How to use iCloud for your photos so they don't take up space on your iPhone or iPad 

Okay, just want to update and tell everyone in this comment or to future readers of this comment, you just have to literally follow what he did on the video and let all photos from your iphone storage sync on its own COMPLETELY. And when it has completed, the data from your iphone storage will automatically lessen on its own you just have to wait or in my case, i restarted my phone and viola! All my photos are now stored in the icloud and my data from 64gb it is now only taking up 2gb after syncing it to my icloud. Thank you so much for this video and for your response! You just gained a subscriber 😊

You have solved a question I’ve been looking for and couldn’t find in an hour of videos. I was paying for the 2TB because I love going to concerts but I still had my photos taking up my phone storage but now it they only take up 4.63gb. thank you sir !

Oh my gosh thank you so much for this explanation. I spent an hour on the phone with Apple support yesterday, and they suggested I turn iCloud syncing OFF to resolve this issue. Also to everyone out there who is not tech savvy like me - I recommend having more than one place for backing up your photos. I have been using google photos as my back up and didn’t understand that deleting photos on my phone would also delete them on iCloud. Thank goodness I have been using google photos as backup since I permanently deleted a LOT of photos on my iCloud 😰 Thanks again for this video! So helpful

This post is what I have been looking for for a long time. Thank you 🙏🏽

Thank you! The exact information I was looking for! About phone storage after backing up photos to iCloud.

Thank you for the clear demonstration.

Hi Stefan, thank you for your video, it is great. I've followed what you shared in the video and did that for my 256GB iPhone XS. I'm downsizing to a iPhone 13 128GB. When I setup my new phone via iCloud backup, will those images get downloaded to the local device storage? Or will they just be on the iCloud and won't take up my 128GB?

Everyone says the same. I’ve done it. Watched so many videos. *Yes it says sync, I’ve optimized *yes it shows that I now have 2 T in iCloud storage., *yes it shows that all photos/videos is “synced” in iCloud but when I go to iPhone storage it is still full. 252gb out of 260 gb. I cannot record. I feel so helpless. Someone please help and redirect me to a video for my issue.

Please help me I have 64Gb and it says I have you used 63.2Gb but I have 50Gb iCloud and only 5Gb has been used

Hi sir i just purchase my icloud storage but it stop syncing bcs phone storage is full but my icloud hasnt use up yet. May i know how to solve this?

Thank you very much Stefan!

So what happens if I store photos on iCloud but need to access the full resolution image? I like to shoot iPhone photography in RAW.

Why doesn’t work on mine i have exactly the same settings

Hi bro thx for this video really useful, I have 4 questions: -If I have an iPhone with a small storage and enables optimize storage for iCloud photos, and I have another iPhone with a big storage and I want to enable downloads and keep originals is there any issue or does the option need to be the same on both iPhones? -We will say I have an iPhone with a big storage and I’m enabling optimize storage option, so after some days I change the option to download and keep originals, is there any issue with that? -When I backup my iPhone via finder on Mac is the photos will be including with the backup? And if its it will be as a full resolution or just a thumbnail? -While my iPhone backup to iCloud and the internet disconnect, and then back after a time, is there will be any issue with the process? I apologize for this questions, more respect for you.

Thanks for the video! I got a iPad mini and was worried about the 64 gb storage, I turned on this feature and bam! The photos space was reduced from 42 to 4 gb!

Excellent tutorial, thank you. One question - is there a way to make certain photos only available on your phone and not on iCloud? Can you set up certain pictures to not sync to iCloud?

I have 13.2GB out of 50GB in Icloud storage and my photos are taking up 12.27 GB. I have around 300 photos & 34 videos and it says 15 items are syncing. But Im confused on how I still have so much space being taken up by photos.

Hi Stefan! I have an 128GB iPhone and with the optimized photos enabled, my photos take up 90GB of my iPhone storage and 490GB on my iCloud (of 2TB space). Unfortunately with the apps and other stuff I don’t have space in my iPhone anymore. You know what can I do? I don’t want to delete my photos😢

Thank you so much for the useful info!!

