Hey everyone! I'm in a bit of a bind with my iPhone X Max (256GB, running iOS 18). My storage was nearly maxed out because of my photo library, which takes up about 97GB. After some lag, I forced a restart, and since then, my phone has been acting up—boot loops and random restarts.
Now that it finally boots up, I can enter my passcode, and the Photos app opens, but here's the problem: It only shows around 6,500 photos, while I actually have about 34,000. A lot of my albums seem to be missing, and thumbnails for older photos look blurry. Plus, the photo count isn't increasing. However, in my storage settings, it still shows that 97GB is used.
Google Photos is fully backed up, but the local library looks incomplete.
I'm looking for some advice on a few things: 1) Do you think this is a corrupted Photos database or an indexing problem? 2) If the storage still shows 97GB used, does that mean my files might still be intact? 3) Is it safe to keep my phone on the charger and Wi-Fi to help with reindexing? 4) Would trying a Recovery Mode update typically rebuild the Photos database without losing any data? I really don't want to restore the device and lose anything!
1 Answer
It sounds like this might not be a database issue but more of a storage problem. If you're using iCloud Photos or a similar service, it could be trying to download the full versions of your photos but doesn't have enough space. You might need to clear up some space on your phone to give it room to operate properly.
I noticed it says "Restore from iCloud" on my screen, but even after that, the number of empty photos hasn't really changed. I've got about 17GB free, but it feels like nothing's happening.