage with just those photos alone.

But isn't iCloud only accessible when your on wifi? When I'm not on wifi as I am through most work days I can still get to all of my iCloud photos/videos that are on my phone. Since I can get to them on my phone, aren't they on my phone in two different places, camera roll and iCloud steam?

 

[Tyler23]

But isn't iCloud only accessible when your on wifi? When I'm not on wifi as I am through most work days I can still get to all of my iCloud photos/videos that are on my phone. Since I can get to them on my phone, aren't they on my phone in two different places, camera roll and iCloud steam?

Not sure where you got that idea. You can only back up to iCloud while on wifi, but your iCloud stored photos are perfectly viewable when on any sort of connection. If you have an iPad or a Mac, you will see that your photos show up on those devices even if they are not locally stored there, because of the cloud. Camera roll is local storage. iCloud stream (photo stream) is cloud storage. Your photos are stored locally in your camera roll. If you use photo stream, then they are automatically uploaded to the cloud when you connect to wifi. At that point, they're stored both locally and in the cloud. You could then delete the photos that are in photo stream from your camera roll to save local storage space. If you have a Mac with iPhoto, you can then open that which will cause it to download your photos from photo stream to your computer. Photo stream saves up to 1000 of your most recent photos, so it's suggested that you do save them locally somewhere if you wish to keep those photos.

 

[Col Ronson]

But isn't iCloud only accessible when your on wifi? When I'm not on wifi as I am through most work days I can still get to all of my iCloud photos/videos that are on my phone. Since I can get to them on my phone, aren't they on my phone in two different places, camera roll and iCloud steam?

Yes they are on your phone's physical memory and they are also in your icloud virtual drive.

btw photo stream doesn't count towards your 5GB. To see what is actually taking up the 5GB of space, just click manage storage and it will tally down everything.

 

[CosmoPilot]

As stated above, PhotoStream does not count against your iCloud storage. Those photos (PhotoStream) will not stay in PhotoStream forever. After a certain time and/or maximum photo count, your oldest photos will be deleted from PhotoStream automatically.