iPhone 11 photo storage increased, blocking iCloud sync

Question

Level 1

4 points

iPhone 11 photo storage increased, blocking iCloud sync

Photo storage suddenly went up from 89 to 96 GB. Recently I had some storage problems, so I deleted about 1-2 thousand photos and videos from my iPhone 11 iOS 17. At first it went down from 91 to 88 GB, and everything was fine. But then photo storage started to go up out of nowhere. I did not have enough phone memory space, and I started to delete apps, cleaning history on safari, phone, messages and notes - everything. But it did not help, everything went to photo storage somehow, and it went from 88 to 96. Now I don't even have something to delete to free some space. I don't know what to do. I even got iCloud+ 2 TB, but it won't sync due to not enough space. Please help, it's been 3 days, and I don't want to lose my photos.

Posted on Nov 15, 2025 4:16 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 16, 2025 6:17 AM in response to Vilu22

You give lots of numbers, but you don't say what the total storage on your iPhone is, or how much free storage you have. From context, I think you are using iCloud Photos, but you don't say if you've turned on Optimize Storage for Photos. If you aren't, then that would be a great solution. The 20000 pictures in my "Favorites" Library take up less than 20 GB on my Optimized phone, for instance.

In any case, it's not surprising that Photos changes size. When it's given enough room, Photos makes thumbnails and previews, scans for more information, and generates links, among other things. Other apps do this, as well, and so you should keep at least 10% of your phone's storage free.

In what way are you thinking that you might be losing pictures?

Reply

Answer 2

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 18, 2025 7:30 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you for helping! Everything is fine now, it started seeing iCloud space after I restarted it and let it rest for some time and now it's finally restoring all photos and videos to the iCloud. Thank you for replying to my questions!

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 16, 2025 10:05 AM in response to Vilu22

Nothing is going t work until you get at least 10 GB free. With our phone packed so tight, there isn't enough room for it to follow the instructions of the apps. Even deleting files may not work. You may need to delete small files first to get some room to manipulate larger ones. I'd work with something other than Photos first. Having iCloud storage doesn't help with this.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 16, 2025 11:07 AM in response to Vilu22

Are all your pictures in iCloud Photos? When you go to iCloud.com, do you see them all?

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 18, 2025 6:33 AM in response to Vilu22

Have you double checked to be sure that the iCloud.com account that you're looking at is, in fact, the same iCloud account on your iPhone? Same email address?

Reply

Answer 6

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 16, 2025 8:48 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi, thank you for replying! You're right, I forgot to add this - my total storage is 128 GB, and right now I have only about 1 GB left. Before it was about 10 GB, but photos suddenly took all of that space. I am using iCloud Photos and I've turned on Optimize Storage for Photos, but they're not syncing, only 2000 out of 18000 photos are in my iCloud, even though I have almost 2TB empty. I tried to delete photos, but it does not make any difference. I am afraid that my phone will start glitching due to low storage space and delete all of the pictures that are not synced. I don't know what to do

Reply

Answer 7

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 16, 2025 10:20 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I understand this and I tried, but whenever I delete something, instead of making space, it all goes to phone storage somehow. I've even deleted all of the apps, but it all went to phone storage instead of making some free space...

Reply

Answer 8

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 16, 2025 12:13 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you so much for replying, it kind of comforted me haha but all is good now! It suddenly went back to normal, I got free space back, but photos still don't see free 2tb iCloud space, maybe it needs time to recognise it and start syncing

Reply

Answer 9

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 17, 2025 10:58 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Yes, I can only see about 1000-2000 out of almost 19000 photos and videos. I don't know why, but my photos are not syncing - it says that I don't have enough iCloud storage, but when I go to iCloud, there is more than 1 TB empty. I can't understand why it does not see it

Reply

Answer 10

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 17, 2025 1:52 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Settings>General>iPhone Storage - 120GB of 128 used. Photos - 85GB

Settings>[name]>iCoud>Storage - 528GB of 2TB used (Family plan)

When i go to Settings>[name]>iCoud>Photos - it says that I am using only 3.8 of iCloud storage (1700 photos and videos); Syncing and Optimizing is on, but it's says that I have not enough iCloud space for photo sync

Reply

Answer 11

Nov 17, 2025 1:12 PM in response to Vilu22

What exactly does your phone say at Settings>General>iPhone Storage? This is mine:

What exactly does your phone say at Settings>[name]>iCoud>Storage?

Mine says 165.4 of 200 GB

Reply

Answer 12

Nov 18, 2025 7:46 AM in response to Vilu22

Great! The syncing occurs as a background function and, since it doesn't want your work interrupted, it will wait until it's plugged in and left alone to do most syncing. Glad it's working!

Reply

Answer 13

Vilu22 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 18, 2025 11:40 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I really appreciate this, thanks a lot!

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 17, 2025 6:41 AM in response to Vilu22

Are you saying that when you go to iCloud.com and look at Photos there on your browser, you don't see any pictures?

Reply