Never ending Photos restore from iCloud

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Level 1

4 points

Never ending Photos restore from iCloud

Hi there!

Recently I updated my iPhone 12 mini 128gb to 18.6 (22G86) and I think that was the moment (I’m not 100 percent sure as I wasn’t checking until problems started) when Photos instead of syncing with iCloud (uploading and free space on iPhone storage) started restoring from iCloud.

Firstly I thought it is nothing big, I offloaded some apps to give it space to process and as I needed space for new pics and vids. But at the moment it looks to me Photos tries to restore all the Photos from iCloud (almost 1tb), which is not possible. iPhone storage is full and I’m afraid any space I will free will gonna be filled with more Photos (55gb already*) from iCloud and there will be moment I can’t do anything.

I have 2tb iCloud plan, used 1.1tb, so there’s a lot of space there.

Photos of course Sync this IPhone is turned on, always was.

I backed up my phone to iCloud (10.5gb).

Honestly I don’t know what to do, how to stop that?

I’ve tried to update soft through MacBook now, but photos library was still growing despite restore was paused, so I turned off cellular for photos and offload photos app and still photos library is growing making it impossible to update software even through MacBook (you need minimum 1.3gb free space on iPhone)

Please help. First time I can’t find solutions for iPhone problem.

iPhone 12mini 128gb

iCloud 2tb plan (1.1/2 used)

I haven’t tried signing out and in to iCloud, little bit afraid of losing any data, photos included.

*63gb already when I post this issue

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 31, 2025 7:18 AM

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Answer 1

guttdan Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 31, 2025 8:25 AM in response to guttdan

Update:

after turning off/on syncing and cellular for photos, also offloading (not deleting) Photos app and restarting phone it showed 50gb of Photos (13gb less) so I was able to update soft to 18.6 (22G100). After that I turned on mobile data usage for Photos, download app which starting syncing normally. BUT it occurred to me that like half of my pictures disappeared - showing there are circa 30k pics and it was circa 60k. I checked on iCloud (through web on MacBook), looks like all my pictures and videos are on the cloud. So now the question is how to restore those pictures to my IPhone? Of course not in full resolution, more like it used to be - having everything as thumbnails or smth, so I can see all my pictures history on my iPhone.

I’m so dissapointed with apple, I’ve been paying for iCloud for so many years, because pictures are so important for me, it’s like journal for me. And it’s so useful I can get back easily to every day on my phone. I COULD. Cuz after all this issue it’s broken. I hope I will not loose those files and also be able to have them back on the phone.

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