Hi,
I have previously purchased iCloud storage plan for 200GB to help save my photos. However, i have now bought the new iphone 17 which has way more storage, so i don't need this extra storage anymore.
However I cant change it because i have too many photos saved on the icloud to make it less. How do i move my photos to my phone?
Several answers!
As Ingo2711 says, you can not partially store your pictures at iCloud Photos. It's all or nothing. I'm guessing that you must have been using the "Optimize Storage" to give your previous phone more room, but even then, the pictures on the phone are exactly the same as the pictures at iCloud, just smaller.
As azaksalmarzur28 suggests, if you want the full sized pictures on your phone, then you need to go to Settings>[name]>iCloud>Photos and change from Optimize to Download. After a while, the original full sized images will be loaded on to your phone. It's a little hard to know for sure exactly when this has happens, and it could be a very long time. But as long as you have iCloud turned on, even after they're downloaded, they will still be on iCloud taking up space there, as Ingo2711 said.
So, to move all your pictures from iCloud Photos to your phone, you should Turn Off iCloud Photos. If you do that, you will get a warning:
If you choose "Download" from here, then the full pictures will be downloaded to your phone, and then iCloud Photos will be canceled. This can still take quite awhile. If you want faster syncing you should find good wifi, plug the phone in, and leave it alone.
What do you think? Will this work for you?
Several answers!
As Ingo2711 says, you can not partially store your pictures at iCloud Photos. It's all or nothing. I'm guessing that you must have been using the "Optimize Storage" to give your previous phone more room, but even then, the pictures on the phone are exactly the same as the pictures at iCloud, just smaller.
As azaksalmarzur28 suggests, if you want the full sized pictures on your phone, then you need to go to Settings>[name]>iCloud>Photos and change from Optimize to Download. After a while, the original full sized images will be loaded on to your phone. It's a little hard to know for sure exactly when this has happens, and it could be a very long time. But as long as you have iCloud turned on, even after they're downloaded, they will still be on iCloud taking up space there, as Ingo2711 said.
So, to move all your pictures from iCloud Photos to your phone, you should Turn Off iCloud Photos. If you do that, you will get a warning:
If you choose "Download" from here, then the full pictures will be downloaded to your phone, and then iCloud Photos will be canceled. This can still take quite awhile. If you want faster syncing you should find good wifi, plug the phone in, and leave it alone.
What do you think? Will this work for you?
To move your photos from iCloud to your iPhone 17, enable Download and Keep Originals in iCloud Photos, keep your iPhone on Wi-Fi until all photos finish downloading, then turn off iCloud Photos, wait 24 hours, and finally downgrade your iCloud storage plan. After this, all photos will remain safely stored on your iPhone.
This will only work, if you are planing not to use iCloud Photos anymore, or if your iCloud Photos will not retake the free space, since all photos on the iPhone will sync back, if iCloud Photos is enabled again.
If you are using iCloud Photos, all photos from your iPhone will be synced to iCloud Photos. If you delete photos on your iPhone, these photos will also be removed from iCloud. iCloud does not back up your data, it syncs the information across all of your devices.
You will have to copy the photos to a computer to save them and reduce the size of your needed storage space in iCloud.
Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support
How to move photos from iCloud to iPhone
