Get Smarter Using iCloud Storage
How to Save a Million Photos in iCloud — For Free!
…and have a leaner, clutter-free Photos library.
Summary: Reduce iCloud storage by (a) Backing up your Photos library on external drive, (b) Sorting your Mac Photos library by file size to find offloading candidates, (c) Moving offloading candidates into Shared Albums and deleting them from your main library. Detailed steps below…
Are photos and videos filling up your iCloud, Mac or iPhone storage? Here’s a genius hack to keep your memories safe, cut iCloud storage costs, and free up space on your Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Follow this step-by-step guide to solve three big problems with your ever-growing Apple Photos library.
Problem #1: Photos use a lot of space
Our photo libraries grow like weeds. Every video, photo, and screenshot adds to iCloud, iPhone and iPad storage. Sure, you can optimize device storage, but it doesn’t cut iCloud storage. Upgrading your iCloud plan is easy but gets expensive as your storage needs increase.
A cluttered library makes it hard to find your best shots. As a Photos library gets larger, it gets slower. It also becomes prone to freezing and corruption.
Problem #2: iCloud is “Sync all-or-none”
With iCloud Photos you can’t pick and choose what to store — so duplicate photos, blurry shots, random screenshots — all end up in iCloud and on all your devices. That’s a lot of waste!
Furthermore, the Photos app doesn’t allow sorting by file size — so you can’t even check which large items are clogging up storage and offload them.
Problem #3: iCloud Photos isn’t a backup
Write that down — iCloud is a superb syncing service, but not a real backup. You delete something in one place by accident, it’s gone everywhere. Yikes!
If you rely solely on iCloud, a computer glitch or a small mistake on your part could wipe out a lifetime of memories.
You need both — sync for convenience, and backup for security. Sync makes your photos easy to access on all your devices. A backup keeps your photos safe no matter what. Ideally, an offline, outside-of-Apple-ecosystem copy of your entire Photos library.
Solution: Get smart about storage
In an ideal world, you would:
- Have your best photos handy, in full resolution on all your devices
- Stash the rest elsewhere in iCloud, not cluttering your main library
- Have a backup of all your full resolution photos in a safe place
- Not pay a dime more (and maybe pay less) for iCloud storage
Here’s how you can do this:
Step 1: Get a real backup
You’ll need an external drive e.g. an SSD, formatted as APFS or extended journaled, with enough capacity. These are inexpensive.
In Photos app, go to Settings > iCloud. If Download Originals is checked, use Method 1 or 2. If Optimize Mac Storage is checked, use Method 3.
Method 1. Copy Your Library: Drag the Photos library from your Mac to the external drive. Once it’s copied, check that all albums and photos are there.
Method 2. Use Time Machine: The Time Machine backs up all files that are stored locally on your Mac, including photos. Detailed instructions here.
Method 3. Export to Folders: The Mac app Photos Takeout ($8.99) exports your Photos library into folders by year or album, fetching full resolution versions directly from iCloud if needed.
Step 2: Find Your Space Hogs
To see which photos and videos take up the most space, use the Mac app PhotoSort (Free / $4.99), It sorts your library by file size so you can decide what stays and what goes. You can also set your iCloud Photos slimming target, say 40GB, and PhotoSort will list the largest files totaling 40GB.
Step 3: Offload Large Files to Free iCloud Storage
Here’s the secret sauce: iCloud Shared Albums. These don’t count against your iCloud storage, but they’re still private, viewable on all your devices, and easy to share. Each shared album can hold up to 5,000 photos and videos, and you can create 200 of them. That’s a million photos!
iCloud Shared Albums store photos at somewhat reduced resolution but it’s still so good that you’ll barely notice the difference (Find out more here.) In any case, you have already backed them up at full resolution in Step 1.
So here’s how to do it:
1. Turn On Shared Albums
In the Photos app, go to Settings > iCloud and enable Shared Albums.
2. Move Big Files to Shared Albums
Create a new Shared Album > Add large files from the Photos library to this album > When done, share the album with yourself (If you have more than 5,000 items, create multiple shared albums.)
3. Check and Delete
Make sure everything you transferred is in the shared album. Once it’s all there, delete those files from your regular iCloud Photos library. Don’t forget to empty the Recently Deleted folder too.
Result: Clean Photos library, less iCloud storage, full backup
Now, your iCloud Photos is trimmed down to just your best shots. You have saved a lot of photos in Shared Albums, and all your photos are safely stored on your backup drive. You’ve freed up tons of space on your devices and saved cash by avoiding pricey iCloud upgrades. Congrats!
If you found this article useful, don’t just clap. Share it with at least one iCloud user who might benefit from it.
