Photos taking up too much GB even after I upload my photos to Icloud

So I was just looking at my Iphone Storage, and I found out that the Photos is taking up so much GB, which doesn’t make sense to me at all because I have uploaded everything to my Icloud. Please take a look at the picture i will attach down bellow and help me with a solution please. thank you.

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on Jun 1, 2023 06:32 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 1, 2023 07:13 AM

Optimize your photo storage. Settings > photos. That will keep originals in the cloud and optimized pictures on your device.

7 replies

Jun 1, 2023 07:37 AM in response to jamietrinh

Just wait a bit for the "optimize Storage" option to have any effect.


Photos will not remove photos that have been downloaded from iCloud needlessly, only when you need storage for other purposes.

When you fill your iPhone with other data will Photos remove more and more originals and replace them with smaller, optimized versions. You cannot get the photos off the iPhone completely. As an estimate - you can expect the optimization to reduce the amount of local storage for your photos on the iPhone down to 10% to 20% of the size in iCloud. For example, if your photos are taking up 500GB in iCloud, the optimized versions will still need 50GB to 100GB on your iPhone. How much storage are your photos taking up in iCloud?

Has the upload to iCloud already finished, or is the iPhone still uploading?


Jun 18, 2024 12:52 PM in response to jamietrinh

What you need to know is that iCloud Library is not an off-device backup storage facility. It's a syncing feature so that all devices signed into the same iCloud ID and use iCloud Photos will have the same photos in their library. Any operation on a device, i.e. addition or deletion (even if by accident) of a photo will be duplicated on all devices using that iCloud Library.


Any photo in the iCloud library is on each device. You could enable "Optimize Mac Storage" on your device so that when your device's storage reaches a certain level all new photos will be optimized, i.e. reduced in size, with the full sized version in the iCloud Library. If you want to use an optimized photo for any reason you will have to download the full sized original before it can be used.


If you want to backup your library you can do so to iCloud (on iPhones and iPads) or to a computer.


For iPhones and iPads there are portable devices which can connect to the iPhones/iPads and with the software included download photos and documents from your mobile device to the portable device. One such device is called ThePhotoStick.


Using such a device you can then delete the photos, after confirming a successful download, from your iPhone/iPad to free up space on it. BUT NOT WITH ICLOUD LIBRARY!


Jun 7, 2024 06:38 AM in response to Tomfffffnz

Tomfffffnz wrote: I'm having the exact same issue. I uploaded about 70GB of photos. It's been over 48 hours now, and still there is 70GB of photos on my harddrive. I have optimise storage on.

Please re-read léonie's post.


When a picture is "optimized," then there must be a small delay before you can edit or zoom in on the picture. So "Optimize" reduces the storage used by Photos only when the iPhone's other processes need it, and then only by the amount that they need.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Photos taking up too much GB even after I upload my photos to Icloud

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.