iPhone XS Restoring large iCloud backup to a smaller & temporary phone

[james-bailey]

Hi guys I have an iPhone XS with a large amount of photos and videos.

It’s broken and going to be replaced.

In the meantime I have a much smaller iPhone 7 that I’d like to use whilst I wait for a new XS.

I’d like to restore the 7 from my most recent backup but what will happen if it is too small?

Also then in a weeks time when I restore the new XS from the most recent backup made from the 7, will a large chunk of pictures and data be lost?

thanks

James

 

[nicho]

Hi guys I have an iPhone XS with a large amount of photos and videos.

It’s broken and going to be replaced.

In the meantime I have a much smaller iPhone 7 that I’d like to use whilst I wait for a new XS.

I’d like to restore the 7 from my most recent backup but what will happen if it is too small?

Also then in a weeks time when I restore the new XS from the most recent backup made from the 7, will a large chunk of pictures and data be lost?

thanks

James

Do you use iCloud Photos?

 

[teeshot44]

Backup your photos and videos to a cloud account then remove them from your current phone. You should always have a backup of things you don't want to lose anyway.

 

[james-bailey]

I don’t use iCloud photos unfortunately and don’t have that option right now as the screen is broken and unusable :-(

 

[ian87w]

I don’t think you can restore the backup.
I’d suggest to just set the 7 as a new phone and use it temporarily until you can get the appropriate iPhone with enough storage, and then restore this backup.

 

[james-bailey]

Backup your photos and videos to a cloud account then remove them from your current phone. You should always have a backup of things you don't want to lose anyway.

I’ll do this in the future.

regarding iCloud photos, am I right in thinking that every photo taken, automatically gets uploaded? If so, then how are pictures ever deleted from there? i.e how does it know the difference between deleting a photo on the phone because its blurry and deleting pictures to save space?

 

[james-bailey]

I don’t think you can restore the backup.
I’d suggest to just set the 7 as a new phone and use it temporarily until you can get the appropriate iPhone with enough storage, and then restore this backup.

Thanks yes thats kinda what I was expecting to hear, that a message would pop up suggesting that the restore cant be processed of some sort. Setting the 7 up as a new phone sounds a wise idea

 

[nicho]

I’ll do this in the future.

regarding iCloud photos, am I right in thinking that every photo taken, automatically gets uploaded? If so, then how are pictures ever deleted from there? i.e how does it know the difference between deleting a photo on the phone because its blurry and deleting pictures to save space?

You delete the photos actively. It replaces the photo on your device with a much lower quality version in order to save space. It doesn't delete photos. You can't replace photos to save space.

Two separate processes.

 

[ian87w]

I’ll do this in the future.

regarding iCloud photos, am I right in thinking that every photo taken, automatically gets uploaded? If so, then how are pictures ever deleted from there? i.e how does it know the difference between deleting a photo on the phone because its blurry and deleting pictures to save space?

With iCloud photos, every photo you take will get uploaded to iCloud. Basically your camera roll is synced with the cloud. If you delete a photo, iCloud will also delete it from the cloud.
As for saving space, there’s an option on the iPhone to “optimize iPhone storage.” Basically iCloud will automatically remove photos or adjust the resolution/quality of the locally stored photos on your phone as needed. All the full res original photos are still in the cloud.

 

[james-bailey]

Thanks guys I never knew this and it makes a lot of sense!

cheers