Why are my photos abnormally taking up majority of my storage

Question

Level 1

4 points

Why are my photos abnormally taking up majority of my storage

For some context, I tried downloading a high storage app but i didn’t have enough so i decided to transfer majority of my photos and videos to my pc… Having said that, I didn’t gain any storage back and when i checked settings, my Photo storage was abnormally high (57gb)… Now i know it’s not an icloud problem because i bought an extra 50gb to try and fix the problem and i also transferred my remaining photos there, which only resulted into ~5gb… NOT A WHOLE 57!! Can anyone help please? I attached ss comparison of what i mean below…

iPhone 14

Posted on Mar 26, 2025 10:32 PM

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Answer 1

markwmsn

Level 6

16,079 points

Mar 28, 2025 8:46 AM in response to Tof208

How did you "transfer [your] remaining photos" to iCloud?

Note that 50GB iCloud space is not enough to hold 57GB of photos even if you had nothing else in iCloud. Your phone has only managed to upload 5.2GB of the 57.27GB so far. It may take a while before it is nearly finished with the upload, but it is going to hit your new iCloud storage quota before it completes the upload.

Also note that running your phone connected to iCloud Photos when your iCloud quota is entirely full can be dangerous to the health of your photo library. For one thing, it can override the normal protocol for deleted photos going into Recently Deleted.

Note also that connecting your phone to iCloud Photos doesn't save any space on your phone unless you also enable the "Optimize iPhone Storage" option. Even then, the phone offloads only enough of the high-resolution copies of your photos as it thinks it needs for current storage requirements, not all of them.

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Answer 2

Tof208 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 28, 2025 1:39 PM in response to markwmsn

First off, thank you for the response! To answer your question, after transferring everything from my phone to my pc, I deleted all the files from BOTH iCloud and the Gallery app, so my storage IN iCLOUD started at 0. The ones I did decide to keep were then transferred to the freshly wiped iCloud and thats how I know those files amount to only ~5.7gb… cuz thats what it said. And yes, I did check EVERY SINGLE photo and video I transferred because it is THAT small of an amount but yet, my storage is still stuck at ~57gb. I hope you get what I mean and understand my situation… Now, I’m curious on what you said about the offloading thingy. Could you possibly elaborate on that please?

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Answer 3

markwmsn

Level 6

16,079 points

Mar 28, 2025 3:53 PM in response to Tof208

The part about offloading/optimizing isn't relevant until we determine why you have the extra 50+GB of iPhone storage shown as taken up by Photos. (It applies only to the 5.7GB that are in iCloud.)

Do you own or subscribe to any large Shared Albums or many smaller ones? They don't count against iCloud quota, but they do take up storage on your devices.

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Answer 4

markwmsn

Level 6

16,079 points

Mar 28, 2025 4:58 PM in response to Tof208

You can have Shared Albums without iCloud Photos. They are two independent switches on the Photos page in Settings on the iPhone (and on the iCloud panel of the Settings window in Photos app on Mac).

I'm running out of ideas. The only other group of photos/videos that comes to mind that takes up space on the phone under the Photos category but cannot migrate to iCloud is the block labeled "From My Mac" (cable transferred from iTunes or Finder), but that block is supposed to be deleted if you enable iCloud Photos.