I'm trying to clean up a somewhat messy Apple Photos setup that developed over the last few years, and I'd like some advice before doing anything destructive.

The easiest way to explain it is chronologically:

Library 1 — oldest / most complete early library

This is my oldest library, covering roughly 2022–2023.

It was mostly left untouched and contains everything from that period.

All originals are stored locally on my Mac.

Library 2 — created from Library 1

At some point I made a copy of Library 1 and continued using that copy.

This second library contains photos/videos from roughly 2022–2024.

Over time, I deleted a lot of the larger videos from 2022-2023 to reduce the size of the library, but otherwise continued adding new photos and videos.

So Library 2 contains newer material that Library 1 doesn't have, while Library 1 still contains some large videos that were later removed from Library 2.

Again, all originals that exist in this library are downloaded locally on my Mac.

Library 3 — current library / iCloud library

Later, I made another copy, this time from Library 2, and continued from there, repeating the process.

This became my current Photos library and is the one currently synced with iCloud Photos.

It contains the newest part of my photo history, but I continued deleting many large videos because I was running low on iCloud storage and wanted to keep most of my historical photos accessible from my iPhone.

This library is set to Download Originals to this Mac, so all of its existing originals are also stored locally.

So the evolution was basically:

Library 1 → Library 2 → Library 3/current iCloud library

Each new library started as a copy of the previous one, but then gained new content and lost some of the larger videos.

What I want to do now

My first goal is to use PowerPhotos to merge all three libraries into a completely new library.

Let's call that:

Master Library

The Master Library would contain the union of everything from all three libraries:

• the older large photos and videos preserved in Library 1
• anything unique to Library 2
• all newer photos/videos from Library 3

I would use duplicate detection during the merge so that overlapping copies don't become unnecessary duplicates.

This Master Library would become my complete local archive and would not be synced with iCloud.

The three old libraries would only be kept temporarily as backups until I've fully verified the merge.

Then I have to decide what to do with iCloud

I want a second, separate Photos library specifically for iCloud.

I'm considering two options.

Option 1: Keep historical photos in iCloud

Create a copy/derived version of the Master Library, remove the largest videos from it, and use that smaller library as my new iCloud Photos library, just like i was doing with every new library copy.

This would let me continue having most of my historical photos available on my iPhone without paying for enough iCloud storage to hold every large video.

My concern is that PowerPhotos documentation says that when an iCloud Photos library is merged into a new library, the iCloud-specific synchronization information is not transferred.

They specifically warn that if you later enable iCloud Photos on the merged library, Photos may not recognize that the local files correspond to photos already in iCloud and may create duplicates.

So I'm unsure whether I could safely connect this new reduced library to my existing iCloud library, or whether I'd first need to completely empty iCloud Photos and upload everything again.

Option 2: Start iCloud Photos from scratch

Keep all historical content only in my local Master Library and Google Photos (i have this too)

Then completely erase my existing iCloud Photos library, create a brand-new empty Photos library, enable iCloud Photos on it, and use iCloud only for new photos/videos going forward.

What I'm trying to figure out

Has anyone dealt with a similar setup?

In particular:

• Does my PowerPhotos merge plan make sense given that all three source libraries have their originals stored locally?
• Is there anything special I should watch out for when merging libraries that are essentially descendants/copies of one another?
• For the reduced historical iCloud option, is there any safe way to reconnect a newly created library to the existing iCloud content without creating duplicates?
• Or would wiping iCloud first and starting fresh be the safer approach?
• Is there a better architecture for keeping one complete local master library and a separate, smaller iCloud-friendly library?

My priority is to make sure I end up with one complete master library containing everything before I delete or change anything in iCloud.

like maybe many, my icloud space is full, and I am currently reluctant to buy additional space again. So I am looking for a solution allowing:

- bulk download (to save time)

- retaining all the pics' info, including data picture taken (instead of having the latest download date, as happens too often)

- maybe having the pics with a name allowing to sort them in the order they were taken. If I have to rename the pics, then there is no saving in time

- download pics in high quality (maybe a format that everyone else can also open easily, rather than the HEIC which no one seems to be able to open) so that could be printed.

