So I recently got the entry level plan (50gb) for iCloud to try and free up some storage on my device.
My photos / videos are currently syncing (30gb / 50gb) but my phones storage isn’t going down at all.
I expected that the ‘Optimize iPhone Storage’ option would, once sync-ed, keep only thumbnail sized images on my phone while the full files would be on the cloud.
Have I mis-understood how this is supposed to work?
iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18
You have the right idea, but since Optimize pictures can't be edited, the phone may keep full sized originals on the phone, when there's room, for your convenience. Also, when you do edit a picture, the full sized original will be retrieved from iCloud.com, and it may hang around until the space is needed. So the storage taken up by Photos may go up and down as you use it, even if the number of pictures stays the same.
So why does my Wife’s iCloud have 70k photos / videos but only 12gb of ‘photos’ under storage on the device (120ish gb out of 256gb)?
Shouldn’t the photos she takes keep stacking on the phone until it’s full then go to iCloud based on what you’ve said?
"based on what [I] said" the storage can go up and down. You should have at least 10% of your storage free. But I'm not there-- I don't know how your wife or you use your phones. Wait awhile and see what happens.
Phone Storage not increasing after iCloud sync.
