ICloud photo library size

Hi all,
I just have a quick question regarding iCloud photo library size.
What happens when the iCloud photo library is larger than the space on my iPhone?
My iCloud photo library size is 4gb (I am still within the free 5gb) however, the space on my phone is under 4gb.
All of my photos have been uploaded on the iCloud photo library beta for Mac/ Yosemite.
I'm aware that there are 2 options within the iCloud - Photos menu which are "Optimise iPhone Storage" or "Download and Keep originals"
Now I thought that regardless of which option you selected they would still store a local copy on your iPhone, but what happens when even the optimised versions take up more space than your phone can handle?
Sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, I'm just slightly puzzled by this one.
Thanks

http://www.imore.com/what-you-need-k...ut-photos-os-x
#macrumors
One lesser-known feature of iCloud documents (I can't speak for Photos quite yet) is that storage on your iOS devices is dynamically managed - if a document hasn't been accessed from the iOS device in a long time, it will automatically be removed if space is needed (the way RAM is managed on a Mac) - all you have on the iOS device at that point is document metadata (title, etc.). If/when you need to access it again, it'll be re-downloaded. Note that it's different on a Mac - every iCloud document is cached on your Mac - I guess the assumption is that you have the space, and that accessing documents while working offline/off the grid is more important to someone who's using a laptop.
I expect iCloud Photo Library will work similarly, if not identically: On iOS a thumbnail of everything, larger images of items that are actually opened and viewed. If available storage starts to dwindle, the higher-res versions of the least-frequently viewed items will be removed until they're called for again. On Mac, a complete cache of everything, at full resolution.

Similar Messages

ICloud Photo Library Photo size

Hey, i started using the iCloud Photo Library Beta and its really good at increasing my storage space..
my question is this:
If i open a photo in my library How do i return the photo to the iCloud storage so its full size wont be at my iPhone but at my iCloud storage?
i tried waiting a while (a week already) to see if the original photo will automatically move to the iCloud storage space but no.. its still on my iPhone space
how can i control this or re-upload the full size resolution photo to my iCloud?
Message was edited by: AmirK390

Yeah i know, i am using this option
but im asking after downloading a photo in full size resolution.. how to i change it back to the small version of the photo to reduce space usage?
in the icloud library it says it changed which photos shown in full size depend on how much i watch them..
but those photos im talkign about wasn't been opened for a week now and they are still in full size..

Can I share an iCloud photo library between family members?

I am searching for a good photo and video backup solution for my entire family. Previously I was backing up photos to a Windows Home Server that did a weekly backup to Amazon's cloud storage; however, the system disk on the home server blew up, leaving me with the choice to rebuild the server or alternatively look for a more seamless, lightweight solution. I have large quantity of photos and video on a home server data drive, as well as a large number of photos that have been recently scanned to my MacBook pro. We have almost completely transitioned to Apple products and use Time Machine for Macbook backups, so that function of the Home Server is no longer useful.
I like the concept of Apple's iCloud Photo Library; however, I need a solution that allows photos from at least my wife's and my devices to be seamlessly backed up to the library. We use different iCloud IDs. The ideal use case would be that photos taken on any of our devices (across a set of iCloud IDs) would be shared within a single library.
Family Sharing allows you to share a number of things across family members, but currently the photo library doesn't appear to be one of them.
Any pointers on how to proceed? Will the OS X Photo app and the move to bring iCloud library to the Mac make any difference? Any alternative solutions?

Someone else can probably answer the family sharing question better than I can, but I wanted to respond with an alternate suggestion. I didn't find the features I wanted in family sharing, so I didn't give it much of a chance. It did seem like you'd have a separate album for each family member.
I just recently started using Flickr and it's great. I looked into it a few years ago and there were limitations on how many MB's you could upload per day and I don't remember being impressed by the amount of free storage. Now Flickr gives you 1000 GB for free and stores the image in the original quality and size. If you download the Flickr app on your phone, you can set it to automatically upload all of the new pictures on your iphone, ipad, etc. If you and a family member share a Flickr account, you can both auto sync your camera rolls into the same Flickr account.
Personally, I'm using Flickr as a way to automatically back up photos for free. I quickly ran out of free icloud storage and I haven't wanted to pay for more.In Flickr, the auto uploads from your phone are set to private by default, but you could use flickr to share albums with friends who don't own any apple products... unlike icloud photo sharing, that only allows your friends with an apple device to view shared albums.

I have the iCloud Photo Library (Beta) turned on. The photos from my iPhone do get uploaded to the iCloud. The photos are then downloaded to my wife's iPhone (we share the iCloud account). How do I keep the photos from downloading to my wife's iPhone

I do not want all the photos from my iPhone downloading to my wife's iPhone from iCloud? We share an iCloud account. How can I prevent the download to my wife's iPhone from iCloud. .The "Upload to My Photo Stream" is turned off on my iPhone. . I am running 8.1.3.
I have a related question. In order to same space on my iPhone is there a way to upload the photos to the iCloud and then delete them from my iPhone.

