Photos missing on iPhone but visible on iPad and Mac

Question

Level 1

17 points

Photos missing on iPhone but visible on iPad and Mac

All of my photos in my photo library aren’t visible on my iPhone, but are on iPad and Mac. iPhone 16e, 128GB, iOS 18.6.2. Optimize storage for the Photos app is selected on iPhone and iPad. My library has over 34,000 items. What is weird is that my iPad has 64GB and less storage is allocated to photos, slightly less than 6GB, while on the iPhone has 128GB has slightly more than 6GB allocated to photos.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Not all pictures visible

iPhone 16e, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 1, 2025 08:09 PM

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Answer 1

markwmsn

Level 6

16,613 points

Sep 1, 2025 09:43 PM in response to Jeff627

When you say "all of my photos ... aren't visible" on the iPhone, how do you mean that?

Does this affect all of your photos, or only some of them?

Does the iPhone show the correct count of photos, or a low count?

Does it show the right count, but some of the photos are not visible in the sense that you cannot find them?

Does it show the right count, but some of the photos are not visible in the sense that you can find them by name but the picture is not visible?

Some other meaning?

The difference between "slightly less than 6GB" and "slightly more than 6GB" is not significant. Depending on how and when the pictures arrived on each device and the available space on each device, the optimization for a photo on each device may lead to different storage usage.

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Answer 2

Jeff627 Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 2, 2025 07:54 AM in response to Jeff627

The iPad and iPhone both indicate the exact same number of items (34,526). A couple of times I tried to find a picture on my phone and couldn’t find it. I later went to my iPad on they were there. The dates were from 2019 and 2015 - vacations. Another interesting thing - I can mark it as a favorite on my iPad and it shows as a favorite on my phone, but not in the library!

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Answer 3

Sep 2, 2025 08:05 AM in response to Jeff627

Jeff627 wrote: … Another interesting thing - I can mark it as a favorite on my iPad and it shows as a favorite on my phone, but not in the library!

"but not in the library" -- which Library, Mac, phone, or iPad? If not in the Library view, where are you seeing these pictures?

If you look at the Info Window for two pictures that behave differently, are they identical except for the favorite symbol? Do they have the same number of pixels? And especially, are they listed as being in the same albums.

Have you checked the Hidden view?

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