[Gunni]

The seniors at a class I volunteered to give once a week have raised the dreaded subject of Photos. (Dreaded by me at least as there are so many choices to be made on Photos on the iPhone and on Photos on their Macs).

Several of them have very old iPhones with only, what, 15? GB of space and need to cut down on the number of photos on their iPhones.

I spent most of this morning reading at site after site about managing photos on one’s iPhone and I would welcome some clarification/correction/help as to whether the advice I will give them next Tuesday is accurate or not.

I think what I should advise them to do on their_computer_ is go to Sys Prefs / iCloud / and check the box for Photos and then click on the button for Options… and on the ensuing page check only the box for iCloud Photos.

Then, go to their _phone_ and follow these instructions which I found at iMore (I think):

"If you turn off iCloud photos on any of your apple devices (mac, iPhone, iPad) then you are presented with the choice as to whether already downloaded photos will stay on that device or be deleted on that device. If your goal is to just save storage space, then turn on the optimize option.”

I would tell them when you get that choice, take it and choose to keep already downloaded photos. After that, go to Photos on the phone and batch delete enough photos to keep you within your 15 GB limit.

[Just_Me_D]

I would also tell them to get in the habit of transferring or copying the photos to an external hard drive for safe keeping. If anything were to happen to them, at least loved ones would be able to access the photos without having to fight Apple fair access to their iCloud account.

[Annie_8plus]

Definitely transfering them off the phone onto an external hard drive is excellent advice! Another option is to install the app "Google Photos" onto their device and set it up so their photos are automatically saved onto Google Photos. Once they are confident that they are safely on Google Photos, they can delete them off their phone. Google Photos is free but a Gmail account (also free) is required.

[Ledsteplin]

Any of the cloud storage apps are good for photo storage. I use Box and Dropbox. You can access them on mobile, or on computer.

[Annie_8plus]

Any of the cloud storage apps are good for photo storage. I use Box and Dropbox. You can access them on mobile, or on computer.

Those are good options as well!

[Lee_Bo]

I use this:

SanDisk 256GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad - SDIX30N-256G-GN6NE
by Amazon.com
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MUH9BET...mUvbUpU3156695

I also have iCloud storage and my wife's fingerprint is set on my iPhone in case something bad happens to me.

[Annie_8plus]

I found this great article on Consumer Reports' website, which reviews several cloud storage services.

[Gunni]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the great suggestions you have made. Gives me a lot to research before my next class with these seniors.

I sincerely doubt _any_ of them have so many photos that they would exceed the Apple offer of $.99 cents a month and since I see definite advanages to remaining within the Apple "ecosystem" I am going to suggest tha for 50 GB; if they need extra storage space, they should buy it from Apple.

May I again ask this question, please:

"If you turn off iCloud photos on any of your apple devices (mac, iPhone, iPad) then you are presented with the choice as to whether already downloaded photos will stay on that device or be deleted on that device. If your goal is to just save storage space, then turn on the optimize option.”

Would this work for someone whose goal was to shrink the number of photos on their iPhone and free up some of the 15 GB. to which their iPhone limits them???

Thanks you again, so very much, for all the help!

[Ledsteplin]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the great suggestions you have made. Gives me a lot to research before my next class with these seniors.

I sincerely doubt _any_ of them have so many photos that they would exceed the Apple offer of $.99 cents a month and since I see definite advanages to remaining within the Apple "ecosystem" I am going to suggest tha for 50 GB; if they need extra storage space, they should buy it from Apple.

May I again ask this question, please:

"If you turn off iCloud photos on any of your apple devices (mac, iPhone, iPad) then you are presented with the choice as to whether already downloaded photos will stay on that device or be deleted on that device. If your goal is to just save storage space, then turn on the optimize option.”

Would this work for someone whose goal was to shrink the number of photos on their iPhone and free up some of the 15 GB. to which their iPhone limits them???

Thanks you again, so very much, for all the help!

If you're using iCloud for photo storage, if you delete the photos from your photos app, they will also delete from iCloud. This is why I choose to use Box and Dropbox. I can store my photos with these cloud services, then delete them from my camera roll. With iCloud, you have to optimize. But can't delete them.