The way to keep the photos from downloading to your wife's phone would be for her to go to Settings > iCloud > Photos > and turn off iCloud Photo Library. If that isn't an option, the other option would be for her to have her own Apple ID ( and possibly explore the new family sharing options https://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/family-sharing/ )
Regarding the "related question" see the quotes below from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
Deleting a photo or video from your Photos app will also remove the item from iCloud Photo Library and from your iCloud storage allocation. Photos and videos you remove can be recovered from the Recently Deleted album for 30 days. After 30 days, your content will be removed from the Recently Deleted album.
If you want to reduce the space used by photos on your phone, rather than deleting them see the following:
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
You can turn on Optimize [device] Storage from Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera > iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.

HT6378 Can I share my iCloud-Photo-Library with my wife, so that photos from my iPhone and all photos from my wifes iPhone are in the same Photo-Library?

I have a Apple-ID and my wife has her own Apple-ID, but I want to use only one iCloud-Photo-Library. Is that possible?
I have created a Family-Sharing, but when I now set Foto-Library to on at both of our iPhones, I have one Library for my wife and another one for me.
Is there a trick?

Someone else can probably answer the family sharing question better than I can, but I wanted to respond with an alternate suggestion. I didn't find the features I wanted in family sharing, so I didn't give it much of a chance. It did seem like you'd have a separate album for each family member.
I just recently started using Flickr and it's great. I looked into it a few years ago and there were limitations on how many MB's you could upload per day and I don't remember being impressed by the amount of free storage. Now Flickr gives you 1000 GB for free and stores the image in the original quality and size. If you download the Flickr app on your phone, you can set it to automatically upload all of the new pictures on your iphone, ipad, etc. If you and a family member share a Flickr account, you can both auto sync your camera rolls into the same Flickr account.
Personally, I'm using Flickr as a way to automatically back up photos for free. I quickly ran out of free icloud storage and I haven't wanted to pay for more.In Flickr, the auto uploads from your phone are set to private by default, but you could use flickr to share albums with friends who don't own any apple products... unlike icloud photo sharing, that only allows your friends with an apple device to view shared albums.

ICloud Photo Library: How do I transfer photos and videos only from my iPhone to my iPad but not from my iPad to my iPhone?

I had iCloud photo libraey turned on on both my iPad and iPhone. As said by the feature, photos and videos were being transferred automatically from each device to each other. I have a 64GB iPad Air 2 and my iPhone 5 only has 16GB of storage so I am lacking much more space on my iPhone than my iPad. I was wondering if there was a way to transfer photos only from my iPhone to my iPad but not from my iPad to my iPhone. Would turning off iCloud Photo library on my iPad do the trick? Thanks hope someone can help me out.

iCloud Photo Library keeps all of your photos in the Cloud which you then can selectively download. So, unless you download the iPad photos, they are not going to be taking up any room on your iPhone:
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
You can turn on Optimize [device] Storage from Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera > iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
Here is a link to the FAQs page for iCloud Photo Library:
iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
Cheers,
GB

How does iCloud Photo Library and Optimize iPhone Storage Work?

Even Apple Phone support can't answer these questions:
How does iCloud Photo Library (Beta) from yesterday's 8.1 update with Optimize iPhone Storage turned on work? (I'm on an iPhone 6)
It only stores your iPhone/iPad versions on your device, which is amazing. Why would you need anything else? It freed up around 8-10GB of space on my device which is amazing. But how does it work when you use it?
When you email it seems to ask you, when sending what size you want to send like it's always done. It gives you the original 2.4MB version. This works like I'd imagine and when I received the test email the photo was correct. In this case I assume it hits iCloud and sends it from there, not your actual device. (Like it doesn't re-download it to email it). Correct?
When posting to Facebook, does it do this same thing? Or is this something Facebook has to build into their iOS app in an update? Or does it just work? Correct?
When posting to Instagram, does it grab the right version. Obviously the phone optimized version should be fine, but when viewing on a Desktop version of Instagram at instagram.com, will it show the right version?
Sometimes I backup photos using Image Capture on the Mac. If I did that right now, would it only grab the iPhone versions? Obviously I can just test it but it'd be amazing if someone who knows these things could explain all of these use cases.
Do you need to be on
In closing it's more of how does this work? Does it work? Why wouldn't you want to use this feature if it saved space and made more sense? I guess I just would love some real clarity since not even the blogs are explaining how it works in every application.
In closing part 2. It does seem to work really well, it's just those fringe cases. I just viewed all my photos on https://beta.icloud.com/#photos and they're all there, easy download of the high res, delete, it deletes from my camera roll on my phone, it's amazing, it works, it's magic. Just tell me what issues there are with storing only low res iPhone on my device and if there are none, game on!
Thanks!

