turn off my iCloud photo sync now I don’t know how to get them back.

Question

turn off my iCloud photo sync now I don’t know how to get them back.

hello

I accidentally turned off my iCloud sync for my photos but now I cannot get them back They’re all tucked away somewhere else where I cannot access them. And I don’t have enough storage to sync it back, but it worked perfectly fine before I un- synced it. I don’t have money to pay for an upgrade since I am too young. But I still need my photos back. they’re not deleted. I checked the deleted thing and when I go to iCloud.com/photos all my old photos are there but I don’t know how to get them back since I don’t have enough space and it won’t let me sync

iPhone 14, iOS 18

Posted on Nov 30, 2025 5:49 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

azaksalmarzur28

Level 2

426 points

Nov 30, 2025 6:27 PM in response to unknown_desperate

Don’t worry — your photos are safe in iCloud, and you can get them back without upgrading storage and without losing anything.

This problem is very common when iCloud Photos is turned off accidentally.

Turn iCloud Photos back ON using “Optimize iPhone Storage”

This will get ALL your photos back without requiring extra storage.

On your iPhone:
Settings → your name → iCloud → Photos
Turn iCloud Photos ON
Select Optimize iPhone Storage

This downloads only small versions of photos, so your iPhone won’t run out of space.

When you tap a photo, it loads the full version from iCloud.

This REQUIRES ZERO EXTRA STORAGE.

This usually fixes the issue instantly.

Reply