Hi! I have a 13pro 128gb and in my iphone storage it says that I have used 46gb in my photos. I bought icloud 200gb and I transferred my photos to icloud, what concerns me is the photos from my iphone storage has remained 46gb even after transferring everything to icloud storage. I thought that the logic is when you transfer photos from iphone storage to icloud, it will erase the data that is being stored in the iphone storage. or if not totally erase, data should be lesser than 46gb at least. can someone answer me this? i'm really annoyed and i've gone thru every channel and websites that could help me resolve this but to no avail :( thank you in advance!

Hello Stefan - Thank you for your video. It has given me hope. However, I have a bit of a problem. I have a 256GB Iphone 8 with 140GB used (w/ 80 GB of photos). When I optimize this phone, it does not think I need more space and therefore has not reduced the size of the photos (i.e it is still 80GB). I just purchased a 2TB Family plan Icloud subscription. I have run a full back-up of this Iphone 8. I just bought a new iphone 11 with 128 GB of storage. When I use the backup to transfer the data (Photos etc) from the old phone to the new phone, will the optimizer engage and will I be able to load the data on my new smaller phone?

I love your channel, I have a quick question, my iCloud and phone is already set up exactly like this video you made . However it’s still saying it’s full I have a 64 gun iPhone with 200 Tb of iCloud starage , optimize storage is already on as well . Do you have any more suggestions, I keep buying new phones Every time it does this I’m on my 4th iPhone 🤦‍♀️ and can’t get a new phone , please help ❤, thank youu

Hello Stefan I’ve a question so my photos take Upto 90GB of my storage so if I purchase 50GB iCloud is it ok?

Thank you for this video. You answered what I was looking for before converting to iCloud iPhoto. Many thanks!!!!!

Thank you for the video! My settings are set exactly like yours but my photos still take up to 200 GB from my iPhone storage🤯 Any idea of how to get it fixed?

Hey I uploaded all my photos to iCloud but my photos take the same amount of storage on my phone and iCloud it’s 33.5gb in both the places can you help me figure out how to get my internal storage reduced?

thanks a ton

Hi, is this can be running in macbook with MacOs High Sierra ?

Hello! Does the quality look good on your phone when you see it on your phone when you optimise photos? If I’m not using data and I want to view a photo I have taken a long time ago, will the quality be the best or will it use less megapixels?

My status is set to "restore paused" i just purchased 200GB, i have all the setting you said, but my photos aren't going to icloud.

Does it work with what’s app and other apps I’ve got a problem with the data coming from what’s app and some other apps and sometimes what’s app locks me out

Hey, great tutorial u hv got there, thanks a lot. Just wondering if u are to send the videos/photos to ur colleagues/friends via whatsapp/drive/telegram/fb etc, will it be sending the downsized version instead of the full qualities in iCloud ?

💥💥 Thank you greatly for this video so clearly explaining how to set it up. Two questions please… 1- If I want to text someone the high res image how do I do that if the phone has a low res thumbnail.? 2- How do I save all of the high res images and videos to Photos on my Mac if they are only in the cloud.? 🤟🏼

One question by using optimise storage since lower res photos are replaced on the iphone, when I tap and open a photo or video can I view the full resolution on the fly or it will still show in lower rez. Kind of like how google photos shows up in 4k on the fly.

Do you know how to reverse this and get them all loaded back onto the device in full resolution?

hello, i want to ask some questions, i hope you can answer, as you said that the local photo library is just gonna show the low res photos or videos, 1. let's say if i want to upload something in instagram, it means i need to click the photos/videos in the photo library first so that i can get the full res in instagram? 2. how long is the full res gonna remain in our local photo library? 3. what about the photos that we just taken like a minute ago or today? is it directly downsized also?

Thanks nice video. So I have 32gb and I bought storage 200gb. If I click optimize storage and take 1080p 60fps video will it save that resolution on iPhone? Because I would want to upload that resolution not a lower resolution. Thanks!

Hey, is it possible you use the photos app smoothly, even if there are thousands of photos in the cloud? Or does it start to lag after a specific amount of photos?