santiagofrommiami wrote:
And of those 4.3GB of backup, my Photo Library is 1.4GB.
So my question is, how do I prevent my Photo Library from being backed up to the cloud, since I already have a backup of it everytime I connect to iPhoto and it copies all those photos to my mac?
I don't know, sorry. It's supposed to work alongside Photos & iCloud, so that photos are stored only once. When it doesn't work you have a couple of options as I see it –
Delete the old backups on iCloud to hopefully start over (I don't like deleting the only backup of anything).
Forget about iCloud backups & use iTunes to backup instead, it might not be suitable if you have no computer etc.
Buy more storage for iCloud.
I don't use iCloud backup, it bemuses me with issues like this, there is no easy way to resolve when it fails.
And one more question while we are at it...can I erase iphoto from my computer now that I have the new Photos app?
That is up to you. If you are happy you do not need it & have a backup of it go ahead & remove it. You can re-download it from the app store if it is already in your Mac App store account.

ICloud Photo Library questions... how beta-ish?

1 so much for High Res ... however, every time I attempt to download a photo from the new Photos app on iCloud.com to my PC, it's downloaded in low resolution. Like a 3264x2448 (original size when uploaded from iOS) becomes a 2048x1536 when downloaded to the PC.
2 how come that iCloud Photo library isn't available in iCloud Photos (Windows app)?
3 why is Photostream still available ?!? ... the funniest being that activating iCloud Photo Library on iOS activates photostream at the same time ... In that case, the Photo Stream album remains hidden, but probably still activated and eating up space. That's ridiculous. I know, just turn it off.
4 how optimized is "optimized" ... on my iPhone, when I choose to store optimized local versions of photos and videos with iCloud Photo Library activated, there's absolutely no change: all photos, even after hours, remain locally stored in full res and uncompressed.

just to correct something wrong that I said: if iCloud Photo Library and PhotoStream are activated, PhotoStream won't actually eat any space and it will behave like it did in iOS 8.0 - 8.0.2, seamlessly integrated in Photos. Now if iCloud Photo Library is off and PhotoStream is still on, a new album will be created, containing low res versions of both uploaded and downloaded files (like in iOS 7), using local storage again.
Anyway ... expecting iCloud Photo Library to get out of beta ASAP and PhotoStream to go ... for good.

IPhone photos app crashing consistently with large iCloud photo library beta - how can I completely remove?

Hi - I turned on the iCloud photo library beta on my phone weeks ago. Worked fine with no issues. Then the Yosemite OS X beta 10.10.3 was released with the new Photos app. Once i loaded that new app, it converted my Aperture library and began to upload around 75,000 photos.
My iPhone almost immediately became sluggish (I assumed because it was downloading the pictures) and then eventually started crashing every time I go into the app (after a few seconds). I assumed it was because it showed 75,000 images in my Cameral Roll/Moments so I turned of the iCloud photo library beta. It prompted to be certain I was ok with deleting the images, which I said OK to. But it still shows 75,000 images in the camera roll and anything I tried to do with any photo has become completely unusable (generally just crashing each time).
Did I miss a step in the process?
Is this just me?
I'm trying to backup my iPhone but it keeps erroring out with the message "iTunes could not back up the iPhone "name" because the iPhone disconnected". Otherwise I would just recreate . Please help

It can free up some storage but it doesn't work like Dropbox. See the following quotes from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
I personally don't use iCloud Photo Library as it is still beta. Additionally, I have a Mac computer and there is not yet a Mac Photos app that is compatible.
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
How does iCloud delete photos and videos from iCloud Photo Library?
Deleting a photo or video from your Photos app will also remove the item from iCloud Photo Library and from your iCloud storage allocation. Photos and videos you remove can be recovered from the Recently Deleted album for 30 days. After 30 days, your content will be removed from the Recently Deleted album. Photos are backed up on our servers for up to 30 days after they're deleted from the Photos app. If you need to recover these photos during that time, contact Apple Support.

Photo library size

Anybody know if there are plans to increase the max size of the iCloud photo library? I need 2.2+ Tb now. I was just able to upgrade my goog drive to an unlimited plan and not having to worry about whether all my stuff will fit is pretty nice.

Hi Ralph,
Here are two screenshots, one of an iPhoto Library folder and the next of an iPhoto 6 Library folder.
This is a view of how the iPhoto 5 Library looks in the Finder.
iPhoto 6 Library folder in the Finder
The Data folder you see is from an iPhoto 6 Library folder. It is a folder of all large thumbnails of all your photos.
The Albums folder is a leftover from an iPhoto 4 Library folder. This Albums folder is no longer generated in an iPhoto 5 or iPhoto 6 Library. The Albums folder contained aliases to the photos you had in each Album.
Depending on the type of backup you do, it will make a difference on what you see.
If you do a sync backup, the sync will delete on the backup what is not in the current Library you are backing up and add the files that are changed are added.
If you do a backup that just backs up changed or added files and does not do an actual sync, then you will still have leftovers from the old backups. (my guess)
You should only be able to open a library from an actual sync backup I am guessing as the files have to be exactly the same as the original.

