What's the point of iCloud?

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What's the point of iCloud?

What's the point of iCloud if I can't save my photos to it separately from my iPhone and my Mac?

[If I saved a photo in iCloud and then deleted it from my device, it will also be deleted from iCloud!]

Doesn't this mean that when I use up an amount of iCloud storage equal to the total storage capacity of my devices, then I won't be able to save anything more in iCloud?

for example:

if I have 250 GB on my iPhone and 250 GB on my Mac, then I had 500 GB of photos (after using “Optimize Storage") on my iPhone and my Mac, that mean, I won't be able to save any new photos to my devices or iCloud, unless I free up space for them by deleting some photos from my device (which will then be deleted from iCloud, even if I have 2 TB [or 200 TB!] on my iCloud).

In practice, the usable storage capacity in iCloud will not exceed the total storage capacity on my physical devices

So, for God's sake, what does iCloud do?

Eventually, I will need to deal with a third-party cloud service provider, where I can store my photos and files online, and free up storage space on my devices.

That's what "cloud storage" means, right?

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on Nov 30, 2022 6:21 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MrHoffman

Community+ 2024

Level 10

126,223 points

Nov 30, 2022 6:36 PM in response to RabahQ

iCloud provides a way to offload content from an iPhone (particularly an over-full iPhone), and to share that content across multiple devices.

iCloud Photos is a sync service, meaning it synchronizes the photos across all devices. Meaning a delete in one place is a delete everywhere.

iCloud Photos (with the optimized storage setting enabled) trims what photos are cached locally on the device too, when device internal storage becomes tight. This means you can have up to 4 TB of photos and other stuff stored in iCloud, and just a subset of all those photos in a storage-constrained iPhone.

iCloud Photos will remain available if the iPhone is lost or stolen or dropped or dunked, too. And an i{hone can be set to upload photos as they are taken.

How Apple describes some of this:

… What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? - Apple Support

… Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

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What's the point of iCloud?

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