Had a complete moment panic last night.
My old iPhone X 256 GB model had once again showed low storage options and suggested optimising Photo/Video on the phone with low res/quality versions but ability to redownload iCloud stored original quality at a future date.
I have never selected this option to my knowledge but found last night I had 100GB of free storage and that the 110GB Photos storage used previously only used about 5GB now. Had things been deleted? I really don’t know.
Checking Photos on the Mac the ‘library’ was only 20GB in size but up to date supposedly. Checked Setting and it too was set by default to optimise but this seemed odd as I have around 1.6TB free on the SSD. Unticked the optimise option and the ‘library’ is getting bigger and bigger, around 80GB after 5-6 hours presumably downloading originals in the background.
Apple’s cloud stuff really does seem to work in honesty but I’ve never really trusted it and it’s been several months since I manually backed up photos/video on the Mac from the iPhone.
Probably overthinking it all as usual just wondering how others have found such experiences.
I use auto sync to iCloud and it works seamlessly. The photos appear on my MacBook also within a few minutes when on wifi with both
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It’s all a bit odd as I’ve never enabled ‘optimise’ on the iPhone but it did so.
Plus on my latest SSD installation Photos seemed to do the same without mew asking it to unlike previous installations.
So long as originals are there in the Cloud that’s great but I’d hate to be stuck with inferior versions without manually backing up all the time.
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The iCloud backup is the same files at the same resolution as the originals on the iPhone (As long as you keep an eye on the size of the photos folder it should do it al automatically)
I believe the free limit is 50GB , I pay £2.99 a month to get a 200GB limit
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So I’ve assumed but never trusted it!
I have the 2TB iCloud plan for the family.
When Mrs AC’s iPhone developed an iffy lightning connector data transfer I was impressed with how easily a wi-fi iCloud phone backup seamlessly installed on a newer iPhone.
It still mostly works but I always liked backing up manually - maybe a bit OCD but I’m shifting to the new world!
Sorry just checked, the free limit appears to be only 50Gb - CORRECTED
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I pay 99p per month for 50GB. It is enough for ongoing purposes - i regularly back up to computer at home and its additional backup.
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Changed the Mac Photos app setting not to optimise (there’s loads os pace left) and overnight the library has gone from 20GB to 137.5GB as it replaces optimised versions with originals. Interesting that the phone optimised versions are only 5GB.
I need to play with it a bit more but the optimisation may work well to preserve space as I rarely delete any photos or video, the latter clearly being a storage hog.
256GB iPhone, maybe 100GB downloaded to Qobuz app and 137GB for photos/video doesn’t leave much for the other stuff.
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I think we’re using around 600-700GB of the 2 TB allowance between 4 of us primarily for phones - a shame in a way that there aren’t more tiers, and none of them seem to be cheaper if you need multiples of 2TB last time I checked. 2TB went from £6.99 to £8.99 a few years ago.
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I believe optimise is the default, but I alway disable this on the Mac, which ensures you have a full backup of all your photos.
5GB is free, next level is 50GB 99p
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Ah! The massive weak spot, the lightning connector. Suitable cable from Apple £29 to you sir! The basic design has built in failure of both port and cable. Stick to the eBay duplicates at £5 they last as long…
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It was the lightning port I think rather than the cable, but Apple’s lightning cables are not very robust and all the adapters/connectors are pretty poorly designed (mostly too short).
But the lightening port is great as a dust collector, better than a belly button !
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The spin on introducing the lightning by Apple was it was required to make the phones thin. Mysteriously I see no brick like phones now they have been forced to use the usb by the EEC…
I don’t recall what the spin was but did think it was another opportunity for them to make the old connectors incompatible with newer devices!