I have read an old thread suggesting a link to request apple the bulk download, and will do that, even though i dont know how it will turn out and if it will satisfy my requirements above.

More in general, how do you guys do? do you download your pics periodically so dont have the massive problem? any authomatic system? any other useful tip?

thanks in advance

I want to clear out my iphone storage by working out what is taking the most space. Apple does show you your biggest videos but i want to be able to order everything by size and cull

also i want to be able to delete all pictures from all my messages but i don’t see a way to do that en masse

This issue is on an old 2011 MacBook Pro and apologies from the start that my technical knowledge and vocabulary is limited 🥴
I’ve seemed to have lost access to a bunch of old photos! There used to be two photo libraries that I could switch between that stored different photos, but one day it just disappeared and I could only search and find one photo library and all the other photos are gone, I didn’t ever delete or merge anything so I don’t know how it happened.

What are my options?
What kind of expert would I take it to that could help me uncover all the photos on the computer? Or are they actually gone? 😢

Hello,

I tried to search in this sub but I couldn’t find anything matching what I’m looking for.

Is there an app that connect to the iCloud Photo Library to just browse photos and mark them as like. I hate Apple Photos since the revamp, I have all my photos already organized in albums but I feel like it’s a terrible experience browsing in my photos with the official app.

I’m looking for iOS and I don’t care about editing or any smart shit. I’m just looking a nice experience to browse my photo.

Thank your for your help.

Hi, I'm going on a trip for a week and I'm gonna make a lot of 4K videos. I was planning on making backups on micro sd cards but this turns out not to be trust worthy. My cards sometimes get corrupted.
Is there another way to safely backup? I know there's iCloud but that takes too much time and I only have about 20 GB available in my iPhone16.

Thanks in advance. I'm quite worried about this 🥺

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, it’s still supported for now, if that matters.

I’ve always used the same gallery since day one when I bought this phone(2022-23), but now I see in the App Store that some other gallery has more users than the one I’m using.

I have no experience with Apple devices at all, so this is all hard for me, and I need your hilf.

im ios 26.6 if that changes anything but every album i have i like having a slideshow for inside that album but half my photos are excluded.

When i try adding them to it it makes me create a memory outside of the album. Why does apple decide what photos are important and what arent without an option to turn it off?

Nothing like paying a premium for an iPhone and then having it remind you every other day that you’re running out of storage.

Delete photos?
Still full.

Delete apps?
Still full.

Clear WhatsApp?
Still full.

Restart the phone?
“Storage Almost Full.”

At this point I’m convinced my iPhone has a personal commitment to making sure I never have free storage.
And of course, the solution is conveniently available:
“Buy more iCloud storage.” 🥰

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I’d like to use the storage I already paid for without entering a monthly subscription relationship with Apple.

Honestly, I’m seriously considering switching to Android.
If Android lets me use my phone without playing “What can I delete today?”, I might never look back. 😂

Anyone else reached this level of iPhone-storage frustration?

I recently purchased an Android device and have completed the migration from iCloud to Google Photos. Before asking for assistance, let me summarize the current situation.

After receiving my new smartphone, I signed up for the 2 TB Google plan and turned on the backup feature. My photos were previously uploaded to iCloud, via a 2 TB plan shared with my girlfriend.

My question is this: once I cancel the iCloud subscription, is there any risk of me losing any of my files or compromising their quality? Is it even advisable to download them locally as a precaution? Does my girlfriend need to do the same?

I'm having trouble downloading my files. I'm a pc user, windows 10, and I use the web browser to download my files. I just noticed that ALL MY VIDEOS have no record of the creation date once downloaded. It's not on "date created", in the other details it has nothing reffering to this timestamp. This is only on videos after ugrating to iphone 17.
Can someone please help me?
Please, desperate here

Ok I’m a millennial so I have some basic tech skills but I can’t figure this out!

