I'm struggling with storage on my iPhone 13, which has 128GB total, but 80GB is consumed by a huge iCloud library. I can't transfer any photos to my laptop to save them to a USB because there's an exclamation mark on all the photos, indicating they can't be downloaded. Deleting photos is also an issue, as it says they can't be downloaded. The other 48GB is used by system apps, and most of my apps are already offloaded. I'm open to deleting most, if not all, of my photos after saving them to my computer, but I'm stuck on how to do that with the current restrictions. I even recently deleted 300 downloaded photos, but it hardly made a dent in my available space. Has anyone experienced this before? I'd love to hear any suggestions!
1 Answer
It sounds like you’re using the iCloud Photo Library with the Optimize Storage feature, which is why you can only see thumbnails on your phone. The best way to save your photos is to download them directly from iCloud.com. If you're using a PC, make sure to install the iCloud app and log in with your Apple ID. This way, you can pull the full-quality photos directly from iCloud to your computer.
Thanks for that tip! But I’m curious, will deleting photos on my computer also remove them from my iPhone? I tried deleting a bunch of photos there, but they’re still showing up on my phone.