Is it the same principle for messages?

Hi! Thanks for the video! can i make 2 questions? I have a 16gb iphone (iphone 6s) so I have a small iphone storage so all photos are in a bad quality (cause icloud needs to optimize iphone storage)... my iphone download the photos only if a open them so my question is: - if I make an itunes backup, i have to download the photos from iclous before i make the backup? if they are in a low quality, itunes backup them in that low quality? - icloud needs internet for undownload and download photos everytime? cause lately my 4g is pretty slow Thank you very much and sorry for my awful english

Can I delete photos from my phone and it’ll stay in iCloud’s

So what happens when you delete a photo on your iphone or ipad? Will it also delete on iCloud or will it stay on iCloud storage?

Awesome.....thanks!!

I just upgraded my icloud from 5 to 50 gb for my photos, but still it's still at 5 gb- my photos had not transferred to icloud yet. How long should I wait?

When I turn on my iCloud it downloads the old photos from my old phone on my new one which I do not want I want to keep the photos separated like the old photos stay on the old phone and the new pictures stay on the new phone without having the two mic but using the same ICloud am I using it wrong and is there a way to stop this?

does this mean i can delete everything off my phone and delete from recently deleted and it will be on the cloud??

Hello. Once my photos are in the iCloud storage folder can I delete photos from the iPhone device to make more storage on my iPhone.?

Hey, i have a question, my i have 200gb icloud storage (50gb used) and my photos are still taking up 60gb on my 128gb phone, its not optimized, any help?

hello Stefan thank you for the great content. ''Full resolution version can be downloaded from iCloud anytime'' what exactly does that mean. is it referring that I will need to sign in to iCloud and download it manually to have access to them?

Best video 👍

Could you please tell me that I had the same like as you mentioned in Icloud, I had 50GB of icloud and only used 345 MB, but my iphones it says i had 32GB and i used up 31 GB...the fact is i deleted most of my pictures and videos ..but i still see my iphone is full ...yet my icloud still got plenty of storage, how can i reduce the iphone storage and move to icloud...Please help! I did pay icloud everymonth for $1...

Hai. Thank you for this video. Answered lot of my questions about optimizing iphone storage with icloud (especially photos). However i still have 1 question. Let say I have 128 gb iphone. And i already use icloud photos. Then my photos on icloud already above 128gb. What if I want to uncheck the “optimize storage” or I want to download the full resolution from all my photos, what would happen? Is the iphone will deny it?

Do you need internet connection to view your iCloud photos?

Thanks so much for this video. So how about iCloud Drive ? Do I need to keep that on ? Thanks

Problem is when I delete my photos in my phone and it will be deleted in my iCloud as well, how I can delete the photos and still remain it on my iCloud?

Thanks man but why does my iPhone storage say I use 23 gb for photos when I have 50 gb of iCloud?

Do you know what to do if my photos are not downloading to iCloud and are just staying on the device? My device is full (63.5GB out of 64) and my phone is still showing there are 26GB in photos. I purchased more iCloud space today and it looks like they are not transferring over. On the iPhone Storage page iCloud Photos is listed at 1%, meaning that none have shifted over. I have all the correct settings checked to enable photos to go to iCloud. Do you know how to fix this?

Hi i have 35GB of photos in iphone storage and i’ve uploaded all to icloud photos and says it takes up 35GB in icloud photos but photos still takes up 30+ GB on my iphone storage. Help me please, i’ve turned on optimized iphone storage aswell

Stefan , i have turned on optimise iphone storage but my iphone storage is still the same, didnt change at all

So if you delete photos off your iPhone does it also delete off the iCloud?

how to see the upload progress into icloud? I saw it on my gallery 3000+ photos being uploaded

Hello, thank you for this video. I just have a question, I bought the 50gb icloud storage and i want to sync all my photos into icloud so it doesn’t take up my ipad storage but in photos it says that I don’t have enough space to put my photos in icloud. I check my icloud and it was 5/50 and my photos storage was 33 gb. I’m not sure what to do now. Thank you.

