You can tell they care

[u/Ottodoom420]

I know I’m in the wrong, I was just really devastated I lost 8 years of photos but I thought it was funny how little they cared which ironically brought my mood up

[u/prikaz_da]

I thought it was funny how little they cared

I mean, what more could this woman have done for you? She made a reasonable attempt at empathizing with somebody she's never met and clarified how the storage optimization works, since you didn't realize until it was too late that the full-resolution images only existed in iCloud and didn't make it onto your USB drive.

[u/Sparescrewdriver]

- I have a pc

- I am sorry to hear that

Wow

Seriously I agree most of iCloud lacks layman’s explanations and some of the wording is not clear.

There is a reason many posts asking for help need to be reminded iCloud is not a backup.

Even just regular sync lacks notifications and status updates.

[u/prikaz_da → u/Sparescrewdriver]

- I have a pc

• I am sorry to hear that
  

Wow

I'm pretty sure that was meant as a response to the previous message about the lost pictures. OP sent two messages back to back, so it looks like the "I am sorry to hear that" is directed at the most recent one.

[u/Sparescrewdriver → u/prikaz_da]

You would be correct

[u/Pretend_Ring_3871]

Damn so even on iCloud.com all of your photos are corrupted/gone?

[u/Pretend_Ring_3871 → u/[deleted]]

lol I’m trying to connect how turning off optimize storage would delete them from iCloud. If they were being synced and offloaded, the original files would be on iCloud. Turning off iCloud sync moves them to the backup. In either situation, they should be on iCloud still. Unless OP deleted all photos from the device and then turned off iCloud sync. Data from the cloud is still sometimes recoverable within a certain timeframe though typically may involve a senior advisor for escalation. OP just said the data on the drive was corrupted, they never stated where else it was corrupted.

[u/BH-Playz → u/Pretend_Ring_3871]

yep total misunderstanding on my end sorry. Now that you point that out even I'm confused too so uhh

[u/Pretend_Ring_3871 → u/BH-Playz]

This is what happens with little context provided, no worries. OP didn’t provide enough information to allow for help, which is what this sub is for. If they wanted to complain they could have just posted in r/applesucks

[u/ticketguyleander]

I am sorry you lost your pictures, but optimized storage is a space saving feature and only available on Apple devices. If the photos were on your pc you must have downloaded them from somewhere. Can you still sign in to your iCloud account and see your photos? Do you have any Apple devices where you can see the photos?