Syncing Photos To iPhone

[Dave Braine]

I have my Mac's Photos Library synced to my iPhones. On my old 3GS, I have 5690 photos taking up 1.8Gb of space.

As my new 5S is only 16Gb I've only synced 5435 of those photos. However, they take up 5.32Gb. Why?

 

[M. Gustave]

Videos?

 

[deany]

I have my Mac's Photos Library synced to my iPhones. On my old 3GS, I have 5690 photos taking up 1.8Gb of space.

As my new 5S is only 16Gb I've only synced 5435 of those photos. However, they take up 5.32Gb. Why?

Hi
On your 3GS have you got 'Optimize iPhone Storage' ON
but OFF on the 5S
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204264

 

[M. Gustave]

Hi
On your 3GS have you got 'Optimize iPhone Storage' ON
but OFF on the 5S
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204264
View attachment 680605

A 3GS can't run iOS beyond version 6.1.6.

 

[TrueBlou]

Not really sure why they were occupying so little space on your old iPhone but the numbers are about what I'd expect for the quantity you have.

I've got a little over 6,000 photos and a bit over 400 videos on my iPhone, dating back to the iPhone 3 (and older as I've also got in there photos from my actual camera, remember those ) and even with optimised storage enabled they are occupying 9.19GB of space on my iPhone.

I think your only option, assuming that you're already using the optimise storage on your new phone may be to remove some of your photos. Or videos as they occupy more space and store them safely on your computer.

It's not an answer you'd want to hear but there's a limit to what you can fit onto a 16GB device. On the bright side the photos/videos tend to be the single biggest storage users on iOS. So if you're not storing a huge amount of offline music and keep the volume of apps you install at any one time in check you'll probably manage it ok.

 

[Dave Braine]

Videos?

No videos.

On your 3GS have you got 'Optimize iPhone Storage' ON
but OFF on the 5S

I don't have that option on the 5S, because I don't have iCloud Photo Library turned on.

I think your only option, ...... may be to remove some of your photos.

Yes. I'm OK at the moment, but it looks like that's the only option. I know when I got my first iPhone(Original) that it only stored low resolution versions of photos. It would seem that the resolution has increased.

 

[zorinlynx]

When iTunes syncs photos to a device, the photos are synced at the device's resolution, NOT at the original resolution.

iPhone 3GS resolution: 480x320 = 0.15MP
iPhone 5S resolution: 1136x640 = 0.72MP

That's over four times as much data! Notice the difference in the data sizes you quoted, about 3 times. JPG becomes more efficient at larger file sizes, so it makes sense.

If you think that's bad, though, try syncing photos to an iPad with iTunes. You'll be lucky if you have any space left.

 

[fbraz50]

Use Google Photos on your iPhone and backup everything there. Use the built in cleanup function to erase everything off of your iPhone. Storage problem solved.

Unlimited storage for free if you don't mind them "optimizing" the photos. I've done several comparisons and have noticed little to no difference in the images so I am ok with free unlimited photo storage.

 

[Dave Braine]

When iTunes syncs photos to a device, the photos are synced at the device's resolution, NOT at the original resolution.

iPhone 3GS resolution: 480x320 = 0.15MP
iPhone 5S resolution: 1136x640 = 0.72MP

That's over four times as much data! Notice the difference in the data sizes you quoted, about 3 times. JPG becomes more efficient at larger file sizes, so it makes sense.

Thanks for that, zorilynx. That would explain it.

Use Google Photos on your iPhone and backup everything there.

Thanks fbraz50, but I don't need online storage.