Thank you for this video. I have one remaining question though. With iCloud storage enabled as you suggested, how would iPhone treat NEWLY taken pictures. Would these picture try to sync immediately, even on cellular mode OR would the iPhone intelligently try to wait a bit until I am home and try to upload them while on the home WiFi network. So my question is, is there any intelligent logic within this system that manages the upload of these pictures? Like for example IF there is plenty of storage left in the phone and consequently there is no need to rush syncing, then would the phone WAIT with syncing until on WiFi OR would it prioritize immediate sync to iCloud?

For some reason everything is going the opposite way for me, can someone explain to me what did I do wrong?._.

I did the same as in the video (in fact, it was already activated) but the amount of storage on my phone for photos has not changed. It remains the same unless I delete the images and videos. So even if I have enough space in my iCloud 2tb, I do not have it in my iPhone and it continues to say that it's full.

Hello there Stephan, My phone has 64 GB storage. Photos mostly taking up all space. I had bought a 50 GB iCloud storage, it has 49,9 GB left. I mean what do you recommend in terms of having more storage on my iPhone? Also if I am taking many videos to post on RU-vid, is it fine you fine/ or a good idea to record from my iPhone? I don’t need to buy a a camera specifically to record photos and video!? Ok, and lastly, where and how do I store my photos outside iCloud!? I would really appreciate your help! Thanks so much, LA

I just wanna use my phone storage lol

Hi, thanks for video. I’ve been struggling with storage & photo issues for months now & you explained better than Apple did! I’m still having issues though & wondered if you could help please? I currently have only 16G phone. Will upgrade shortly but want to sort my current phone & my understanding first. My phone is full! 15.8GB used. 2.51GB if photos. System 6.31GB & 3.89GB of other. Nearly all my apps are offloaded. I have 50GB iCloud with 23GB used with photos using 22.4GB. Some photos in low res on phone won’t load as high res as says no space! Apart from getting new phone with higher storage is there a solution at all? Many thanks

will all my photos still be in my phone even after being downloaded into icloud. also can i send pictures or videos that are in icloud to my friends?

How to get the full resolution?

What type of document that can be stored on icloud?

when I want to look att a photo when having this setting on, will it be lower resolution?

if we click some pitcures and automatically download it. so, the pitcures might be download forever or soon undownload by itself?

Hey, i have the settings same as you have shown ‘Optimize iPhone Storage’ and however I my phone storage is still full. I am a little confused 😅

Thanks bro. What kind of iPad do you have?

Hello let’s say I want to upload a tik tok video at full resolution as I filmed it on. Would that automatically post at the highest resolution

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 I have storage

i put on icloud photos but i still have 9gb on my phone storage

If I optimize my photos will both my photos a videos be the same quality when I view them in the camera role app????? Does ICloud also save the edits that I made to the pictures in the app after taking them. I am asking because when I view iCloud on safari or online on my PC my videos are blurry and lower quality. Please help if you can???????

hi thanks for the video. but my photos not in icloud even i already bought storage 200gb. and my phone storage already fulled . but the photos still there in phone and not in the icloud. so what i have to do?

hello stefan , i pay for the icloud plus and i have the 200gb storage and i literally only have 700 on my photos but the thing is when i go the Iphone storage it says photos takes up 26 gb, what should i do?

Hi Stefan, how do I know the photo is just a thumbnail which is uploaded and optimized or still a original photo before I click to view it? Does they look different? And if I want to send some photos to my friend, for example , by email, I maybe will not click them to view, just selcet them through the photo album, so the iphone will also download them before I send them , or just sending the thumbnails? Thanks!

If all photos are saved in icloud then why on my phone all photos are still available and if those photos are just like thumbnails so if dont use internet then i cant open photos in my phone cos they get downloaded from icloud ?? So confusing lol

200 gigabytes? I wish! I’m not willing to pay money for storage so my piece of crap only has 32 gigs.

optimizing is a joke it ruins photo quality

This video is exactly what i was looking for, thank you so much🤍🤍