Accessing photos on iCloud
I pay for 1tb of storage on iCloud, and have my phone set up to optimise storage. Why can I not see any photos before 2014 on my phone - if they are still on iCloud how do I access them?
iPhone XS, iOS 13
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I want to make something very clear. There is a distinct difference between backing photos up to iCloud and using iCloud Photos. If you have the phone set to Optimize Storage, then you are using iCloud Photos.
Double check to be sure.
If you are including photos in the backup, you will see that in Settings>Your Name>iCloud>Manage Storage>Backups>Photo Library>On. If this is enable, your photos are included in the iCloud backup. The only way to see these photos would be to restore the backup to your device. You cannot see them in iCloud.com
If you are syncing Photos with iCloud, IOW, using iCloud Photos, you will see that in Settings>Your Name>ICloud>Apps using iCloud>Photos>iCloud Photos>On. If this is enabled, you are syncing Photos with iCloud and you can see these photos using a web browser on a computer in iCloud.com in the Photos app. You cannot do this from an iPhone. It works on an iPad or on a computer using a web browser.
If you are using iCloud photos, you cannot store photos in the cloud and then delete them from the device. You would have to download or archive them to a computer to save them and then delete them on the phone. You would not be able to see them on the phone any longer unless you sync them back to the phone using iTunes or the Finder on a Mac running Catalina.
The type below this link is a copy and paste from that link.
Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
See your edits on all of your devices
When you make edits in the Photos app on your iOS or iPadOS device or on your Mac, the photo automatically updates across all your devices. So when you crop or enhance a photo from your iPhone, you see the changes when you access your library from your Mac. Your original photos and videos are stored in iCloud and you can go back to them at any time, and revert any changes you made.
The photos and videos that you delete on one device are deleted everywhere that you use iCloud Photos. Photos and videos stay in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before they're deleted permanently.
In order to archive the photos to your computer follow the instructions in here.
Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support
If you have a large enough collection of photos and large amounts of data, you may even need to buy more iCloud storage anyway or it would exceed the limits of the 5GB of free storage that Apple gives you if you want to backup with iCloud.