ICloud Photo library storage optimisation

I cannot make this think work..! Open , close IPL buttons...! but ...! same storage in my iPhone and in my iCloud..!

See the quote below from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
That link has some other details but doesn't explicitly state (at least that I could find) how the situation where you have photos from other sources added to iCloud Photo Library are dealt with on your phone if you no longer have space.
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.

Large iCloud Photo Library on iOS

I started to use iCloud Photo Library without any problem on my iMac. Now my library is approx 100GB in size and i was able to sync everything into iCloud. And it synced perfect to my MacBook Air where it now has only 26GB in size. Perfect!
Now my question: Can i try to enable iCloud Photo Library on my iPhone 5 with only 16GB and approx 4GB free space? Or will this overflood the iPhone? What size can i expect will this 100GB library on my iPhone? Is there any way to calculate this in advance? Can i define minimum free space on my iOS devices for other programs?

My 40GB library of 16.000 photos has took about 2GB on my 64GB-iPhone 6 without any photos preloaded. So I guess it's about 1GB of space for each 20GB but I suppose it also depends on count of photos maybe more than library size in GBs,

ICloud photo library question

So I can find hundreds of articles telling me that if you iCloud storage is full, your photos won't sync anymore. But if you have thousands of photos, what will happen in my phone is eventually full?
I mean, I have my "optimize iPhone storage" option turned on, but there will be a maximum right? Or are the optimized versions really that small of size?
Thank you in advance for answering my question.
Rafael

Yeah - I'm not seeing anywhere that it states if there is a maximum of "optimized" photos you can keep on your device. I'm guessing that "optimized" photos must be much like iTunes in the Cloud where you can see all of your music (including what is stored in the cloud), but only the music you have actually downloaded will be on your physical device. So only the "original photos" that the management system have left on your device, or that you have specifically downloaded are actually on your device.
Sorry I'm not 100% on that. I'll see if any of our Photo experts know for certain!
But to answer your question about:
"nowhere it's stated that your oldest/never viewed pictures will be removed from your device" I think this covers that particular question:
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
So, if original photos are the ones that are actually on your device, then it will remove older and least viewed original photos to maximize storage when needed.
This is supported by the paragraph about turning off iCloud Photo Library:
You can turn off iCloud Photo Library for a single iOS device by going to Settings > iCloud > Photos and turning off iCloud Photo Library beta. If you turned on Optimize [device] Storage, you might not be storing all original photos and videos on that device. To download the original photos and videos, select Download and Keep Originals.
If it is off, you do not have access to those photos that are "optimized", so that supports the idea that they actually live in the cloud.
Cheers,
GB

ICloud Photo Library (beta) version?

I have an iPhone 5c that was recently repaired and upgraded to iOS 8.2. A new feature I noticed was the Photos setting in iCloud, where I have the option to "Optimize iPhone Storage" or "Download and Keep Originals." The wording doesn't make sense to me, and the little description below isn't exactly clear either--what's the difference between the two? I take a ton of photos, so storage is important to me, but does that mean I have lower quality photos saved to my phone only? Or are lower quality photos being backed up on iCloud, too?
Thanks!

See the quotes below from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
What happens if I turn off iCloud Photo Library?
You can turn off iCloud Photo Library for a single iOS device by going to Settings > iCloud > Photos and turning off iCloud Photo Library beta. If you turned on Optimize [device] Storage, you might not be storing all original photos and videos on that device. To download the original photos and videos, select Download and Keep Originals. Then you can turn iCloud Photo Library off. You can also select the items that you want to download within the beta Photos app on iCloud.com.
You can disable iCloud Photo Library (and recover iCloud storage) for all devices by going to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage > iCloud Photo Library beta, then selecting Disable and Delete. Once disabled, you will have 30 days to download your library to at least one device. You can download your photos and videos to your iOS device by turning on Keep Originals or by selecting the items to download from iCloud.com/photos.

ICloud Photo Library - Are my camera photos being compressed?

When 'Optimize iPhone Storage' is selected, are the photos I take with the iPhone being compressed and the originals deleted locally after being uploaded, or is it just photos taken with an iPad which are then synced across other devices that are 'optimized'? I've searched online and can't seem to find an answer to this question.

Greetings Mac_Man_Dan,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand that you have a question about how your photos are stored when you elect to optimize your iPhone storage. Please refer to the attached article for information on this question.
iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
Cheers,
Joe

ICloud photo library size

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