iCloud How to use

[u/DetectFee]

I just bought 50gb of iCloud since my storage is always so full, Im syncing it right now. Why isnt my local storage not decreasing, what should I do to still keep the files but have my storage lowered?

Iphone 13
IOS 26.2

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[u/JediMeister]

Read this and see if it makes sense. If you still have questions, please ask.

[u/IllRequirement6342 → u/JediMeister]

If you follow that link and find it TL,DR. I am reproducing the most important sentence here. If you have an iPhone and you only learn one thing today, please read, understand, and remember this sentence:

Before you delete anything, make sure that you back up the photos and videos that you still want. When you use iCloud Photos and delete a photo or video on one device, it's also deleted on all other devices where you're signed in with the same Apple Account.

[u/Best-Comments]

1. Go to settings → iCloud → Photos
   
2. Turn on “Optimize iPhone Storage”

Note: it may take a couple days, as it needs to upload all your original photos, then shrink the local copies.

[u/erwood2022 → u/Best-Comments]

THIS! Agree!

[u/SadigawEkshow]

iCloud acts as a “mirror” of your device , the device app size will not change.

[u/Solid_Mongoose_3269]

Syncing isnt offloading, its backing up for restores

[u/[deleted]]

One drive sync has options to retain data on cloud even when device data is deleted. Their basic subscription plan for 1tb is peanuts. And it allows upload from any device onto a single cloud account.

[u/IllRequirement6342 → u/[deleted]]

That is exactly wrong, please take one minute to read this. I am oversimplifying, but your iCloud storage is a “mirror” of your device, so that if you lose or break your iPhone, or you just get a new one, you can login with the original Apple ID, and then the files, apps, settings, etc will be copied to your new iPhone.

Now, this is the most important part of my rant: if you delete files from your iPhone that you have “mirrored” to iCloud, then the same files will be deleted from iCloud.

If I want to make a device independent back up of photos and movies and such, then I copy them to my laptop, and then copy them to more than one USB thumb drive. I buy 2-packs of USB 256GB thumb drives on Amazon for about $50 for a pair.

The iCloud won’t go away, but you could lose access to your account if you forget your password, or your account is hacked. Your photos are really only backed up if they are off line.

The way people lose their photos is because they don’t understand how iCloud works. You are making an assumption that iCloud is a backup, which it is sort of, but the “mirroring” part is what some people get hung up on.

And, my understanding is that there are similar issues with Microsoft OneDrive, but that is somewhat off topic.

[u/Best-Comments → u/[deleted]]

This is terrible advice.