iPhone 14 storage full despite iCloud optimization and unlimited storage

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Level 1

4 points

iPhone 14 storage full despite iCloud optimization and unlimited storage

I have a 128gb iPhone 14 with unlimited iCloud storage. With that I have over 27k items in my photos app that have accumulated over the last 10 years. Everything was fine until the other day when my phone suddenly said its storage was full and lagging on everything I do. I get that it’s a lot of photos and videos, but I have my iCloud set to optimize storage and offload unused apps. If my phone is optimizing storage and pushing things to the cloud so they’re not actually stored on the physical phone, why is my storage full and phone lagging? It’s showing that I have 42gb just on the photos app. I can’t delete these photos and videos, they’re my children’s childhood. So what am I supposed to do? Why is it taking up so much space on my phone if they’re on the cloud??

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Storage full

iPhone 11, iOS 18

Posted on Nov 3, 2025 1:23 AM

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Answer 1

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Richard.Taylor

Level 6

16,645 points

Nov 3, 2025 9:30 AM in response to Cmccleaf

Cmccleaf wrote: … If my phone is optimizing storage and pushing things to the cloud so they’re not actually stored on the physical phone, why is my storage full and phone lagging?

iCloud is not storage that replaces the storage on your phone. iCloud Photos keeps copies of your pictures so that they can be shared with other devices; it doesn't replace the storage you need to operate your phone. Optimize has Photos keep smaller, screen-sized images locally in your iPhone's storage so you can quickly scan through pictures without having to wait for downloads from iCloud. Those and the database use storage on your phone, perhaps 20% of the storage of the full Library. If you require full sized pictures because you zoom in or edit some, then Photos will need even more space. It sounds like 42 GB may not be unreasonable.

You need at least 10% of your storage, 13GB, free for the phone to be able to move files around. Less storage than that means that normal operations, even deleting of files, becomes laborious. Photos may not even have enough space to optimize its Library. If you have less than 10% free storage, you need to get rid of some stuff so you can deal with other stuff. Start with small things, since deleting them requires less room. Deleting a few pictures may not help much, since they are optimized.

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