photos taking up storage on phone all of a sudden

Question

Level 1

4 points

photos taking up storage on phone all of a sudden

i have an icloud subscription where all my photos are uploaded, and i have optimize iphone storage on, so photos and videos normally dont take up much storage at all on my phone, however, a couple days ago i created a shared album to share a whole lot of photos and videos and it seems that my phone downloaded all the images and videos i wanted to share, and now the photos app is taking up 40gb+ on my phone when it previously wasnt nearly that much, how should i go about fixing this? i've restarted my phone, i turned off optimize iphone storage and turned it back on again, i've kept the photos app open for extended periods of time hoping maybe it'll offload the data, i've left my phone charging, locked, and connected to wifi overnight, and still nothing has changed. its been three days and its still the same.

iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Jul 22, 2025 07:59 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jul 24, 2025 07:33 AM in response to ageddaisies

Unlike pictures in normal albums which are not separate files and don't take up space, Shared Albums create whole new versions of the pictures, and they occupy new space on the phone. They take up space for everyone they are shared with as well. It's probably best all around not to have too many pictures in Shared Albums.

I share pictures by providing iCloud links which are viewed through the internet and don't take up anyone's storage space.

Share photos and videos with an iCloud Link on iCloud.com – Apple Support (UK)

A big advantage is that Shared Links can be accessed by people who don't have an Apple account.

Reply

Answer 2

markwmsn

Level 6

16,643 points

Jul 23, 2025 09:29 PM in response to ageddaisies

Photos will reduce its use of storage again only when it sees that all the apps together have used enough storage to create a storage shortage. There are no tools supplied to adjust just what constitutes a storage shortage or how rapidly and long Photos should react when it detects one.

Reply

Answer 3

markwmsn

Level 6

16,643 points

Jul 24, 2025 10:13 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I had not considered the added space for the Shared Albums. That would be in addition to the downloaded full resolution versions in the main library whether the latter are re-optimized eventually or not.

One consideration to Shared Links is that they expire after 30 days (according to the page you linked). That may be a disadvantage in some situations.

Reply

Answer 4

Jul 25, 2025 07:09 AM in response to markwmsn

markwmsn wrote: … One consideration to Shared Links is that they expire after 30 days (according to the page you linked). That may be a disadvantage in some situations.

I've been using Shared Links rather than Shared Albums, so my experience with shared albums is old and limited. But Links provide full resolution images, and I think Shared Albums use smaller versions. Links don't include captions, or locations (I wish that were a choice,) but you get date and camera info. And Links don't allow for new comments or edits, since you're looking at the picture stored on iCloud rather than a duplicate.

Reply