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Other Storage size: 512 GB or 256 GB?

Luba

Luba

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
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If the 512 was only $100 more, I'd get it but it's $200 more. Also, it seems an iPhone that size is an outlier as most are 256 or smaller. Am I storing too much stuff? I looked at it 'iPhone Storage' under Settings and I'm using up 200 GB and I don't take pictures or videos that often. After utilizing all of iPhone's recommendations . . . offload apps, deleting attachments, emptying out podcasts, deleting videos etc. I'm at 90 GB.

I don't plan on downloading games or videos, but I do plan on taking videos or photos with the 12 Pro. With the 256 GB version I figure I would have about 100 GB of free storage. Is that plenty?
 
My iPhone X is 256 GB. Since then, I finally transitioned my photo library to iCloud (upgraded to the 2TB plan). I also moved my messages to iCloud also. I'm a person who had their full camera roll on their iPhone dating back to my iPhone 3G in 2008 and the same with my texts. Both of those had blown up exponentially (I think messages was around 16GB and my Photos was over 100GB).

I'm going to stay with 256GB because I am using iCloud a lot for messages, photos, and Drive and I do like that not as much is offloaded often. I don't think 512GB is worth it as none of my devices currently (iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro) have more than 256GB built in.
 
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bradbomb said:
My iPhone X is 256 GB. Since then, I finally transitioned my photo library to iCloud (upgraded to the 2TB plan). I also moved my messages to iCloud also. I'm a person who had their full camera roll on their iPhone dating back to my iPhone 3G in 2008 and the same with my texts. Both of those had blown up exponentially (I think messages was around 16GB and my Photos was over 100GB).

I'm going to stay with 256GB because I am using iCloud a lot for messages, photos, and Drive and I do like that not as much is offloaded often. I don't think 512GB is worth it as none of my devices currently (iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro) have more than 256GB built in.
Click to expand...

Did you ‘transition to iCloud’ by turning iCloud photos ON on the phone and letting it do it’s thing and upload them?
 
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It depends on how long you plan on keeping this device, I usually keep mine 2 years but I went with 256gb on my Xs max (solely because 64gb is abismal), now I will keep this device for 3 years.

If you keep the phone less than 2 years or 2 years, get 128gb and an Icloud plan. If you plan to take a lot of photos or store more and plan to keep for at least 2 years, get 256gb. I have 256gb on mine and use 85gb, definitely overkill but 128gb was not an option. I also use 49gb on my Icloud plan but that is for backing up on Icloud.
 
Sticking with 256 again. Been on 256gb I think since the X. I'm bad about hoarding games and apps I don't even play on my phone (because I like playing on the big iPad screen instead)... been trying to only keep the current games I'm playing, a few gigs of music, a few gigs of photos, and a few gigs of videos/Netflix/YouTube for travel.
 
I think I’d be fine with 128 but going to do 256 because I’m a sucker.
 
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I usually go with the maximum storage I can get. But this time I've decided to get the 256GB bc instead of downloading movies to my iPhone Pro Max, I'll just get the 1TB iPad Pro and download all kinds of stuff to it, and get a smaller iPhone Pro.
 
The whole Dolby Vision, and AppleRAW format are sure to eat up space. That's the only thing that is making me bat an eye at the 512 despite being on a 256.
 
RWil85 said:
Did you ‘transition to iCloud’ by turning iCloud photos ON on the phone and letting it do it’s thing and upload them?
Click to expand...

I actually did my Mac Mini first that had my full library from 2000 on (300 GBs). I let that one finish and then I turned it on my iPhone next and let it do its thing.
 
512GB. iCloud buffering/downloading is insanely slow and not at all an optimal solution for those who keep lots of video and photos on their phone. Can't wait to get rid of iCloud.
 
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Luba said:
If the 512 was only $100 more, I'd get it but it's $200 more. Also, it seems an iPhone that size is an outlier as most are 256 or smaller. Am I storing too much stuff? I looked at it 'iPhone Storage' under Settings and I'm using up 200 GB and I don't take pictures or videos that often. After utilizing all of iPhone's recommendations . . . offload apps, deleting attachments, emptying out podcasts, deleting videos etc. I'm at 90 GB.

I don't plan on downloading games or videos, but I do plan on taking videos or photos with the 12 Pro. With the 256 GB version I figure I would have about 100 GB of free storage. Is that plenty?
Click to expand...

128GB is sufficient.
 
bradbomb said:
I actually did my Mac Mini first that had my full library from 2000 on (300 GBs). I let that one finish and then I turned it on my iPhone next and let it do its thing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!!

One more silly question..but, having a hard time finding a concrete answer..

Once you allow all of your ‘libraries’...for example, a Mac, an iPad, iPhone, etc..

Will iCloud automatically put the photos into one ‘big library’ in chronological order?
 
RWil85 said:
Thanks for the info!!

One more silly question..but, having a hard time finding a concrete answer..

Once you allow all of your ‘libraries’...for example, a Mac, an iPad, iPhone, etc..

Will iCloud automatically put the photos into one ‘big library’ in chronological order?
Click to expand...

Yes it has. It also actually some duplicates issues I was having prior. It’s nice now even that when I take pics with my dslr, I can use the lightning to sd adapter and import the photos there and then all my macs have them. I have the Mac Mini keep all originals and all other devices are on optimize storage
 
I got my wife 128gb. If she goes low on storage I'll just switch her over to optimizing photo library storage.
 
I have 10620 photos and 1211 videos on my iphone 8 and I have used 128.48GB of memory out of its total 256GB.

This is 3 years of photos, as I bought the 8 on release in september 2017.

Id say that 128GB is more than enough if you offload images from it once a year or two. I bought 128 GB for my 12 pro now and I think that is a good choice.
 
Kent viggo said:
I have 10620 photos and 1211 videos on my iphone 8 and I have used 128.48GB of memory out of its total 256GB.

This is 3 years of photos, as I bought the 8 on release in september 2017.

Id say that 128GB is more than enough if you offload images from it once a year or two. I bought 128 GB for my 12 pro now and I think that is a good choice.
Click to expand...

See I never was unloading. Starting with iPhone 3G, I was definitely syncing with iPhoto and then Photos on my Mac, but I would always keep the roll going. The roll expanded at one point to close to 140 GBs, but then I started deleting some videos from the "Desert Trip" concert I took in 4K that were taking a lot of space. At one point, I had enough and finally expanded my iCloud space to 2 TB and switched to iCloud Photo Library. This was great for me, I have always had duplicates everyone between different Macs, iPads, and iPhones and this resolved all that and gives me access to my full library everywhere.
 
I think what it comes down to is how long you plan to have your phone. If your like me and don't want to unload periodically or even have to think about making room on your phone periodically, the question is how long do you plan to hold onto your phone for before upgrading. We know next year were getting maybe portless iPhone (Magsafe takes over?), 120hz display, maybe even touchID on the power button? Come 2022 there are probably more enhancements to camera, maybe notch shrinking, and more. The year after will probably be some major update with something we are really going to get wowed by.

All depends on your usage habits, but if you think your upgrading in 1-2 years, it probably doesn't make any sense for 512GB, go with 256GB. Otherwise, get the 512GB.
 
256GB for me, I use iCloud for all my photos/videos and iMessage so no need to get more. I also don't game on my iPhone so I'll never be downloading big games, I've never really understood gaming on a phone but hey that's just me. I'd rather game on my brand new PS5 next month.
 
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