iCloud Photos synchronizes your photos across your Apple devices, meaning a copy of every photo you take is uploaded to iCloud and then downloaded to your other devices. This doesn’t mean your photos are moved to iCloud and removed from your device. Instead, iCloud acts as a mirror, reflecting your photo library across your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other Apple devices.
Enabling iCloud Photos doesn’t automatically free up space on your device. However, you can optimize storage by choosing to keep smaller, optimized versions of your photos on your device while the full-resolution originals are stored in iCloud. This feature can save significant space over time, but the space saving won’t be immediate; it occurs as needed.
Synchronization with iCloud Photos can take time, sometimes even days, depending on the size of your library and your internet connection. Occasionally, the process might stall due to incompatible photos or videos. This is more common with videos because video codecs can change without the file extension changing. You can try to identify problematic files by creating a Smart Album in Photos with specific criteria to isolate potential issues.
If you can’t pinpoint the problematic files, troubleshooting can be more challenging. Once you’ve located the incompatible files, you can try converting them to a more compatible format before attempting to sync them with iCloud Photos again. Another option is to remove the problematic files from your library entirely if they are not essential.
To view your photos stored in iCloud, simply open the Photos app on any of your Apple devices with iCloud Photos enabled. All your photos should be visible there. You can also access your iCloud Photos library through a web browser by visiting iCloud.com and logging into your account. This provides a convenient way to view and manage your photos from any computer with internet access. Remember, deleting a photo from any device with iCloud Photos enabled will delete it from all your devices. Always ensure you have backups before deleting photos permanently.
