I'm struggling with storage space on my iPhone 13. It has 128 GB total, but 80 GB is consumed by my large iCloud photo library. The issue is that I can't transfer any photos to my laptop for backup, as there's an exclamation mark on all of them indicating they can't download. Even deleting photos directly from the phone isn't working since it says it can't download them first. The remaining 48 GB is taken up by system and necessary apps, and since most of my apps are offloaded, I feel stuck. I'm even open to deleting most or all of my photos after backing them up, but I'm not sure how to proceed when they won't download. I recently removed around 300 photos, but it hasn't freed up much space. Has anyone dealt with this? What solutions do you have? Thanks for any help!
1 Answer
It sounds like you're using iCloud Photo Library with the Optimize Storage feature, which keeps only thumbnails on your phone. To get your photos, you should log in to icloud.com directly from a browser, or if you're on a PC, install the iCloud app. Make sure you sign in with the same Apple ID you use on your iPhone, and you'll be able to download your full-resolution photos from there.
Thanks for the tip! But will deleting the photos from my computer also remove them from my iPhone? I've deleted quite a few and they still seem to be on my phone.