Storage and iCloud Usage

[NEO-BAHAMUT-]

Hi everyone.

I have an iPhone 6 16gb and also subscribe to apple for additional space within iCloud for 200GB which at the moment is plenty enough space for myself.

This past few months I have been plagued with the dreaded 'Storage Almost Full' dialogue. - I am trying to get to the bottom of this issue as in my opinion this shouldn't be right. In order to remedy this storage issue I have performed the following

- Deleted any photos that aren't needed
- Deleted items out of my 'Deleted Items' folder.
- Reinstall IOS to latest firmware

After performing a full system installation from DFU mode. I opened the Photos App and re enabled iCloud. Now When I open 'Settings > General > Storage and iCloud Usage > Manage Storage' I can see that instantly my 'Photos and Camera' are using 4.16GB. - Surely this isn't correct as all my photos are in iCloud and shouldn't be on the device. Surely this isn't 4.16gb of thumbnails?

Has anyone come across this before? I'm sure this is must be a regular issue. I certainly have noticed this for quite some time but it has never bothered me until now.

 

[J. A.]

If your photos are not on the device, they aren't in iCloud either. iCloud doesn't store photos, it's used for syncing them to other devices which are connected to the same iCloud account.

 

[NEO-BAHAMUT-]

Ok. What ever you determine iCloud to be is your opinion however Apples description of iCloud is the following

'iCloud securely stores your photos, videos, documents, music, apps and more — and keeps them updated across all your devices. So you always have access to what you want, wherever you want it.'

Anyway back to my original question. I have 4.16gb worth of photos apparently on my device?

Can anyone shed some light on this please?

 

[NEO-BAHAMUT-]

Also please could this thread be moved to the iPhone Help section?

 

[J. A.]

Also please could this thread be moved to the iPhone Help section?

Done.

 

[J. A.]

"iCloud Photo Library stores every photo and video you take, and keeps them up to date on all your devices. Any edits you make are automatically updated everywhere."
(Apple)
This means: when you crop an image, it will be synced to your other devices. This also means: when you remove an image from one of your devices, it will be removed from all the others, as well as from iCloud.

Do you have shared photos, or PhotoStream enabled?

 

[zstairlessone]

....' — and keeps them updated across all your devices. So you always have access to what you want, wherever you want it.'

Anyway back to my original question. I have 4.16gb worth of photos apparently on my device?

Can anyone shed some light on this please?

iCloud stores the photos THAT ARE ON YOUR DEVICE to keep them sync'd across the rest of your devices. Delete some photos from your phone and check tomorrow morning, let me know if they are still in the iCloud.

My recommendation is to pick a few pictures you don't REALLY care about....

 

[zstairlessone]

Hah! Nice to see my simple mind thinks like your great one [emoji848][emoji23][emoji122][emoji322][emoji41][emoji41]. Glad you got to enjoy such a nice day the other day!!

 

[NEO-BAHAMUT-]

"iCloud Photo Library stores every photo and video you take, and keeps them up to date on all your devices. Any edits you make are automatically updated everywhere."
(Apple)
This means: when you crop an image, it will be synced to your other devices. This also means: when you remove an image from one of your devices, it will be removed from all the others, as well as from iCloud.

Do you have shared photos, or PhotoStream enabled?

Morning,

Yes I have 2 shared albums as well as photo stream enabled. Apologies if my previous message came across as obnoxious. I really don't mean to be if that's the case. I thought that icloud was the following

iCloud - An online service that backs up data you require such as photos. Once the photo had been backed up I thought that it deleted the image from the phone and kept it securely in the cloud. If you wanted to view that image it would then re-download the image from Apples servers?

Photo Stream - I thought this worked in the same way? Perhaps not?

 

[J. A.]

No, they don't work that way. As zstairlessone suggested above, remove one of the images you don't really need completely, and wait for a few hours. Then try finding it again. It will be gone forever.
Photo Stream also syncs images to other devices connected to iCloud. It works almost the same way. The major difference here is, that the images are in Photo Stream for 30 days. During that period, you can load it to the device where they are not "stored". They'll disappear after 30 days from Photo Stream. There are a few other limits in Photo Stream as well.

Shared images and Photo Stream don't count against your iCloud storage limit. But if there are images in Photo Stream, these photos are on one of your other devices connected to iCloud. So they use iCloud storage space. That's what you see when you look at your iCloud storage bar.