Why does my iphone keep running out of storage when I have 3TB of iCloud storage available?

iPhone 11 Pro
iOS 26 (not enough storage to update)
511.6 used of my 512 GB storage space
6TB of iCloud storage (2.2TB are full, so I have over 3TB available on iCloud).

So, why doesn’t the iCloud keep my phone storage freed up like it used to???

For years it wasn’t an issue. iCloud would store my photos and videos and it would automatically keep my phone at around 350-400GB full, leaving over 100 GB free.
Now, oftentimes while taking a video the “Storage full - manage your storage” alert will randomly pop-up and cut off the recording.

Why does this happen when I have over 3 terabytes free on iCloud.

When i try to sync photos & videos to iCloud from Photos app, this message sometimes pops up:
“Syncing with iCloud paused, not enough storage”

I’ve already deleted a bunch of apps, voice memos, large attachments, and other stuff to make space. Now all that’s left is photos and videos.

Sometimes photos app WILL successfully sync though, and it’ll fix the storage problem for a short time, but less than a week later my phone is full again going thru the same thing.

I have over 100k videos and photos, and I don’t want to spend the time to go through and delete anything. That’s why I pay for the XXL iCloud storage.

What’s going on? How does this work???

Is there a way to just automatically upload everything directly to the cloud and skip saving to iPhone physical storage all together?

I’m sick of my creative projects being killed, I’m sick of being unable to send audio messages to friends, and I’m sick of constantly being interrupted by the “storage full” message — when I pay for storage!

Help please. Thank you.

Bonjour,

J’ai un problème de synchronisation avec mon compte iCloud. Sur mon téléphone, ICloud me signale 176 go de photos sur le cloud.

Quand je télécharge depuis mon ordinateur (Windows) l’intégralité de mes photos et vidéos j’ai un total de 60go sur mon ordinateur (avec le même nombre de fichiers).

Pour information : je suis passé par le site internet iCloud et par l’application et j’ai comparé les deux téléchargement = 60go

J’ai choisi les photos originales comme format sans compression.

J’ai regardé dans mes photos supprimées je n’ai qu’une trentaine de photos, rien qui justifie plus de 100go de différence.

Je commence à être à court d’idée vous auriez une solution ?

Merci !

I realized that I take a lot of photos that I need temporarily, but don’t really want in my main photo library.

Things like parking spots, restaurant Wi-Fi passwords, receipts for splitting a bill, and reference photos for work.

So I built **SideCam**, a camera app designed to sit alongside the default Camera app for these kinds of photos.

Instead of putting everything into one camera roll, SideCam organizes photos using purpose-specific “shutters.” It comes with a few built-in ones, and you can create your own for whatever you frequently take pictures of.

For example, the Wi-Fi shutter lets you extract text from a photo using iOS OCR, so you can quickly find and copy the password after taking the picture. The same text extraction feature also works well for receipts and other documents.

You can also set photos to be deleted automatically after 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours, 5 days, 10 days, or a month. I added this because some photos are genuinely useful for only a short time, and I always forget to clean them up later.

After using the app for work myself, I also added an optional silent capture mode.

I keep discovering new use cases and shutter options as I use it, so I’d really appreciate feedback:

**What kinds of temporary or purpose-specific photos do you take, and what features would make an app like this useful for you?**

SideCam is free and has no in-app purchases. :)

Thanks for checking it out!

If anyone would like to try it, here’s the App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6740067883

like the title says, there’s multiple pictures and videos that aren’t showing up in my camera roll (old media from 2023) but they show up in the instagram camera roll where it has access to your camera roll?

I don't understand why the iPhone app demands FULL ACCESS to the whole library instead of give the option of "limited access" or just "add photos only", which works in all other major apps without issues.

It's insanely invasive to privacy and useless. It's any official voice that can justify this decision?